James Power said:
You are contradicting yourself. First you are hinting at the evils of Imperialism and then you complain about it not finishing its job. So what is it?
But that doesn't matter anyway, because the reason for Africa's current state has nothing to do with Imperialism. In fact the colonization was probably the sole positive contributer to the continent in terms of cultural advancement. Without it Africa would be off even worse. Some people like to pretend that if only Africa had been left alone it would be this flowering utopia by now, but reality looks quite different.
There's a reason why this whole continent was so easily exploited by all surrounding it: They had little achievements of themselves. But that isn't even the problem. The main problem is that unlike other colonized regions they lack the ability to catch up. There's no reason for them not to with all the help they've gotten over the years. Still they fail in a ridiculous manner. There's not a single beacon of hope there, not even one example and every achievement worth mentioning is an imported one.
People also don't understand that most of Africa is quite content with its situation, as surprising as it may sound. The lack of ambition to strive for Western ideals is one of the main reasons for the continent's state. Just listen to some of the people that got out of there and what they have to say about their fellow men and the African philosophy. Yet the West is still sending their aid packages and wondering why things don't change. So, you can either re-colonize Africa and force Western culture upon them by necessity or you lay back, stop complaining and let them do what they want.
See, I am looking past your posting history and genuinely looking at this post here and I can understand a lot of the points you are saying.
Africa (as a whole) wasn't exactly a shining example of technological and sociological growth when it was colonized all those years ago, so it wouldn't be far fetched to say that even if it was left alone, it would not have prospered the same way as a lot of the 'western' world did. But not all of Africa was stuck in a rut, and it is a little ridiculous to make any broad statements like "It would have been worse off without colonization/colonization was the single good thing that happened to Africa". Well actually thats more than a little ridiculous to say.
Africa has achieved plenty, and there are plenty of 'beacons of hope' as I see it, unless we have different definitions of hope here.
Also, "aid to Africa" is a relatively new practice, at least in the scale it is going in today. Do you expect a sudden turn around in the entire conutry and have it become a Mirror image of the United States, or the UK or something? If it takes longer than it took the west, is that a reason to discount the entire continent and abandon them?
And "most of Africa is quite content with their situation" - well thats just bullshit. I'm not idiotic enough to make such broad statements, and I come from/visit Africa. You can't know what most of Africa feels, and even if what you said was true - you cant ignore the desires of the minority.
So while I see what you are trying to say, it's all still pretty ridiculous.
