The Black Man’s Burden: Rethinking the Grip of Neocolonialism in Africa
“Hands off the Democratic Republic of the Congo! Hands off Africa!”
Pope Francis told the cheering crowd as he landed in Kinshasa, welcomed by tens of thousands of people lined the road from the airport, cheering and waving flags. “This country, so immense and full of life, this diaphragm of Africa, struck by violence like a blow to the stomach, has seemed for some time to be gasping for breath,” the pope said.
Outsiders have long believed that Africa is hopelessly mired in corruption and incapable of social and economic development. This is particularly relevant in sub-Saharan Africa, where the majority of the population is comprised of black individuals, aligning with the stereotype held by white supremacists that black people are incapable of effectively governing themselves.
From the latter part of the 19th century to the mid-20th century, several European nations, including Britain, France, Belgium, and Portugal, undertook the colonization of numerous African nations. Decades after World War II, these European nations granted political independence to their colonies in Africa, but still found a way to retain their economic influence and power over the former colonies. This deliberate and prolonged persistence of the colonial system within independent African states is referred to as neocolonialism; subjecting Africa to various forms of domination — political, mental, economic, social, and military — executed through indirect and subtle means that do not entail direct violence. Tracing back to the roots, how have historical legacies of colonization shaped contemporary neocolonial dynamics in Africa? To what extent do major global powers contribute to neocolonial practices on the continent? And what role do economic dependencies and trade relations play in perpetuating neocolonial influences in African nations?
The Falling Domino Theory: ‘Balkanisation’ of Africa
In the annals of European history, the term ‘balkanisation’ denotes the process of dissolution and disintegration in the Ottoman Empire’s decline in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The first president of Ghana, Kwame Nkrumah, was so impressed by the significance of these developments — which began at the Congress of Vienna and culminated in the division of much of Europe into a host of small and nation-states — that he compared contemporaryAfrica with the Balkans.
The concept of balkanisation includes the idea of a chain reaction, which once started is difficult to contain. “Once fractionalization starts, it certainly will result in the further disintegration of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria. Neighboring states with ethnic and other problems similar to ours will in due course also disintegrate, and a chain reaction will be set up all over Africa. Africa would end up in pretty little principalities. Once the right to secede was conceded, not only Nigeria but all the other multi-ethnic states of Africa would disintegrate.” Nkrumah held the view that the strategy of establishing numerous unstable and fragile states in Africa mirrored the approach taken by major powers during the Congress of Vienna. The formation of ‘Balkanised’ states is often portrayed as a product of big powers, stemming from colonialism, serving as a key instrument in neocolonial practices, and emerging as a consequence of alliances with imperialist forces.
La Françafrique: Everything Wrong with CFA Franc
In the 1960s, France granted independence to the majority of its West and Central African colonies but these nations did not necessarily attain full sovereignty. Post-World War II, France’s influence in West and Central Africa has diminished, yet it persists in wielding economic, political, and military control. A pathway toward enhanced African sovereignty involves “reforming” the region’s antiquated economic framework — the African Financial Community (CFA) franc monetary zone, characterized by inherent inequality and exploitative practices.
Following World War II, then French President Charles de Gaulle initiated la Françafrique — France’s informal sphere of influence in Africa. Beyond covertly vetting and supporting African political elites, de Gaulle also created the French colonies in the African monetary zone. These zones, persisting today as the CFA, include 12 former colonies — Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, and Republic of the Congo — alongside Guinea-Bissau and Equatorial Guinea. Together, they comprise 14 percent of Africa’s total population and contribute to 12 percent of the continent’s GDP.
Originally, this arrangement ensured monetary stability in areas weakened by systematic French exploitation. A fundamental tenet of the system mandated that colonies maintain 50 percent of their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury, along with an extra 20 percent for financial liabilities that member states were left with only 30 percent of reserves within their borders. The enduring economic trade-offs of the CFA monetary zone have translated into reduced per capita growth and mitigated progress in fighting poverty.
Without addressing issues of sovereignty, this system cannot work efficiently. The monetary zone hampers industrialization, economic development, and also dampens trade among member states. The credit-to-GDP ratio ranges between 10 and 25 percent for CFA countries, significantly lower than the approximately 60+ percent observed in other sub-Saharan African states. Moreover, the CFA franc prompts substantial capital outflows, channeling funds towards Europe, often France, due to the fixed exchange rate regime. Of the 14 CFA states, 11 are classified as “least developed” by the United Nations, and Sub-Saharan member countries rank at the lower end of the UN Human Development Index.
