Page 157 - Volume 2_CHANGES_merged_with links

Obstacles to progress

Challenges

building' whilst Britain chose locations for colonies based more on their potential for

commercial exploitation

Profound differences based on where the Catholic missionaries were dominant and
where Protestant missionaries were dominant. This seems to have produced differences

in post colonial legacies across a range of development issues - education, health, elitism

and much more.
Profound differences in the way colonial settlers and their colonial governments

viewed each colony - either as a 'plantation' economy’ or a 'settler' economy or a 'peasant'
economy - all of which resulted in a narrow based focus on a very limited self-interest form

of economic development.

Those who have not, and do not intend, travel extensively around Africa can find it
easier to develop a more informed understanding of modern day Africa if they first try to

visualise a map of Africa onto which the patterns of each of these layers has been laid,

one on top of each other.
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Colonial Rule
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The legacies of m'zuŋ u colonial rule are many and varied and stem from several factors.
 Differences in Imperial Rule imposed by m'zuŋ u
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It’s said that the British approach to colonisation was to focus on those areas which had
the best potential for trade, whilst French approach was to build an empire. This was the
foundation for 2 different forms of colonial rule. And as the two most prolific colonisers of
Africa, they left a large imprint on modern day Africa. It also gave cause to the idea of
FrancAfrique and the CFA (Central African CFA Franc and West African CFA Franc) which
helped France to control post independence French African colonies.
 Differences arising from the "settler", "plantation" and "peasant" colonies that served
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m'zuŋ u self-interest
A much more widespread legacy stems from the differing topography and the climate of

different parts of the African continent. "African Economic Development and Colonial
Legacies." by Gareth Austin 171 provides some of the most perceptive insights how these

features produced fundamentally different "settler", "plantation" and "peasant" colonies. It
sets out how this differing focus, sharpened by colonial powers self-interest, led to policies

and structures that have overshadowed post independence African development. The

work is well worth reading in its entirety, but the following are some extracts: