1

COVER PAGE

COLONIALISM/NEOCOLONIALISM, CAUSE OF
AFRICAS UNDERDEVELOPMENT: A SHOT IN THE
WRONG DIRECTION

CHIDUME, CHUKWUDI G.

FEDERAL UNIVERSITY NDUFU-ALIKE, IKWO, EBONYI STATE

chudidume@yahoo.com

08064493499

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INTRODUCTION
More than forty-five years after most countries in Africa became independent, there is no
unanimous agreement on the impact of colonialism. With most African countries barely
managing to exist and others close to collapse, some scholars ask whether the problem
with Africa is due to Africas colonial experience or inherent inadequacies of the African?
For Eurocentric scholars the answer is clear: that whatever may be the disadvantages of
colonialism, the overall impact was positive for Africa. True, the colonial powers
exploited Africas natural resources but colonialism reduced the economic gap between
Africa and the West, the Eurocentric scholars argued. Colonialism laid the foundation of
the intellectual and material development of Africans. People who hitherto had limited
knowledge or control of their physical environment were introduced to formal education
and modern medicine. According to P.C. Lloyd,
It is easy to cavil today at the slow rate of economic development during
the half century of colonial rule.Nevertheless, the difference between
the condition of African society at the end of the nineteenth century and at
the end of the Second World War is staggering. The colonial powers
provided the infrastructure on which progress in the independence period
has depended: a fairly efficient administrative machine reaching down to
villages in the most remote areas, a network of roads and railways and
basic services in health and education. West African exports of primary
products brought considerable wealth to the people.1
Critics of colonialism, especially black African and Marxist scholars, dismissed such
arguments as colonial mentalism. They argue that colonialism left Africa poorer than it
was before colonialism began. African labour and resources were not only over-exploited
but the continents capacity to develop was undermined. The black Guyanese historian
Walter Rodney portends that under colonialism the only thing that developed were
dependency and underdevelopment.2 According to Rodney and other critics of
colonialism, The only positive development in colonialism was when it came to an end.
Under colonial rule economies of African countries were streamlined to be permanently
dependent on Western economy. They were assigned the function of producers of primary

3
products for processing in the West. African countries were at the shallow end as regards
terms of trade in the Western controlled international market.
Others believe neo-colonialism is the cause or at least their utterances betray such belief.
Late Pope John Paul 11 during his visit to Nigeria in 1982 said:
It is my conviction that all Africa when allowed to take charge of its own
affairs, without being subjected to interference and pressure from any
outside powers or groups, will not only astound the rest of the world by its
achievements, but will be able to share its wisdom, its sense of life, its
reverence for God with other continents and nations, thus establishing that
exchange and partnership in mutual respect that is needed for the true
progress of all humanity.3
Presently, more than forty-five years after most African countries attained independence,
African leaders still blame colonialism for our precarious position in the scheme of things
globally. In as much as colonialism contributed immeasurably to Africas woes, to
continue blaming colonialism for our woes after more than forty-five years of
independence is ludicrous. Four decades are more than adequate for leaders committed to
social advancement and economic upliftment to chart courses leading to emancipation of
their people. According to Chinua Achebe,
An absence of objectivity and intellectual rigour at the critical moment of
a nations formation is more than an academic matter. It inclines the
fledging state to disorderly growth and mental deficiency.4
Blaming African leaders on African woes, Basil Davidson argues that the root causes of
corruption in Africa are to be found in the failure of African leaders to embark on a
politics of restitution after years of colonial dispossession. He therefore counsels that,
The problem and solutions of today have to be envisaged within a
historical framework, an indigenous historical framework, no matter what
contributions an external world may have made.5

