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Commentary

Obstruction

The m’zungu could hardly have done more to distort and obstruct the development of
modern-day African economies.

“The result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the exploitation rather
than for the development of the less developed parts of the world. Investment under neo-
colonialism increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich and poor countries

of the world.”

Kwame Nkrumah
The decades of post-independence chaos had their birth in colonial rule. The failure

to build the infrastructure of a nation state. The societal divisions created by

creations of new elites. The m’zungu resistance to independence, meaning a
generation of new African presidents, was more versed in civil, and sometimes

armed resistance, than in government administration. The ‘under-prepared’ and

flawed process of de-colonisation.

(..'conflict, recurring instability, and bad governance in Zaire, Rwanda, and Burundi can be

traced back to the hasty and unprepared granting of independence by Belgium in 1960' –
Cohen 1955:11 as cited by Fonkem Achankeng I, ACCORD (2013)

*****
The continuing pursuit of self-interest by major m’zungu donor nations since

independence has added in layer after layer of difficulty for African leaders.

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The immediate post-independence years simply became a 20 century
Scramble for Africa, with a multitude of foreign governments pursuing their own

perceived self-interest. Using their economic and commercial might whenever

possible. But resorting to the violence of assassinations, coups d’etat, mercenaries
and so much more whenever it suited them. Direct and indirect involvement in the

Cold War proxy wars fought on the African continent.

The Bretton Wood Institutions who over decades imposed their structural

adjustments and conditionalities. (See Volume 2 of this trilogy). These USA-centric

institutions were in effect ‘learning on the job’. Despite this, they have resisted
attempt after attempt to feedback to them the damage done by their policies.