Abdallah Diagne, a sophomore at Columbia College, wrote the following piece after a lively discussion at an African Students Association meeting on the achievements - or lack thereof - of African nations 50 years after many of them gained their independence (editor's note: the passion and knowledge of my fellow ASA members never ceases to amaze and delight me, even when I don't agree with them):
On Monday February 22nd I led a discussion for the African Students Association at Columbia University which focused the 50-year anniversary of the independence of many African nations. I began by introducing the viewpoints of some of the authors I read for my African Civilizations class focusing in particular on Fanon, Nyerere and Nkrumah and the notion of unity within the continent right after independence that a few of them deal with (highlighting Nyerere’s conception of a United States of Africa). I then proceeded to ask the ASA members whether they thought that unification was possible, and whether they could identify any hindrances to it. After a large diversity of responses was given, the discussion naturally progressed to Africa’s status after 50 years of independence and whether we have any reason to celebrate. I will talk about the general responses to those issues.
Regarding African unification in the direction of a United States of Africa, my first interlocutors identified situations in which steps toward unification were being taken. They mentioned that most African nations wanted to create a continental Bank of Africa that would be based in Lagos, Nigeria, and then reflected on what kind of difficulties it would create. Some snickering members questioned why Nigeria was the place chosen to locate a continental bank, due to the stereotypes of corruption associated with Nigerians especially after the recent 419 frauds. Our social chair then confirmed that Nigeria was actually almost universally selected to have the honor of hosting a continental bank, and even regional rival Ghana voted for her. This suggests that African nations trust what is arguably the largest economic power outside of South Africa and Egypt, presumably because it is capable of this task and because it is a nation that everyone can identify it. As West Africans (which about 90% of the people present were) we agreed that we do not identify especially well with South Africans and Northern Africans and we would rather be represented by a nation that most generally represents the African spirit. Once this agreement was reached, we moved back to the original question of whether a central bank was a good idea. A number of people said that it would be disastrous because not all nations have the same economic power and we would not want a repeat of what is going on with the EU where major countries like Spain and Greece are struggling economically because of the introduction of the Euro. Such a system would cause inflation in the poorer countries and deflation in the richer countries like Nigeria and Ghana.
We then evaluated Nyerere’s idea and discussed whether a United States of Africa was possible. No one believes that there will ever be unification on the continental scale, but it is plausible that regional federations will form. I told them to recall that most of the boundaries in Africa were arbitrarily determined by Europeans, so they would have been very different if Africans determined them. Most of the divided groups would be reunited, and the fact that they are located within different nations makes the transition to a federation easier. However, cultures in West Africa as opposed to Eastern or Southeastern Africa are too inherently different for their respective populations to coexist peacefully. We thus identified that social unity is the key to unification, and solidified our stance by affirming that local traditions are too strongly rooted for people to willingly give them up for the benefit of a larger nation. Eliminating all polytheistic religions would ease the process of unification, but most groups would not conform, potentially leading to unnecessary strife. It would thus in our best interest to attempt only to unify on a regional level where most of the ethnicities have enough in common to consent to coexist in a larger nation dominated by one political entity.
I mentioned at this point that most African nations were celebrating 50 years of independence later this year, and I urged the group to reflect on their individual nations and assess whether the situation has ameliorated since the Europeans left. I explained how most of the authors outlined the destructive effects of colonialism, with one striking account provided by Fanon when he “concede[s] that whatever proof there is of a once mighty Songhai civilization does not change the fact that the Songhais today are undernourished, illiterate, abandoned to the skies and water, with a blank mind and glazed eyes”. Since almost all the African nations are still seeped in poverty, did we really ameliorate our situation by being autonomous, or would we have been better off under European dominance? Did we do anything right? What is the purpose of celebrating 50 years of independence, and what should we celebrate anyway? At this point the entire mood of the room shifted from a tactful well-this-is-what-I-believe disposition to an all-out, unforgiving what-you-are-saying-is-rubbish one, and tempers flared. One Ghanaian student vividly declared that we may spend every minute of the entire year negatively reflecting on how terrible living in our respective countries may be, but we must allocate one day to at least celebrate that we are independent nations.
The naysayers and those who adopted the most cynical attitudes asserted that any acts of furthering the African cause are done for selfish reasons by individuals who are overly eager to have their efforts praised by an entire group of people. A story was brought up about how a Tanzanian 21 year-old took scrap parts from various machines to build a wind turbine which provided electricity for an entire village. He then focused on expanding his invention to benefit other villages in the area. The detractors argued that this was a selfish act for him to promote his intelligence, a point that I never fully understood. It was like they were admitting that no efforts by Africans is worthy of praise and the only admiration that matters is that given by Westerners. Since they discovered this technology long before we were able to use it on our own, such advances would hardly be front-page newsworthy. The most vocal critic of celebrating independence made the unpopular comment that Somalia, his home nation, is seeped with extreme corruption because they should never have been allowed to run the country themselves, and they should have either let British people do it, or propagate British institutions instead of tearing them down. As a result human rights are not respected, former top universities have no value, and the nation remains in general poverty.
Are such remarks generally applicable to all of Africa? Perhaps, seeing as the vast majority of countries have inordinate percentages of citizens living in poverty that die in hordes from diseases which in the Western world are very avoidable, and who are increasingly wary of governments that seem destined to oppress them. It is arguable that coup d’états would never take place in the Western world, while in Africa they are unfortunately commonplace. The pessimistic citizens have thus ample reasons to want to forgo any mass-scale celebrations of independence because there is very little success to celebrate. All agree that it is wrong to say that Africa has done nothing right since the decolonization movement, but those supporting this view will be hard-pressed to find evidence that would completely satisfy their critics. I thus concede that celebrating 50 years of independence by no means denotes celebrating 50 years of success, nor does it mean we are well on our way to traveling along an asphalt-covered road that the leaders of the decolonization movement probably foresaw in their dreams would exist. For now we must be content with journeying on a dirt road that someday will resemble its European or American brothers, but we should celebrate the fact that it has been 50 years and Africa is still independent – at least on paper.
It would not hurt to remain optimistic that someday our day will come, but for the most part patience is running out. I urged my friends to understand that no matter what appalling situation they can identify in their native countries, it is still possible to do something about it. As the new generation of ‘colonized intellectuals,’ they have much more than the power to change their nations’ fortunes. It just will not do to say that we need the British, the French or the Portuguese to install infrastructures that will help us to thrive in the future. Every child needs to stumble to learn how to walk, and we must always hope the stumbling time is behind us and that we finally have the firm legs to build the asphalt road and walk upon it with pride.
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