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CRISIS IN AFRICAS POLITICS
Colonialism laid the seeds of political crisis when it disrupted pre-colonial political
structures that worked for Africans for centuries and imposed alien system. By reshaping
the map of Africa across pre-existing ethnic groups, states and kingdoms it caused
widespread social disruption and displacement that are now destabilizing the continent.
The new African states were artificial creations and many are too small to be viable. Not
up to a third of the countries in Africa has populations of more than 10 million. Nigeria,
the most populous country in Africa, was nurtured with ingredients for its self
destruction. Western multi-party democracy imposed by colonial powers divided the
country into ethnic interest. It was the introduction of party politics by colonial
administration that set off the fire of ethnic conflicts in Nigeria wrote Itodo Ojobo.6
It is difficult to give an objective assessment of colonialism. Those who argue that it
made no positive contributions are as myopic as those who believe that it brought
salvation to Africa. What is unquestionable is that it is an imposition of alien rule.
Whatever may have been its merits and demerits, colonialism was undeniably a
dictatorial regime that denied peoples right of self determination. Its victims suffered
death, pain and humiliation. Ali Mazrui emphasized that Africans are not necessarily the
most brutalized of peoples but they are almost certainly the most humiliated in modern
history.7 The argument that colonialism was a redeeming and civilizing enterprise falls
short of logic the system was motivated by the Wests economic and political self
interest. To meet their administrative and economic requirements colonial powers built
some infrastructure, like railway, to transport commodities from the hinterland to the
seaports for onward exportation to Europe. Only few Africans were educated to help the
colonialists run the colonies. Facilities for education were inadequate and unevenly
distributed, because the colonial powers did not aim at promoting education for its own
sake or for the sake of the Africans but rather according to one African scholar, to
produce Africans who would be more productive for the (colonial) system. 8 Colonialism
did not do anything substantially positive for Africa. For example, the Portuguese left
their colonies with very little. At independence in 1975, Mozambique had only three
dozen graduates.9

5
It is absolutely difficult to imagine what would have become of Africa if colonialism had
not taken place. Some Western historians like L.H. Gann, P. Duignan, P.C. Lloyd etc.
believe that Africans lacked the organizational abilities both economic and political to
transform themselves into modern states operating advanced economies. According to
D.K. Fieldhouse, If they had not become European possessions the majority would
probably have remained very much as they were.10
African historians and politicians refute this claim. At a conference in 1991, Moshood
Abiola, the late Nigerian politician said, If it were true, then there is something wrong
with the rest of the world which developed without it. Countries like China, Japan etc.
were never colonized but they were able to advance to become major world economies.
These nations had more educated labour force and more advanced technology than
traditional African societies at the time which made it easier for these nations to adapt to
modernization. Again, the leaders of these countries were on matters of principle more
committed to social advancement and economic upliftment than African leaders.
Western society is more complex than traditional African society but that does not
necessarily mean that it is better than traditional African society. Complexity is not a sign
of human society progress. Pre-colonial African societies were infrastructurally less
developed than their counterparts in other parts of the world but that does not mean that
they were less balanced and contented than any elsewhere.
Nevertheless, if Africa had not been colonized, the chances are that its ruling class would
still have preferred to consume the goods and services of Western industrialized
countries. The chances are nil that African leaders and traders would have been satisfied
with the simplicity of communal existence to prevent Western advances making inroad
into their communities. If during the slave trade, rulers and traders happily waged wars
and sold fellow Africans to buy beads, umbrellas, mirrors, guns and second hand hats,
what would they have done if confronted with offers of cars, helicopters, televisions etc?
Even without colonization African societies would have still longed for industrialization
and western type of modernization just like other parts of the world.
There are no facts to support the argument that Africans would have on their own
developed electricity, internal combustion engine and other items of advanced

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technologies. It can be reasonably assumed that if Africa had not been colonized it would
still have been battling with problems of economic development. We all know that
African countries that never experienced colonialism like Ethiopia and Liberia are still
battling with problems of economic development and have not shown any sign of being
advanced scientifically or technologically more than the rest of colonized Africa. Africa
will need to import Western technology and would need to export something in return to
pay for the imported items. Just like other pre-industrial societies, African countries
would just like today have to trade mineral and agricultural resources for Western
products. Based on this, colonialism should not be solely blamed for Africas position in
the international economy, especially as a producer of primary products for industrialized
countries. It can be attributed mainly as a function of unequal development.

ARE WE TRULY INDEPENDENT?

