The current African crises can be expounded through analyzing the systematic obliteration of African countries as well as the scarcity, abuse, and seclusion of the African countries through consecutive historical undertakings such as slave trade, imperialism, colonialism and neocolonialism. This essay seeks to examine the book ‘Fundi wa Africa’ by Muiu Mueni and Martin, Guy, scrutinizing how the authors describe the current African crisis, its source and the best solution in resolving the crisis.
The State structures of African countries as well as their association with the developed countries are the major causes of the African crises. This Leviathan that comprises the African leaders and the developed nations take advantage of the African people, making it impossible for the African continent to achieve independent development. However, it is very difficult to understand the African quandary without analyzing the former African political structures, as well as the colonial and neocolonial regimes in several African nations (Muiu & Martin, 2009).
Consecutive past endeavors such as slave trade, colonization and globalization formed the basis of most African countries today. In most African countries, ‘civilization’ was initiated through colonialism. This was during the scramble and partition for African countries by European powers, which led to the use of African resources for the development of the colonial masters. The onset of the trans-Atlantic slave trade altered the association between the leaders and the citizens in most African countries.
African countries were secluded from the international community for a long time, resulting to societal and ethical decay. Today, the traditions of many African countries neither reflect the developed countries nor the indigenous African values. They emulate the developed countries but are unable to achieve what the developed countries have achieved. On the other hand, the current global trends have a tendency of marginalizing African institutions, particularly in development.
The contemporary African continent has been in a constant endeavor to understand and improve the terrible state of affairs that most people living in Africa experience. Such problems include AIDS, eugenic population policies, underdevelopment, food insecurity, poor health facilities, poor infrastructure, war and as well as foreign debts. However, more often than not, most of these attempts turn out to be futile.
Currently, most African countries are at very low economic, political and social levels of development as compared to other continents around the world. The root cause of the African predicament lies in its leaders as well as its association with the developed countries.
Interestingly, the elites comprise of about 10 per cent of Africa’s populace. In most cases, only this minute percentage consists of those who profit from complete nationality rights, which include freedom from starvation, illnesses, and conflicts.
The remaining percentage of people in Africa, most of who are found in the rural areas, is solely dependent on the elites who often live within the major cities. As a matter of fact, a good part of the financial support given to the most deprived people in the African countries by the developed countries is often grabbed by the elites for their personal gains. These leaders do not have the Africans’ needs at their hearts.
This state of affairs is not favorable for development because of its exogenous nature. On the other hand, the African continent is largely dependent on the developed countries for foreign aid. However, the First World nations do this with strings attached. They give the developing countries conditions which should be met before the aid is received. More often than not, these conditions are unfavorable for the development of African countries.
The First World countries, suppose that they are best positioned to know how Africa should grow. Indeed, most of them impose their oppressive ‘civilization’ policies on the African countries who implement them without questioning. This perception hinders development. As a matter of fact, since the Industrial Revolution in Britain during the 18th century, African countries have been acting as laboratories where invalid development concepts are tested. These policies are imposed on Africans with the aid of the African elites.
This endeavor denies several Africans access to their resources and promotes unlawful behavior in some people as most of them live under very harsh conditions. This kind of civilization contradicts the rights of most African countries to establish their destinies as it dictates that the African countries should pay back their debts even while the Africans continue to die of starvation as well as infectious diseases.
The only way out of this crisis is to substitute the current African continent with practical African indigenous institutions with the aim of creating a continent that is both independent and democratic. Such development necessitates a thorough revitalization of Africans.
All the Africans should be involved in the process of acquiring independence and democracy as this determines the future of their continent. No assistance should be sought from the Western countries as this is an internal affair and only the Africans understand their needs best. For this reason, in case the African countries are to triumph over the fate established for them by their pre-colonial nations, they should restructure their institutions with regards to their customs and history.
In order to achieve this, tactical policies which are founded on liability and precision should be put into place. In order for the African states to achieve democracy, the governance should be structured in a bottom-up model where the citizens’ interests come before those of the politicians (Muiu & Martin, 2009).
In addition, it is possible for the 54 African countries to unite into five states. African leaders should assure the future of all Africans by merging the African countries, failure to which the continent might lose hope and the obliteration of the rest of Africa will increase with a lot of momentum. When united, Africa will not have to borrow from the developed nations, but rather, it will form its own economy by improving its infrastructure and payment of taxes.
Other nations in other continents will then pay fair market value which will draw global investment. In addition, the Unity of Africa will lead to an increased economic and technological advancement. Consequently, the development would make the most out of the continent’s resources and workforce eradicating superfluous duplication, competition and economic estrangement.
In conclusion, during the pre-colonial period, the governance in most African countries was founded on the African culture. There existed a spirited civil society whose role was to probe the leaders’ behaviors (Muiu & Martin, 2009). During that period, the leaders were not self-centered. Governance was founded on the bottom-up model where the opinions of the majority counted. The needs and values of the people constituted the governing policies in most parts of Africa.
The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the bases of the current African crises. It highly contributed to the transformation of the leadership styles among the African leaders. Colonization of the African countries complicated the problem further. The colonizers forced the Africans to work on their land for their own benefits. Moreover, independence involved the Africanization of colonial policies.
These policies hardly met the Africans’ needs. The African elites who took over leadership adapted the colonizers policies and forgot about the African values leaving the Africans languishing in diseases, poverty and conflicts. The colonizer nations continued rewarding the African elites for implementing their policies. Most Western institutions continued interfering with African affairs with the justification of eliminating slavery.
Today, the African crisis presents an opportunity to the First World financial institutions to manage the Africa economic sector. Unfortunately, this structure is likely to persist until the Africans realize the need to capture their economic sector fully without external assistance. Moreover, the Africans should form their governing policies with regards to their values and way of living.
Reference List
Muiu, M. & Martin, G. (2009). A New Paradigm of the African State: Fundi wa Afrika. Palgrave Macmillan