Colonialism and the Political and Economic Problems in Africa Essay

The impact of Africas compound heritage has long been debated by experts. Some say that colonialism was not completely disadvantageous to Africans because it subject the continent to the rest of the world. Others maintain that colonialism did nothing to significantly improve the lives of Africans. While it is true that Africas colonial heritage has some positive cause, the negative effects are still harder to ignore. Seveal independent African states emerged later on colonial rule in Africa. Countless clans, kingdoms, city-states and mempires were replaced with forty-eight new states, many of them with clear boundaries.Negative effects of this division outweigh the positive ones, however. The process of the establishment of each states boundaries was arbitrarily do by European chancellors, so what resulted were artificial nation states (Boahen 96). Their rebounds divide pre-existing ethnic groups, kingdoms, and states. For example, the Bakongo are nigh chopped by the boundarie s of Gabon, congon, Zaire, and Angola. Each Africation nation today is composed of a variety of peoples with different cultures, language, and traditions.Nation-building has consequently been a problem 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 take overt stop at nation-building, however. Today, natural resources are unequally distributed among African states because of their different sizes. Huge countries much(prenominal) as Algeria, Nigeria, and Sudan have vast territories while others such Lesotho, Burundi, Togo, and The Gambia are too small, limiting their economic capacities.The post of African countries is also awkward and almost helter-skelter. Uganda, Malawi, Niger, and Chad are landlocked while others have long stretches of sea coast useful for fishing. Zambia, Zaire, and and Nigeria are rich in natural resources, while Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger have less to lay 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 patrol (Boahen, et al. 329).During the colonial era, Africans were made to produce cash crops to exportation to their colonizers and they were compelled to ignore growing food for their own consumption. Africans therefore had to pervert imported food at high prices (Boahen, et al. 330). The imprint of colonialism on the mentality of Africans also affects their economic ways. old age after their independence, there are still people in sub-Saharan Africa who believe that they are unable(predicate) of producing manufactured or processed goods. They are under the impression that they can only produce and export raw materials.The truth is that there are no natural barriers preventing Africans to process the raw materials that they produce (Mshomba 118). commercialization of land also brought about widespre ad poverty in Africa. People fought over ownership of land, resulting in a flood of litigations, causing poverty among land-owning families and ruling houses. Inter-African trade also ended with the rise of colonialism, halt the spread of indigenous African languages like Swahili and Hausa in different parts of the continent.Ancient caravan routes were occlude and trading between members of the same ethnic group from either side of new borders turned into import (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 conduct banking, shipping and trading companies which later consolidated into oligopolies.These compnies controlled the import and export of commodities produced by Africans, which meant the lions make do of pro fits 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 command 1880- 1935. Oxford James Currey Publishers, 1993. Mshomba, Richard E. Africa in the global economy. Boulder Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000.