Many African nationalists and critics of colonialism do not really believe that Africa has
actually gained their full independence. They believe that independence is only complete
with economic independence. Frankly, Africa is in the era of neo-colonialism. Neocolonialism is the economic control or political influence that one country has over
another country, especially by having control of its businesses or financial institutions. 11
At the 1961 All African Peoples Conference in Cairo, neo-colonialism was defined as
the survival of the colonial system in spite of the formal recognition of political
independence in emerging countries which become the victims of an indirect and subtle
form of domination by political, economic, social, military or technical means. 12 What
all these mean is that the Western powers still manipulate African countries whose rulers
are ready tools and voluntary subordinates of the Western powers. The natural resources
of Africa are explored and exploited to be used in the West. The means of production are
controlled by foreign companies who use many nefarious tactics to transfer profits out of
the continent rather than investing same in the local economy. Until Africa makes a clean
break from economic dependence on international capitalism, there will continue to be
unequal contacts between Africa and the West which makes economic progress very
difficult for the former.

7
Scholars are always inclined to describe the period of Africas contact with the West
mainly in terms of the continents subjugation by the West. History is often viewed as
unarguably a conspiracy by the West to perpetually keep black people subordinated.
African involvement in wrecking of their own societies are ignored in favour of the idea
blaming outsiders as the culprits. Recently, some Africans started calling for the Queen of
England to apologize for the role of the British in the slave trade. 13 Plausible as this, but
who will apologize on behalf of the African leaders and traders for capturing and selling
their fellow Africans to the Whites?
By focusing on imperialism, attention has been taken away from internal factors that are
important for the understanding of the African condition and which, unlike the external
factors, can be changed by the ordinary Africans. During the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) and now African Union (AU) summits, African leaders who have milked
their countries dry are applauded for statements that mix cries against regional
marginalization and disapproval of the IMF with in genuine and insincere calls for
African unity and pleas for debt forgiveness. For these reactionary leaders to be accepted
at home and abroad as defenders of their people, they condition their speeches with antiimperialist rhetoric. For this, these leaders were easily accepted as representatives of the
oppressed.
The erroneous belief that Africa is enmeshed in a neo-colonial trap has limited the growth
of political movements for social and economic change in the continent. The implication
of the theory that stresses on external causes of underdevelopment is that African nations
must endure poverty until there is a revolution to lift them out of the international
capitalist orbit. If Africa is trapped in underdevelopment, there seems to be no point in
seeking internal change. Because of this negative attitude few political movements in
Africa actually campaign for basic social and economic change. Opposition and Prodemocracy movements tend to restrict their policy to condemning official corruption and
human rights abuses. A case in point, not too long ago in Benin Republic, the President,
Mathew Kerekou was replaced with an opposition leader, Joseph Soglo in a democratic
election. The difference in the administration of the two was like the difference between
six and half a dozen. In the next election Mathew Kerekou was voted back to power.

8
On attaining independence, African countries became free, and had the opportunity to
formulate for themselves whatever policy they had the ability and zeal to follow. They
could have nationalized foreign owned companies. They could have ended primary
commodity production and stopped all imports from the West. Definitely, such measures
would have had repercussions. Such repercussions would have involved the leaders
losing their benefits of foreign aid than the West sending in gunboats and punitive troops
to kill ordinary Africans. African countries could have pursued independent economic
agenda, at least Cuba a few kilometers from the United States did the same and is
surviving. There is no logic why Africa couldnt have done the same. Africa did not
because it was not in the interest of their leaders and not because colonialism or neocolonialism did prevent them.

