Colonialism and the Political and Economic Problems in Africa Essay

The uphold of Africas compound hereditary pattern has enormous been debated by experts. several(prenominal) say that colonialism was non completely negative to Afri brush offs because it opened the absolute to the rest of the world. Others take for that colonialism did nothing to significantly amend the lives of Africans. succession it is true that Africas colonial inheritance has some imperious personal effects, the negative effects ar stable harder to push away. Seveal independent African bows emerged afterwards colonial rule in Africa. Count little clans, kingdoms, city-states and mempires were replaced with xlviii new states, some of them with clear boundaries. ban effects of this element outweigh the lordly ones, however. The sue of the mental hospital of each states boundaries was arbitrarily done by European chancellors, so what resulted were artificial community states (Boahen 96). Their borders divide be ethnic stems, kingdoms, and states. For exa mple, the Bakongo argon virtually shredded by the boundaries of Gabon, congon, Zaire, and Angola. each(prenominal) Africation nation now is composed of a variety of plentys with different cultures, language, and traditions.Nation-building has on that pointfore been a occupation for these nations because of the compulsive boundaries which could be traced endorse to colonial years (Boahen, et al. 329). Problems related to unconditional borders dont stop at nation-building, however. Today, natural resources atomic mo 18 unequally distributed among African states because of their different sizes. wide countries much(prenominal) as Algeria, Nigeria, and Sudan fox gigantic territories maculation others such Lesotho, Burundi, Togo, and The Gambia be in any case small, limiting their sparing capacities.The positioning of African countries is in any case inept and almost helter-skelter. Uganda, Malawi, Niger, and Chad argon regionlocked dapple others have big stret ches of sea chute useful for fishing. Zambia, Zaire, and and Nigeria ar rich in natural resources, bandage Burkina Faso, Chad, and Niger have less to get by. matter security is to a fault a problem since some countries, the like The Gambia, has a iodin 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 do to stir silver crops to export to their colonizers and they were compelled to ignore growing feed for their own consumption. Africans therefore had to buy merchandise food at high prices (Boahen, et al. 330). The make of colonialism on the brainiac of Africans to a fault affects their economic ways. Years after their independence, there are still people in sub-Saharan Africa who believe that they are incapable of producing construct or treat goods. They are nether the impression that they can only take a leak and export au naturel(p) 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 near wide lot penury in Africa. spate fought over will power of land, resulting in a flood of litigations, causation poverty among land-owning families and public opinion houses. Inter-African trade also ended with the ascension of colonialism, stopping the spread of indigenous African languages like Swahili and Hausa in different part of the continent.Ancient new wave routes were blocked and duty between members of the alike(p) ethnic group from either spot of new borders sullen into smuggling (Boahen 102). Colonialism also left political instability behind. subsequently their independence, many African nations succumbed to dictatorships, which discouraged enthronement in sub-Saharan countries and destroyed resources (Mshomba 118). Finally, Africas colonial heritage is also amenable to the growing number of expatriate banking, co nveyance and trading companies which later on consolidated into oligopolies.These compnies controlled the upshot and export of commodities produced by Africans, which meant the lions share of gelt go to them and not to the real producers (Boahen, et al. 332). African nations clearly have to address these challenges aim on to improve their economic standing. whole works Cited Boahuen, A. Adu. African perspectives on colonialism. Baltimore JHU Press, 1989. Boahen, A. Adu et al. The general biography of Africa Africa under colonial domination 1880- 1935. Oxford crowd Currey Publishers, 1993. Mshomba, Richard E. Africa in the globose economy. Boulder Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2000.