Colonial Rule in the Development Of Sub-sahara Africa
Colonial Rule in the Development Of Sub-sahara Africa
Colonialism has acted in many ways like a narcotic to the growth of Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, and Angola. These countries had their independence taken away by a colonial power and are just in the last few decades been regaining their independence. If many of these countries are to survive they must first readjust to their fairly new situation and find systems of their own that work.
The Democratic Republic of Congo was taken by Belgium at the turn of the 20th century. The Belgians ransacked the country for anything of value, ivory, wild rubber, and many tropical products. They gained independence about 1960 and have had a lot of trouble since. They weren’t ready to rule their own country, and it showed. Corruption and mismanagement in the government has led to squandering of funds on bad ideas, and civil war. When Belgium had control, the Belgians didn’t care if the people were happy; as long as Belgium had the more powerful army, then they had complete control to ransack and steal from the country all they wanted. Then when the people of the country got their country back, they didn’t know what to do. There were probably at least a dozen countries advising them what they should do, it just confused them more. When a country has been 70+ years without control of their own government it is hard to get back in the swing of things, especially in the last fifty years or so. With very little money left for their country, they should have chosen carefully, but they squandered the money. The Democratic Republic of Congo, just needs some time, and I think within the next fifty years it will become a much better place.
South Africa, which has one of the brightest futures of any sub-Saharan African state, still has had adjustment problems from the colonial government. When the apartheid, begun in South Africa by colonists whom they called the Boers, ended much violence ethnic tension ensued. The apartheid made different races ignore disputes with each other so that there wouldn’t be as many problems, but when it ended they had just that much longer to cultivate their anger and think about how they would get back at other people. Today racial tensions are one of the major obstacles in South Africa’s path to become an MDC....