AFRICA AND THE WORLD MARKET

The introduction of currency and banking activities and the great expansion in the
volume of trade between colonial Africa and Europe through the creation of conditions
which gave Europeans and Africans both the means and the incentive to expand and
diversify legitimate commerce led A.G. Hopkins to describe the process as the
completion of the integration of West Africa into the economy of the industrial
World.14 One of the most important legacies bequeathed by colonialism was the
integration of colonies into the international capitalist market. The main factor holding
economies and maintaining imperialism is the market itself. For people who have the
means to pay, the market is a very attractive place. African leaders are allowed the choice
of enjoying the Western products without having to go through the rigorous and lengthy
process of building the productive base of their societies.
When studying the economic conditions of people in Africa it will be advisable to
categorize them as belonging to different layers in the economic pyramid. At the bottom
are the majority of the people, who are absolutely poor and too impoverished to
participate in the economic, cultural and political life of the society. At the peak of the
pyramid are a very tiny number of super-rich. At the middle are people of varying
degrees of wealth and access to local markets and the global economy. The economic

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pyramid is a better method of considering income distribution than seeing it strictly in
national terms. For example, to assume that Nigeria is poor because its per capita income
is less than $300 per annum overlooks the fact about the affluence of the countrys rich
minority that feed fat on its resources to maintain their position on the economic
pyramids.
Africas poor gained next to nothing from colonialism while her leaders advanced
because of it. African millionaires, who today have huge bank accounts in Western
capitals, definitely owe their wealth to colonialism because of the opportunities offered
by the linking of Africa to the Western world during the colonial period. Without the
opportunities offered by the linking of Africa to the Western World, it is difficult to
believe that indigenous leaders would have shot themselves up from pre-capitalist
positions of wealth to modern bourgeoisie standard. So, the answer to the frequently
asked question, Did Africans benefit from colonialism? is the leaders without doubt
benefited while the poor majority did not. Because they have tasted life as consumers in
the international market African leaders have become addicted to global economy.
Western powers need not administer their colonies economically at least. African leaders
out of their own decision keep their countries in the market and move the largest part of
their natural resources and capital to the West. According to B.N. Iffih,
A situation of dependency should not be confused with that of classic
foreign colonialism. Dependency is a condition not only external, but
internal to underdeveloped societies. It is said to penetrate all spheres of
social lifeeconomic, cultural and political. Foreign domination of
society is not imposed by any army of occupation as nave versions have
asserted but rather it is implemented by conditioned local bourgeoisie. In
this context, development logically consists of liberation both from
external tutelage and exploitation and from the internal power of servile
political and economic groups.15
The power of the world market lies in its appeal to classes of men and women who have
the means to take part in it. For the wealthy, the market offers the means to acquire all
material needs. The market can be a corrupting force that requires strong ideological or

10
moral commitment to resist it. It was the alluring appeal that finally destroyed the
socialist regimes in the former Eastern or Soviet Bloc and is now eroding China. The
trouble with Africa today stems from the fact that her leaders are scrambling to climb the
world economic pyramid.

AFRICA AND THE CONCEPT OF PROGRESS

The African peoples longing for material improvement and wealth has given the Western
Civilization its greatest strength. Its driving force has not come from its armies or
colonial administrators. It is just the fact that Africans believe in material progress and
desire what the West has to offer. For example, Coca Cola is sold in virtually all African
countries and is accepted by majority of the people not because it was forced on Africa
but because of aggressive advertisement. It was not the handful of European troops sent
to conquer and maintain order that was irresistible but the power of Western materialism.
Africans may not have liked the behaviour of the colonizers but they wanted the
civilization that the West have to offer.
Western hegemony has always prevailed in Africa. Antonio Gramsci defined hegemony
as an order in which a certain way of life and thought is dominant and one concept of
reality prevails throughout the society.16 The dominant ideology affects every aspect of
human existence social, religious and political principles. The West has not imposed its
ideas on Africa by coercion but by the sheer appeal of its civilization. Based on this, it
makes Africans desire what they desire and thereby manipulate their aspirations. This is
the base of imperialism. This is what enables the West to control, explore and exploit the
resources of Africa in a manner advantageous to them and at the detriment of the
economies of African countries. The politics of African Countries demonstrates the
Shavian concept that the only thing we learn from experience is that we learn nothing
from experience. The truth, as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, is that we learn geology the
morning after the earthquake. The greater truth is that in Africa, we do not learn geology
even the morning after the earthquake.
The predicament facing Africans is how to handle the overwhelming presence and power
of Western civilization. If the aspirations of Africans for modern amenities of life

