Decolonization remains an unfinished process, with its final phase yet to be fully realized.
In Chapter 3 of The Pitfalls of National Consciousness, Fanon says:
“The colonial world is a world divided into compartments, a world in which the colonized are consigned to the margins, their labor, their resources, and their very bodies exploited for the benefit of the colonizer.”
Today’s trade deals, where Africa’s raw resources are extracted, processed abroad partly by our own diaspora, and then sold back into African markets, extend colonial manifestations into the modern era. This exploitation is deepened when African made products are blocked from fair access to European markets, which I previously mentioned.
More than that, the presence of corrupt European corporations operating within Africa from various European countries, at times protected by their military and political interventions, reinforces this system of inequality, as they often work to maintain a structure that benefits their home markets while keeping African economies dependent again and again.
I saw these dynamics as always an intentional neocolonial scam from the European Union. But after engaging with a few works like Samir Amin's and south american studies, I now recognize that much of the problem is rooted in Africa's position as a peripheral economy within a global system built on longstanding structural inequalities. It is a byproduct, which is why it echoes in other dealings, even if to a far smaller extent.
This change of thought doesn’t change the solution nor the reality. Whether export-import trade exploitation specifically is intentional or structural, or both, the practical answer remains the same: Africa must break away from its codependence on Europe.
Until Europe creates a truly fair environment for African economies, a transformation that could take decades or never happen in fact, irrespective of the prevailing political power, our focus must shift to domestic reforms and forging stronger ties within Africa and with emerging partners in Asia. We must embrace African partnership and initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to build a more selfreliant and equitable future. And we must emphasize on technological exchanges for any dealings that compromise our raw materials and/or our human resources.
“The colonial world is a world divided into compartments, a world in which the colonized are consigned to the margins, their labor, their resources, and their very bodies exploited for the benefit of the colonizer.”
Today’s trade deals, where Africa’s raw resources are extracted, processed abroad partly by our own diaspora, and then sold back into African markets, extend colonial manifestations into the modern era. This exploitation is deepened when African made products are blocked from fair access to European markets, which I previously mentioned.
More than that, the presence of corrupt European corporations operating within Africa from various European countries, at times protected by their military and political interventions, reinforces this system of inequality, as they often work to maintain a structure that benefits their home markets while keeping African economies dependent again and again.
I saw these dynamics as always an intentional neocolonial scam from the European Union. But after engaging with a few works like Samir Amin's and south american studies, I now recognize that much of the problem is rooted in Africa's position as a peripheral economy within a global system built on longstanding structural inequalities. It is a byproduct, which is why it echoes in other dealings, even if to a far smaller extent.
This change of thought doesn’t change the solution nor the reality. Whether export-import trade exploitation specifically is intentional or structural, or both, the practical answer remains the same: Africa must break away from its codependence on Europe.
Until Europe creates a truly fair environment for African economies, a transformation that could take decades or never happen in fact, irrespective of the prevailing political power, our focus must shift to domestic reforms and forging stronger ties within Africa and with emerging partners in Asia. We must embrace African partnership and initiatives like the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to build a more selfreliant and equitable future. And we must emphasize on technological exchanges for any dealings that compromise our raw materials and/or our human resources.
