Colonialism refers to possessing or inhabiting one society or nation of a people over another mostly by force. The European colonial Masters left many decades ago from African states but their grip is not seen but felt many years on which begs the question of their departure, did they leave?
The years have become a vicious circle of poverty, mismanagement of national resources and degrading economies, poor politics, and failing governments. If asked, anyone outside these countries will probably blame the stated above, but anyone from the inside will tell you of the unseen but felt grip of the colonial Masters. Those brief years of colonialism have led to a myriad of long-term political effects.
Effects of colonial legacies
1Division
African history clearly states the origin of the more than 50 states that currently constitute Africa, not to mention the many lines drawn among the different communities inhabiting individual countries. Everyone knows that strength lies in numbers and unity and thus ensured that was never achieved and will not be achieved in the conceivable future in Africa.
Their influence on the nature of ethnic boundaries through the use of indirect rule, language, and labor policies among others left untreatable wounds. To this day, elections are so biased along tribal lines and individual communities and everyone is giving a blind eye to the quality of leaders and leadership.
2State mistrust
What most people fail to see is the culture they left in the African Nations. They perpetrated a culture of mistrust of the government and politics in people that are deeply inculcated even in the current contemporary societies. Civil society's mistrust of the state is a benevolent actor through the use of extreme force, unfair and unjust government, and reward or punishment if you comply or not to their rule among other tactics.
The state is seen as " bad" and as self-serving instead of a unifying factor for the good of all. The distinctive behaviors and actions are wired and shaped by the experiences left by the colonial masters.
3Resource extraction
Walter Rodney in his book "How Europe underdeveloped Africa"
explains explicitly how the development of Europe led to the under-development of the rest of the world, especially through the colonial extractive nature of both natural resources and human capital.
The colonial behavior ensured that their footprints were left all around the world and in all sectors from civil society, politics, and economy to religion. The intimate relationship between Europe's development and Africa's stagnation is directly connected to centuries of exploitation and cosmopolitan imperialism leading to slowed development and lack of technology.
"What is called the development of Africa by colonialists was a cynical shorthand expression for the intercivic intensification of colonial exploitation in Africa to develop capitalist Europe." Walter Rodney.
4Dependency
These can be easily witnessed with the debt crisis among most of the Southern African countries. The old pattern of dependency put in place by colonial masters through the strategical actions on their part like lack of education with only minimal irrelevant skills available to African people, poor or lack of infrastructural development where the existing ones were intentionally meant to benefit the colonial masters. An example is the railroad in Ghana which was built strategically to service cocoa production and control the African people in the interior parts of Ghana.
The old patterns might be gone but it has been replaced by new patterns like debt-crisis. The lenders just so happen to be the same western countries and the loans come with conditions that curtail the freedom that so happens to have been "given" to Africa Nations. International Monetary Fund, for example, is famously known for the Structural Adjustment Programs that must be incorporated as policies by these countries to qualify for the loans, directly undermining the power of the governments of these countries.
5Instabilities
The deeply rooted mistrust of government set sail by colonialism has often been blamed for the political instabilities witnessed in sub-Sahara Africa, currently in the recent past. The coups and coup d'etats most often than not happen due to insecurity in the ruling government making oppositions overthrow governments.
The existing inequalities through hierarchies and political perpetration of inequality lead to instability. Repressive forms of government reinforced by colonial masters characterized by "big man" syndrome over the local governments have undermined the existing forms of transparency and accountability that were once present in pre-colonial societies.
Overview
The first rigged elections held on the continent were those organized by Britain and France.
The development trajectories of African Nations were completely changed and geared to the long route of colonialism. The intentional actions and choices of colonial masters determined the path taken by Africa's development.
