The Blame Game

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I doubt this will be a long post because my thoughts on this issue are being fleshed out. But, in recent months I've become aware of something peculiar; the willingness of African governments to scapegoat colonialism as an excuse for the failures of their policies. The logic is rather simple; our debt is high because colonialism prevents us from being treated fairly. Our people are suffering because colonialism produced unbalanced underdevelopment in the nation. Our institutions are weak because the colonizers installed a system of governance that could not accommodate them. And while there is truth to these arguments, their deployment as tools of rhetoric cheapens the reality of the situation. It turns the history of colonialism, and the suffering of the people within it, into another political tool. Just another way to deny and dismiss the material reality of the people, today. Just as the colonisers did. 

No man mastered this technique quite like Robert Mugabe. Following a disputed election in March 2008, Mugabe devoted his first speech to denouncing foreign influence, specifically that of Britain and the United States, in an attempt to convince people that their political and economic troubles stem from abroad. Mugabe argued that whites "want the people to starve so they think the government is wrong and they should remove it." He claimed that the political opposition wants "[Zimbabwe] this country to go back to white people, to the British, the country we died for. It will never happen.'' He, therefore, warned the people: "Beware. Be vigilant in the face of the vicious machinations of Britain and its other allies." In his rhetoric, Mugabe speaks the truth. The British, and the West in general, have a history of interfering or attempting to interfere, in Africa's affairs for its own benefit. Just see the Scramble for Africa and Congo. However, by consistently scapegoating the British, or the West, for your nation's failures, you delegitimize that history. 

It is quite clear that the history of colonialism is being used as political rhetoric. For if the problem is that colonialism continues to fuck with our self-determination and capacity for growth, then solve it! If colonialism. Unfortunately, this is not how "solving" colonialism works. This is not to say there aren't things we can do. If colonialism is the great illness, from which we will never recover, then figure out ways to manage the symptoms. Invest in public education and infrastructure. Hold those who steal and are corrupt accountable. Stregthen intraAfrican trade and relations. Build a socio-economic system that rejects the philosophy of extractivism, exploitation and perpetual growth at all costs. These are the things we can do at home. But, truly 'solving' colonialism requires, if not demands, the input of those that colonised us. Not on our continent, but on theirs. Addressing the imperial, and often capitalistic (in the sense that, as Lenin argues, imperialism is the final stage of capitalism), mindset that began this ordeal. More importantly, teaching their people that what they did was wrong and ought to never be repeated. Maybe then, we won't have billionaires spending their wealth on space exploration for the purpose of mineral extraction.

But, since this is not going to happen, not without massive resistance from those in, and with, power, colonialism remains the perfect boogeyman.  

Colonialism fundamentally changed Africa, in a way I'm not sure we can come back from. But in deploying it as a shield from criticism, our agency as independent people is taken away. Part of being independent is making mistakes and holding yourself accountable for the consequences. This is one of the first lessons of adulthood we all learn. But if we continue to lay blame at the feet of our colonizers, what are we saying? That we are not truly independent? that our lives are still governed by the colonizers? Both of these are true, but not in the ways most people think. 

Thus, in consistently passing the buck to colonialism, we risk distorting its legacy and its impact. We risk turning it into something it is not. 

And thus we must continue to ask the question: to what extent are Africa's problems, a by-product of colonialism? and to what extent are they a by-product of bad governance, which may, itself, be a by-product of colonialism?


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