Roots of Africa's Decline

The seeds of Africa’s poverty were sown by the colonial powers when they determined that they could no longer afford to maintain their territories as they had prior to the Second World War. They planted the seeds in fertile soil and tended them to ensure their roots ran deep and would support the plant for generations.

When the Europeans first came to Africa they found a land divided into kingdoms without specifically demarcated borders. As they traveled inland and discovered agricultural potential and mineral wealth they determined that it was important to take over this new source of riches. They had the advantage of firearms and used them and their experience fighting in military formation to great effect as they swept across the continent defeating most of the armies that stood in their way crushing their enemies and subjugating them and even those who sought peace.

Europe was built on war, treaties, alliances and betrayal. Both the victors and the vanquished learned over the ages that one way to put the odds in your favor when confronting an enemy is to divide them so that they cannot fight as one.

As they began their occupation of Africa, the new residents used this experience to great effect by first identifying groupings, then understanding the power structure and struggles within that power structure and finally tearing it apart by aligning with the weaker faction and using their military power to stamp out the opposition. Of course, the new local leaders owed their position to the Europeans and depended on them to stay in power.

The enterprises in which the Europeans engaged were mainly agricultural and mining. These are activities which require a fair amount of labor which was provided by the newly installed leaders. They used their power to move the people off the land on which they subsisted into settlements where they could still subsist albeit at a step below where they had been.

In addition to bringing military dominance the Europeans also brought their religion and worked hard to ensure the locals were converted. They did this by making religious conversion a requirement for attending school, for holding office and for having a job.

Being that they had been moved off their ancestral land into areas that were not as productive as they had been in the past, many Africans found that they had to work for the Europeans in order to feed their families. They were provided wages that basically kept them at a subsistence level. Those who were sent to school were taught the basics of reading writing and arithmetic but were kept away from higher mathematics and science. All the Europeans really wanted was a cheap source of clerical labor. Some Africans made it to university in Europe where they earned degrees in many areas including medicine, agricultural studies and education. The returning graduates were put to work serving their fellow African, a thing Europeans were loath to do.

The vast majority of educated Africans were therefore simply functionally literate. They earned wages a little above farm laborers and only a notch above subsistence. Even though these were low paying jobs with limited career opportunities, the general population was trained to view them as great jobs.

A transformation had taken place. Gone were the days when a family could support itself by the sweat of its brow. The good land was taken and a dependence on the new powers had been developed. Once united communities were actively divided and kingdoms were also cut up into countries or colonial territories and governed in a totally different manner than before. In the past, the function of the monarchy had been to ensure that peace was maintained so that the subjects could not only sustain themselves but also earn greater respectability through various social means of ascendance. Some worked hard and were able to afford more cattle and more land, others proved themselves on the battle field while still others were able administrators, peace makers, ambassadors and the like. There was opportunity for advancement and the social structure made it possible. All wealth was derived from the land and the people lived and made a living on the most productive land.

The Europeans had taken the social fabric away and with it the means of ascendance. They, with their class structure of lords and serfs had relegated all Africans to the level of serfs and engineered a system that would keep them there. It was their intent to reap the highest benefit possible from the territories even if it meant that it would be at the expense of the locals. The only function of the locals was to provide cheap labor. It was not in the interests of the Europeans for the Africans to be educated. If they were educated that would mean that they would rise above the level of serfs and some might even have had the initiative to pull themselves up by their bootstraps to the level of the administrative class just as lowly merchants had grown their wealth to levels above many aristocrats back home in Europe. Those merchants had educated their children who then took over and grew the enterprises even more and while they did not have the titles or the land, they certainly had the education and ability to rule and rule they did. In fact, the colonial administrators were by and large products of the success of the merchant class in Europe. While they served as functionaries for the royals, they were still in positions of considerable power, influence and prestige. The idea that African could rise up to their level was not only counter to their needs, it was abhorrent to their sensibilities.

In Africa, they WERE the royals, they were at the top of the heap and limiting the education and advancement opportunities of the locals was in their own best self interest if they wanted to preserve their positions of power. If the Africans were broadly educated as they were and possessed the same skills and abilities then the royals would really have no need for European colonial administrators, they would simply use the locals.

Not only did the administrators have an interest in keeping the Africans down, the royals did too. Over the centuries they had seen what education had afforded the commoners with the aptitude and means to excel, it lifted them out of poverty, ignorance and destitution all the way up to a true economic and political power, a power to be reckoned with an one that had to be consulted rather than ruled by fiat.

In the event that Africans were provided the same educational and commercial opportunities that the commoners had been they would naturally follow the same path and assume power for themselves and the wealth that the colonies currently delivered would be redirected to the new merchant class of Africa. They would essentially revert to self rule and have to be treated as equals rather than subjects. This would leave Europe at a distinct disadvantage because it would not control the lands that were responsible for a large amount of their revenues. They would exist at the mercy of their former subjects, an idea that was anathema to anyone in power.

So with limited education and a non-existent power structure, any an all advancement depended on the whims of those in power, the Europeans.