Sometimes, truthful messages are delivered in a harsh tone, but that doesn't make them any less honest. @GeorgeGalloway certainly didn't mince his words in his 27 March X post. The former UK parliamentarian and leader of @workerspartygb echoed sentiments that have been the subject of long-standing debate among many Africans. While we know the colonial powers ensured former colonies remained economically and politically dependent on them even after colonialism, surely, decades later, isn't it time we broke free?
Some of us argue that Africa's dependence on the West prevents African people's progress; others view this argument as an oversimplification of the complex dynamics of global inequality and exploitation.
Many African leaders have sought sovereignty for their nations and a breakaway from Western dependency. To address inequalities created by colonialism, Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe, for instance, sought to take back an estimated 74% of the country's total arable land that was stolen by fewer than 5,000 white settlers - who made up just 0.2% of the population - through land reforms. Rather than plead for Western handouts, he aimed to rebuild his nation as a dignified homeland for all Zimbabweans.
Similarly, Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo's first Prime Minister, sought to liberate his country from the shackles of colonial exploitation to establish a genuinely sovereign nation, whose vast resources would primarily benefit the Congolese people for the first time in centuries. Both leaders faced fierce resistance from the West. Lumumba was k*lled in January 1961, in a Belgian and US-backed assassination, and Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, was subjected to punitive sanctions that devastated the country's economy.
Today, the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), made up of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, continue to face resistance from the West, aided by pliant governments in neighbouring countries and weak institutions such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which function as extensions of global imperialists.
Considering neocolonialism alongside other historical and present realities, do you think voluntary dependence on the West is the primary barrier to progress in Africa?
Ahmed Kaballo
Sometimes, truthful messages are delivered in a harsh tone, but that doesn't make them any less honest. @GeorgeGalloway certainly didn't mince his words in his 27 March X post. The former UK parliamentarian and leader of @workerspartygb echoed sentiments that have been the subject of long-standing debate among many Africans. While we know the colonial powers ensured former colonies remained economically and politically dependent on them even after colonialism, surely, decades later, isn't it time we broke free?
Some of us argue that Africa's dependence on the West prevents African people's progress; others view this argument as an oversimplification of the complex dynamics of global inequality and exploitation.
Many African leaders have sought sovereignty for their nations and a breakaway from Western dependency. To address inequalities created by colonialism, Zimbabwe's former president Robert Mugabe, for instance, sought to take back an estimated 74% of the country's total arable land that was stolen by fewer than 5,000 white settlers - who made up just 0.2% of the population - through land reforms. Rather than plead for Western handouts, he aimed to rebuild his nation as a dignified homeland for all Zimbabweans.
Similarly, Patrice Lumumba, the Democratic Republic of Congo's first Prime Minister, sought to liberate his country from the shackles of colonial exploitation to establish a genuinely sovereign nation, whose vast resources would primarily benefit the Congolese people for the first time in centuries. Both leaders faced fierce resistance from the West. Lumumba was k*lled in January 1961, in a Belgian and US-backed assassination, and Zimbabwe, under Mugabe, was subjected to punitive sanctions that devastated the country's economy.
Today, the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES), made up of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, continue to face resistance from the West, aided by pliant governments in neighbouring countries and weak institutions such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which function as extensions of global imperialists.
Considering neocolonialism alongside other historical and present realities, do you think voluntary dependence on the West is the primary barrier to progress in Africa?
2 days ago | [YT] | 19