Moving ahead, the task lies in preserving the advantages of the CFA franc monetary zone, such as currency stability and low inflation, while navigating a shift toward a new institutional framework independent of France. After all, a monetary system that retains a former colonial power as its guarantor, will always ultimately fail to eradicate neocolonialism.
A Closer Look to China’s Aid and Loans
At a certain historical juncture, nearly the entirety of Africa experienced colonization. These past colonial rulers, albeit not attaining a comparable degree of “success” and foundational influence as the French, still wield significant influence over their former colonies. This manifests through substantial economic partnerships and developmental aid, and (not) surprisingly, there comes a new player into the field: China.
The heightened and swift expansion of Chinese involvement in Africa has evoked accusations of neocolonialism, drawing significant attention from European states, which assert that China is engaging in practices reminiscent of neo-colonial practices. This argument is substantiated by four key pieces of evidence. Firstly, there exists a discernible parallel with colonial powers as China adopts the strategy of extracting raw materials from African soil in exchange for cheap prices. Secondly, China’s strategic use of debt emerges as a tool for establishing dominance in this relatively new market. The skepticism towards Sino-African relations traces back to the initiation of the “Going Out” strategy in the early 2000s, wherein the Chinese government actively encouraged corporations to invest overseas; the following series of visits conducted by the Chinese president Hu Jintao to African states providing loans without political conditions were also interpreted as encouraging corruption and supporting rogue states. Such accusations were claimed by many prominent figures including senior politicians such as Britain’s former foreign secretary Jack Straw: “Most of what China has been doing in Africa today is what we did in Africa 150 years ago.”
In contrast to the historical ascension of hegemonic powers, China, as an emerging force, stands out as the sole power that did not establish its state through direct military invasion or colonization, rather it executes and promotes the peaceful rise model that is driven by capital and resource acquisition.
A way to penetrate Africa’s growing markets, wide energy, and natural resources is through building many projects, including but not limited to, roads, railways, bridges, dams, and economic zones. Such cooperation aligns to the mutually-beneficial aspect of the argument. Conversely, the sustainability of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) financing, as an example, has enhanced the interrogatives of Chinese neo-colonial practices in Africa, as the sustainability of loans provided to African countries is contingent, in part, upon the productivity of the BRI projects themselves. However, the transparency of Chinese policy on its loan disbursements is of concern.
A growing apprehension concerning China’s development aid to African countries is primarily rooted in the undisclosed bilateral aid figures. The absence of published data on concessional loan disbursements or repayments heightens concerns about subjecting developing countries to the risk of a significant debt crisis. Notably, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has recently issued a warning about Africa approaching a new debt crisis, with the World Bank categorizing 18 African states as at high risk of debt distress, given that debt-to-GDP ratios exceed 50%, where approximately 20% of external debt of governments in Africa is owed to China (BBC News, 2018). Furthermore, African economies haven’t industrialized yet, and therefore another dependency would emerge on China — this time, on manufactured goods. Once factory goods from China are introduced into African economies, China would gain another foothold in the continent’s economy that it could use to leverage against it.
Why is the Richest Resource Continent the Poorest?
Western countries like to believe that they have equipped the African continent with the capability to achieve freedom. Nevertheless, more than 60 years after the last European countries renounced their colonial claims in Africa, the continent still grapples with corruption, poverty, and instability. Indeed, neocolonialism was initially a natural progression for newly-independent nations; a degree of reliance on the parent country would linger since the African colonies had political and economic structures that were geared towards the needs of its colonizers. However, decades later, neocolonialism persists and African countries have never entirely liberated themselves from imperial control. More wealth leaves Africa than enters it. The continuation of this phenomenon is attributable to the enduring historical legacies of colonization and exploitative trade practices that remained post-colonialism in Africa. Disparities in trade relationships, where African nations frequently export raw materials at undervalued prices while importing manufactured goods at higher costs, perpetuate this wealth drain.
The problem lies in the fact that the countries that have the power to make change are the very countries that benefit from the status quo. It is only through united efforts and a dedication to rectifying the imbalances of power that Africa can overcome neocolonialism and realize its true potential. The continent’s abundant resources and human capital should act as drivers for sustainable growth and prosperity, rather than perpetuating a system that enriches a few at the cost of many.
The cheering crowd then continued as Pope Francis spoke, “Africa is not a mine to be stripped or a terrain to be plundered. May Africa be the protagonist of its own destiny!”
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