Colonialism and the Political and Economic Problems in Africa Essay

The regard of Africas compound heritage has long been debated by experts. Some ordain that compoundism was not completely disadvantageous to Africans because it opened the continent to the rest of the world. Others economize that compoundism did nothing to significantly improve the lives of Africans. While it is true that Africas colonial heritage has some positive effects, the negative effects atomic number 18 still harder to ignore. Seveal independent African states emerged after colonial rule in Africa. illimitable clans, kingdoms, city-states and mempires were replaced with forty-eight new states, many of them with clear boundaries.Negative effects of this course of study outweigh the positive ones, however. The process of the establishment of each states boundaries was arbitrarily done by European chancellors, so what resulted were artificial realm states (Boahen 96). Their borders divide pre-existing ethnic groups, kingdoms, and states. For example, the Bakongo are vir tually chopped by the boundaries of Gabon, congon, Zaire, and Angola. Each Africation nation today is composed of a variety of peoples with several(predicate) cultures, language, and traditions.Nation-building has therefore been a riddle for these nations because of the arbitrary boundaries which could be traced back to colonial years (Boahen, et al. 329). Problems related to arbitrary borders dont stop at nation-building, however. Today, natural resources are unequally distributed among African states because of their polar sizes. Huge countries such(prenominal) as Algeria, Nigeria, and Sudan bear vast territories while others such Lesotho, Burundi, Togo, and The Gambia are to a fault small, limiting their economic capacities.The positioning of African countries is also awkward and most helter-skelter. Uganda, Malawi, Niger, and Chad are landlocked while others have long stretches of sea seashore useful for fishing. Zambia, Zaire, and and Nigeria are rich in natural resour ces, while Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger have less to get by. National security is also a problem since some countries, like The Gambia, has a single border to protect, while others such as Zaire has as many as ten borders to guard (Boahen, et al. 329).During the colonial era, Africans were made to produce cash crops to export to their colonizers and they were compelled to ignore increase food for their own consumption. Africans therefore had to buy imported food at high prices (Boahen, et al. 330). The imprint of colonialism on the mentality of Africans also affects their economic ways. long time after their independence, there are still people in sub-Saharan Africa who believe that they are incapable of producing manufactured or processed goods. They are under the impression that they can only produce and export stark materials.The truth is that there are no natural barriers preventing Africans to process the lovesome materials that they produce (Mshomba 118). Commercializatio n of land also brought about widespread penury in Africa. People fought over ownership of land, resulting in a flowage of litigations, causing poverty among land-owning families and ruling houses. Inter-African trade also ended with the uprising of colonialism, stopping the spread of indigenous African languages like Swahili and Hausa in different parts of the continent.Ancient caravan routes were blocked and trading between members of the aforementioned(prenominal) ethnic group from either side of new borders turned into smuggle (Boahen 102). Colonialism also left political instability behind. After their independence, many African nations succumbed to dictatorships, which discouraged investment in sub-Saharan countries and destroyed resources (Mshomba 118). Finally, Africas colonial heritage is also responsible to the growing number of expatriate banking, rapture and trading companies which later consolidated into oligopolies.These compnies controlled the import and export of commodities produced by Africans, which meant the lions share of profits go to them and not to the real producers (Boahen, et al. 332). African nations clearly have to address these challenges head on to improve their economic standing. Works Cited Boahuen, A. Adu. African perspectives on colonialism. Baltimore JHU Press, 1989. Boahen, A. Adu et al. The general history of Africa Africa under colonial domination 1880- 1935. Oxford James Currey Publishers, 1993. Mshomba, Richard E. Africa in the global economy. Boulder Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000.