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electricity, pipe borne water, modern medicine etc. is acceptable, then we should accept
the fact propounded by scholars like P.C. Lloyd et al that Western civilization is of a
higher material order to African civilization. It is able to meet the needs of Africans
which traditional society couldnt. According to Ayandele,
Manufactured articles of all descriptions and better forms of housing have
raised the standard of living far higher than that of the traditional society.17
Colonialism introduced the concept of material progress but it failed woefully in
providing for the people the means to acquire the tools as to enable them to realize their
ambitions. Independence African leaders blamed colonialism for Africas material
backwardness and equally believed that the expunging of the external factors will
invariably lead to modern development. But they failed to understand that modernization
required radical internal overhauling.

AFRICA AND INTERNAL CHANGES

In all advanced countries, the economy was given first class priority in the political
system. Above all things, development has been supported by such values as efficiency,
hard work, honesty, precision, punctuality, dedication and thrift. Modernizing countries
adopted different methods of organization. Some adopted socialism emphasizing state
ownership of means of production and workers mobilization ideology while others chose
capitalism which thrives on private ownership and wage labour. Nonetheless, both
capitalists and socialists followed the same basic steps to economic development.
Some Africans believe that there is an African formula to development that is different
from the European way but nobody has been able to define this African way in any way.
Michael Barratt Brown explains Africas development problem: African society was
different and apparently immune to economic rationality which is the basic assumption of
European political economy.18 Basil Davidson argues that Africas crisis is due to it
being forced by colonialism to abandon its traditional systems and values for unsuitable
Western institutions.19 Some writers believe that an African path to development exists.

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According to Hassan Zaoual, The African model exists and is alive but it is not a model
of economic rationality.20
It beats all logic how economic non-rationality can possibly result in development. Today
in Africa, because of the intellectual opposition to the West, African policy makers have
failed to realize the need to develop a clear ideology for change. African political and
economic thought have been caught in an illusion because of the intellectual criticism of
colonialism and defence of the integrity of traditional African society.
The search by African scholars for an alternative model is still on but the chances are that
it will come to nothing. If the aim is to advance the material conditions of the Africans,
then the systems and values introduced into Africa during colonialism are more
appropriate to modernization than are many traditional African ones. Modern systems and
principles like banking, factories, representative democracy etc. are more efficacious than
what existed in pre-colonial African societies. All developed societies, whether capitalist
or socialist have used the same set of systems. The difference in the application of the
ethics and rules as regards the functioning of the systems is what differentiates modern
societies. In the bid to adopt the new way of life, modern countries discarded preindustrial institutions, customs and beliefs. The West had no right to exploit Africa and
force their culture on other people. Africa, having been exposed to a more advanced
civilization needs to adapt to the new civilization in order to empower themselves and
gain from the advantages. According to an Indonesian nationalist and socialist, Soetan
Sjahrir,
What the West has taught us[is a] higher form of living and
strivingand this is what I admire in the West despite its brutality and its
coarsenessI would even accept capitalism as an improvement upon the
much famed wisdom and religion of the East. The East must become
WesternFaust must reveal himself to the Eastern man and mind. 21
Africas contact with the White man and his civilization means that Africa can never have
its past back neither does its future lie in the faithful and complete duplication and
imitation of the West.

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CONCLUSION
The reason so many thousands of lives are lost daily in sub-Saharan Africa is not due to
lack of aid from the West but because too much money goes into fighting wars, leaving
nothing for hospitals and schools. Sudan, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia are glaring
examples of this. Ethiopia has spent huge sums fighting Eritrea over a disputed border.
Over 65 million Ethiopians can now hardly feed themselves, while the government
spends billions on arms. The point being advanced is that the leadership in Africa is
responsible for the woes of Africa. Joseph Mobutu of Zaire (now Congo DR) who
changed his name to the more widely recognized Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu Wa
Za Banga stole about US$8 billion. He even went as far as enlarging the airport in his
hometown to accommodate landings by Concorde Jets which he leased from Air France
while his people starved. Sani Abacha of Nigeria stashed away US$4 billion. Robert
Mugabe of Zimbabwe recently moved into a US$6 million villa in Harare, even though
50 per cent of his countrymen face famine. Recently, King Swathi of Swaziland bought
an automobile valued at US$360,000.00 while his country is the most AIDS devastated in
the world and 40 per cent of the population is unemployed. Former President Fredrick
Chiluba of Zambia, only two weeks after coming to power in 1993, declared that, Power
is sweet. He proceeded to embezzle millions of dollars during his 10 years rule.22

Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the son of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, the
dictator of Equatorial Guinea, an improvished but yet oil rich country with a population
of 720,000, who has no clear means of livelihood other than being the son of the
President, has among other properties abroad a five-story pied--terre mansion worth
more than $180 million in France, the building has 101 rooms, including a Turkish bath, a
hair salon, two gym clubs, a nightclub and a movie theater. In the garage are parked
eleven luxury cars including two Bugatti Veyrons, among the most powerful and
expensive cars in the world, a Maybach, an Aston Martin, a Ferrari Enzo, a Ferrari 599
GTO, a Rolls-Royce Phantom and a Maserati MC12.
John Hayford, a Ghanaian writer, adds: "Africa's biggest problem today lies with the
leadership. They are so removed from the people that they are looked upon as foreigners.

14
They are driven by self-interest, so excessive that their peoples' interests are forgotten -hardly different from the colonial masters".23
Because of corrupt leadership, Africa has become a huge dumping ground for all kinds of
undesirable gadgetry from the West: arms to kill people, machinery which litters the
bushes of Africa without being of any use to the people, second class technology which
has been phased out in the West and half baked Western experts paid from the huge
loans borrowed in the name of the citizens. As a matter of fact, postcolonial African
leaders have finally succeeded in uniting Africa in poverty. The activities and lives of
these voracious African leaders are in tandem with Mahatma Gandhis Seven Social
Sins: Politics without Principle, Wealth without Work, Commerce without Morality,
Pleasure without Conscience, Education without Character, Science without Humanity,
Worship without Sacrifice.
Late Mallam Aminu Kano, former Governor of Kano Sate, Nigeria, in his last recorded
television interview said that leaders must always ask themselves why they are seeking
the mandate of the people to rule- what is the purpose of government? 24 Africas woes
can be traced to such factors as visionless and uncommitted leaders, corruption in high
places and ill conceived and ill congested government policies which have seen poverty
grow into a gigantic mammoth. Until our leaders undertake a concise soul searching and
thorough house cleansing, we shall continue living in a state of despicable vagarism and
continual hanging precariously on the balance of uncertainty. Chinua Achebe rightly
opined,
Our inaction or cynical action are a serious betrayal of our education, of
our historic mission and of succeeding generations who will have no
future unless we save it now for them. To be educated is, after all, to
develop the questioning habit, to be skeptical of easy promises and to use
past experience creatively.25
Ordinary Africans, disappointed by the outcome of self-governance, find little solace in
all that is happening around them to build confidence that as a people they can manage
their own affairs. Under colonialism they could dream that with independence would
come the chance to showcase their worth. According to Robert Jordan,

15
Before independence some African nationalists claimed that peoples
living under colonial rule were oppressed, downtrodden and exploited by
imperialistic capitalists. But after a fairly short period of self-government
many villagers are not certain whether they were, in fact, worse off under
the colonial regime. The credibility of political leaders is being
questioned. Independence and freedom have not brought the kind of
prosperity which were promised, nor has it brought any significant
extension of civil liberties. What then, asks the villager, has independence
meant?26
In 1990 the governor of Imo State in southeastern Nigeria explained to a public gathering
in the capital city Owerri that his cash strapped government was unable to solve the
severe erosion problem devastating the State. After he had spoken, an elderly man in the
audience stood up and said Since you and other black leaders have tried your best but
have not been able to improve the lives of us ordinary people, why dont we ask the
Whites to come back. When the Whites ruled us things were not this bad. Please ask them
to come back and save us. The statement, spoken with sincerity, attracted much applause
from the crowd. This statement amplifies the thought of some people who see in Africas
economic and political wobbling proof that Africans are incapable of governing
themselves.
Because of the intransigencies and excesses of these impious African leaders, people are
wont to disregarding laws and treating rules with disdain:
Indeed, if every law of the state had to be enforced by compulsion, that
state could not survive. The territory in question would cease to be a state
and would become instead a place of political confusion and governmental
disorder. One of the main purposes of government is to minimize the
likelihood of or need for any challenge to the authority of the state being
made. If a challenge is allowed to persist and grow, then the possibility of
internal conflicts ending in civil war becomes all too real.27
I make bold to say that the days of civil wars, insurrections and to a lesser degree calls for
secessions are not over in Africa until these morbid leaders develop a sense of national

