Page 46 - Afrika Must Unite

COLONIAL PATTERN OF ECONOMICS 31
was made to initiate such a project. O n the contrary, the Gold
Coast annually imported large quantities of fish.
The failure to promote the interests of our people was due to
the insatiable demands of colonial exploitation. However wise,
enlightened and good-hearted certain individual officers may
have been, their functions and authority fitted into a pattern of
colonial administration which was itself conditioned by the
central and over-all need to extract the riches of the colonies
and transfer them overseas. If in the process it was necessary to
build some roads, to construct a harbour, or to educate some
Africans, well and good. The point I want to make is that any
welfare activity for the benefit of our people was little more than
incidental. It was far from being the underlying purpose of
colonial rule. .