http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Logo_250X250.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Background_1024X576.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Banner_686X60.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Half-Banner_234X60.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Logo_250X250 http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Logo-Watermark_250X250.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Background_1024X576.jpg http://www.bigthink.com/adobe/Half-Banner-ALT_234X60.jpg Bigthink http://www.bigthink.com/feed/rss/comment/idea/1088 Wed, 09 Jul 2008 03:28:24 +0100 FeedCreator 1.7.2 http://www.bigthink.com/the-world/africa/1088 I wrote a paper for a post-colonial Africa class and globalization. As a whole, Africa is grossly underdeveloped due to the history of exploitation that has taken place under European colonization and Western imperialism according to Walter Rodney%u2019s theory in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. These underdevelopments can be identified across political, social, and economic lines in all African countries during and after colonialism. However, from Rodney%u2019s literary work three specific issues can be examined to provide an illustration of underdevelopment. These problems are focused on ethnic tensions and civil war, the stagnation of technological advance, and the effects of monoculture. Accordingly, a critical analysis of possible solutions to these problems will be discussed, and ultimately the dilemma globalization adds to these issues will be acknowledge. %u201CIn offering the view that colonialism was negative, the aim is to draw attention to the way that previous African development was blunted, halted, and turned back.%u201D This assertion provides a starting place for the understanding of how ethnic tensions, a result of colonial rule, have underdeveloped Africa. A necessary stage for the development of any country in the modern world is national solidarity and communalism. African states prior to colonialism were ethnically diversified and expanding in a way that was fading ethnic or %u2018tribal%u2019 loyalties by replacing them with national and class ties. However, the arrival of colonialism %u2018halted%u2019 these states as well as their progression towards national solidarity and its by-products. During colonialism, ethnic loyalties were not substituted for but rather became institutionalized which created lasting ethnic divisions and tensions. As Toyin Falola stated, %u201CPolitics is central to development%u2026The basis of solidarity is still not the modern state (except occasionally) but the pre-colonial ethnic groups.%u201D These tensions have often led to outbreaks of civil war that only worsen ethnic divisions and stunt the growth of political stability and development. For example, %u201CNigeria survived a civil war in the 1960%u2019s, but its recent politics have degenerated into an intense ethnic division whose consequence are still unfolding.%u201D The implementation of monoculture is one example of the African pattern known as %u201Cgrowth without development.%u201D Prior to colonialism, %u201CDiversified agriculture was within the African tradition%u201D. However, the onset of colonialism devastated this diversity with the implementation of monoculture where agricultural sectors were forced to only produce one cash crop. The underdevelopment of this colonial strategy can be seen two-fold in the social and economic spheres of Africa. Socially, monoculture replaced the diversified agriculture that had nourished Africans, which in turn led to widespread malnutrition. As one example illustrates, %u201CSometimes, cash crops were grown to the exclusion of staple foods%u2014thus causing famines. For, instance, in Gambia rice farming was popular before the colonial era, but so much of the best land was transferred to groundnuts that rice had to be imported on a large scale to try to counter the fact that famine was becoming endemic.%u201D Furthermore, the cash crops that were yielded from African soil were not nutritionally valuable in raw form. For example, in Asante the production of cocoa produced regional famine. Economically, monoculture produced a market where African farmer%u2019s survival was dependent upon the European states purchase of their crops, thus resulting in extreme African exploitation. Farmers did not make any capital gain but instead lived from crop to crop. If a harvest was not successful farmers were forced to take out loans with extremely high interest rates, and when they were unable to pay off amazing amounts of debt their farms were taken as compensation. The practice of monoculture and it%u2019s by-products of famine and economic disparity are present and have only worsened with time. Ali El-Kenz asserted, %u201CAccording to the Food and Agriculture Organization at least a quarter of the population of sub-Saharan Africa is threatened by famine, yet systems of extensive or shifting agriculture production, added to drought, continue their work of disforestation, soil erosion and desertification...This simply further increases the country%u2019s food deficit and adds to the social inequalities and political instability.%u201D The stagnation of technological advance as a result of conscious European colonialist procedure has played a large part in the underdevelopment of African countries. A non-industrialized nation cannot gain development in the world market. In the years proceeding colonization, %u201C%u2026most African handicraft industries still had vitality at the start of the colonial period.%u201D However, French colonialist, who consciously sought to smash the possibility of an industrialized African competition, completely disposed of the handicraft industry putting thousands out of work. Accordingly, %u201CThe vast majority of Africans drawn into the colonial money economy were simply providing manual labor, which stimulated perspiration rather than scientific initiative.%u201D Therefore, at the onset of independence, there was no starting point on which African development could occur. The underdevelopment created by all three issues has only been worsened by the presence of globalization. For example, economic tensions are exacerbated by the increasing economic crises. Populations become frustrated and turn against each other over competition for economic gain. The example of the Nigerian Civil War is an illustration of such. %u201CThe civil war in Nigeria is generally regarded as having been a tribal affair. To accept such contention would mean extending the definition of tribe to cover Shell Oil and Gulf Oil!%u201D In the case of monoculture, globalization has also worsened the impact of cash cropping. Globalization, which was intended to unify the world and spread economic prosperity through trade, has exploited African cash crop markets. Developed countries pay small amounts for crops that yield a considerable profit when sold in developed nations. Following from similar logic, Globalization has also greatly worsened the stagnation of technological advance. Trade allows developed nations to buy resources that are ultimately useless to non-industrialized African countries, while simultaneously allowing developed nations to grow richer through technological innovation and design. These issues provided the conclusion that a possible reform in globalization could aid the world in reducing poverty in underdeveloped countries. Although there are many issues Africa must face to attain development in the global world, three are ethnic tensions, monoculture, and stagnation of technological advance. The best solutions for overcoming these issues provide incentives for the burden of starting development as well as debt forgiveness. However, globalization poses a great challenge to African development, by which often times it exacerbates these problems. Ultimately, a need for globalization reform is necessary to stop the exploitation of countries in Africa. Bigthink Wed, 16 Jan 2008 20:05:30 +0100 http://www.bigthink.com/the-world/africa/1088/#1036