16
purpose which draws people together to work enthusiastically for the purpose of nation
building and away from putrescence.
Finally, after examining the way in which slave trade and slavery were brought to an end,
and how African colonization has ended with South Africa becoming independent in
1994, It is necessary to suggest that as long as there are few men and women in Africa
who are fully determined to work with the millions of Africans exploited by corrupt
people, the war against corruption will be won, even if it is won by our next generation.

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END NOTES
1. A. Adu Boahen (ed.) (1990) UNESCO General History of Africa Volume V11 Africa
Under Colonial Domination 1880-1935 California: Heinemann p.783
2. W. Rodney, (1981) How Europe underdeveloped Africa Howard University Press, p.25
3. A. E. Ndubisi, (1991) Nigeria What Hope? Enugu: CECTA (Nig) Limited p.iv
4. C. Achebe (1998) The Trouble with Nigeria Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing
Co., Ltd. p.14
5. B. Davidson (1994) The Search for Africa: A History in the Making London:
James Currey p.282
6. I. Ojobo Colonialism and Politics of Nigeria New Nigeria Newspaper, July 19,
1986 p.28
7. A. Adu Boahen (ed) (1990) UNESCO General History of Africa Volume VII Africa
Under Colonial Domination 1880-1935 p.803
8. ibid p.800
9. T. Obadina, The Myth of Neo-Colonialism. Africa Economic Analysis 2000.
Sept. 19, 2000. (INTERNET: http://www.afbs.com/analysis/neo-colonialism.html.)
Accessed on 13th July, 2011
10. ibid
11. BBC English Dictionary, Onitsha: Africana FEP Publishers Ltd. 1992 p.472
12. Tunde Obadina, The myth of Neo-colonialism
13. BBC News Dec., 24 2004
14. A. Adu Boahen (ed) UNESCO General History of Africa p.791
15. B. N. Iffih. Theoretical Issues in National Development in Chikwendu, V.E. (ed)
(1989) Nsukka Journal of the Humanities Numbers 5/6, The Faculty of Arts,

18
University of Nigeria, Nsukka June/December p.87
16. http://www.theory.org.uk/ctr-gram.htm accessed on 13th July, 2011
17. E. A. Ayandele, External Influence on African Society in J. C. Anene and
G. N. Brown (eds) (1981) Africa in the nineteenth & twentieth centuries Ibadan:
Ibadan University Press p.145
18. M. B. Brown (1996) Africas Choices: After Thirty Years of the World Bank.
Colorado: Westview Press p.174
19. B. Davidson (1993) Blackmans burden: Africa and the curse of the Nation
State Three Rivers Press (CA) p.97
20. H. Zaoual (1994) The Economy and the Symbolic Sites of Africa Intercultural Institute
of Montreal p.21
21. S. Sjahrir (1949) Out of Exile New York: John Day p.32
22. Fox News Online Jan., 28 2004
23. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/
columnist. php? S=Sappor. Godsway Yaw accessed on 21st February, 2011
24. I. Ojobo Colonialism and Politics of Nigeria New Nigeria Newspaper p.28
25. C. Achebe (1998) The Trouble with Nigeria p.69
26. R. S. Jordan (1985) Government and Power in West Africa Benin: Ethiope
Publishing Corporation. p.235
27. Ibid p.4