Are The Whites Screwing Africa?

Sometime back, I wrote an article titled, ‘Africans, don’t blame the whites.’ In the article I criticized Africans who are so fond of blaming the underdevelopment of their continent on the evils of colonialism and the white man’s exploitation of Africa’s resources. Unexpectedly, I received a lot of praise from the whites (Americans, Australians and Europeans alike), who were excited that I had criticized my own- the African nation, and advocated that they took some blame for many of the economic and social woes besieging the continent. Many applauded me and my email inbox was constantly flooded with mail from these people-some even encouraging me to write more articles towards that direction. All of a sudden, my single article was syndicated in over two hundred websites in Africa, The Americas, Europe and even Asia.

But Africans were not amused. I received lots of hate mail from Africans all over the world as well. I was called a poor African Journalist who had succumbed to becoming a puppet of the white man so as to make ends meet. The article also got a lot of criticism at my school. Some of my colleagues said that I wrote the article to get the attention of some powerful whites so that they will sponsor my further education. I heard all sorts of things. Many called me unprintable names which I merely laughed over.

Looking back, I wonder if I was being too critical of the blacks, and lenient in my blame of the Western world. Granted, Africans tend to be a complaining lot and are quick to apportion blame to the colonialists for everything from stealing our resources to even creating mosquitoes. I know Africans could also be a terrible lot- greedy, corrupt, tribally biased, and all. But over the last few months, I have heard arguments that suggest that the West has manipulated Africa for its own self-interest, and might be controlling Africa to get its resources.

When I wrote that the Western world has made up for their exploitation of our continent through the billions of dollars they throw to Africa in terms of grants and aid, I have heard arguments that they give us this aid so that we can feel indebted to them, and based on that, we give them the upper hand in international trade; we give them licenses to exploit our land for our gold, diamonds and oil, and while they make so much money from these dealings, they give us change in return as aid.

When I spoke about how we as Africans ruin the little development we have achieved through tribal and ethnic clashes and wars such as has been witnessed in many parts of Africa, a die-hard African politician wrote to me telling me that it is the whites who fuel these wars so that our attention can be shifted away from their ulterior motives of exploiting Africa.

Another gave an example of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. For him, the fact that the west did not step in on time and save the country while over 800,000 people were massacred was testimony to the fact that the whites do not really care about Africa, but instead are out to benefit themselves. He said that the whites probably did not see any good in the country, and so did not bother sending troops to save the country while the violence lasted.

These are not my views. They are just opinions from different people who were really upset about my article. Some people actually put up really touching arguments that made me actually want to believe some of those things to be true.

I don’t have answers. So, world, what do you think? Do you think the whites are out to use Africa as its puppet; it’s toy? Do you think the West is preventing the underdevelopment of Africa so that Africa continually remains dependent on them, and they can use us and exploit us as they please?

If you have a Journalism job for me, email me at mfon.nsehe@gmail.com