Territorial
disputes, colonial past and present poverty in Africa
The document we consider today
brings together all the elements we have covered so far: the colonial roots of
many of the current issues in Africa.
“The greatest challenge to Africa
is the existence of poverty on its land; which has led to the continent being
considered as the poorest in the world. The cause of the poverty could be
traced from its colonial history. In the beginning of the century, the colonial
leaders, namely Great Britain, Germany, Portugal and other Western countries
deliberately met and designed the national boundaries of Africa’s countries to
cause unrest in the continent. Artificial boundaries were deliberately drawn
that split allied ethnic groups, and groups rival groups together. This was
done so that the colonial governments could maintain control. It’s a classic
case of “divide and conquer”.
Unfortunately, when these nations
gained independence, they maintained those old colonial lines, and one can see
the results, most notably in places like Uganda, Nigeria, Somalia, Rwanda,
Sudan, and even Ghana. It is therefore no surprise that the national government
is rife with corruption at all levels with the people feeling more loyalty to
their ethnic region than the national government in the midst of many other
conditions of deprivations which further pushes the people desolately into the
despotism of poverty with little or no hope of survival or escape from such
conditions. In Africa, the poor are not only those with a lack of money, but
also people in a condition, which involves the experience of shame, powerlessness,
social, religious and political exclusion. The poor are people of overdue
rights. They are people who are landless, homeless, starving and exploited.
They are caused, shunned by others and condemned to live on the periphery of
mainstream society. They are either unable to gain access to the good things
offered by society or take part in public decisions.
Poverty in the African Content: Causes and Consequences/ Effects
In Africa, the causes of poverty
mainly concern the reasons behind the low wealth and productivity of the poor
or conversely, the shortage and inflation of the goods they consume. Even
though the general characteristics of underdevelopment are not common to all
these underdeveloped African countries, ye t a broad answer to the question,
“why a poor country is poor”, is implicit in these characteristics. A number of
these characteristics are both the causes and consequences of poverty. The
following factors analyze the natural causative relationships that inhibit
development thereby engendering poverty in the African continent.
Conflict
War and Armed Conflict War breeds
poverty as no other product of man can do. One in every five Africans lives in
a country rife with armed conflict. From local warlords seeking to expand their
control, to national armies clashing with their neighbours or their own
citizenry. Truly here the people can barely grow food enough to feed
themselves. War destroys the infrastructure and prevents a build up of any
beneficial works that may r aise the people out of their condition. As observed
by Brenth (2007), “war and armed conflict are the major causes of poverty in
Africa. They have many effects such as displacing populations, destroying crops
and forcing people to move from their land”. H ence due to armed conflicts in
Africa there are millions of refugees who live on the edges of society, often
in abject poverty. Undoubtedly, despite other hot spots of war, Africa
consistently remains among the top places for ongoing conflicts, consisting of
both long standing civil wars as experienced in Somalia and Sudan and conflicts
between countries as seen between Ethiopia and Eritrea‟s border wars after the
latter‟s independence from the former. Despite a lack of basic social services
or even the bas ic necessities of life military forces are often well financed
and well equipped at the expense of the masses‟ survival.
As a result of the above scenario,
Africa is full of refugees, who are often deliberately displaced by military
forces during a conflict, rather than just having fled from war torn areas like
Daffour in Sudan or Kabinda areas in Angola to mention but a few. Although many
refugees emigrate to open countries such as Germany, Canada and the United
States, the ones who do emigrate are often the most educated and skilled. The
remainders often become a burden on neighbouring African nations that, while
peaceful, are generally unable to deal with the logistical problems refugees
pose. With some conflicts having lasted for 20 or 30 years, some of these
refugees haven been living in camps for decades with no hope of leaving them.
This situation means that they have to think only about surviving rather than
being able to make long - term plans for their future and getting themselves
out of poverty. In effect, civil wars usually have the result of totally
shutting down all government services. However, any conflict generally disrupts
what trade or economy there is. As an instance, Sierra Leone which depends on
diamonds for much of its economic activity, not only faces disruption in
production which reduces the supply, but also ending up as a thriving black
market in conflict diamonds, which drives down the price of what diamonds, are
produced. Furthermore, war, political instability and crime, including violent
gangs and drug cartels discourage investment. Civil wars and conflicts in
Africa per se cost the continent some $300 billion between 1990 and 2005.
Eritrea and Ethiopia spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the war that
resulted from minor border changes.”
Today, the post covered the
historical reasons for conflict. Tomorrow, the post will present current issues
related to territory and management of land in Africa. Indeed, although the time
of the colony is long ago gone, some countries still use their international
position of privilege to maintain Africa in poverty.
Making Poverty a History in Africa
Jorge
Emilio Núñez
Twitter:
@London1701
18th
October 2018
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