Dr.Walter Rodney's most memorable book was his magnum opus,
'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa'. He tackled the issue of the conscious
exploitation of Africa by European imperialists, leading to modern day
underdevelopment. Rodney's arguments might have been valid, coming from a
radical Pan Africanist, but can we ignore the fact that Africans, and in
particular the African leader has played the greatest role in under developing Africa? In analyzing this, some figures will
do us justice, after all figures do not lie.
The A.U estimates that corruption
costs the continent a whooping sum of $148billion every year, a figure that by
far exceeds the paltry $30billion Africa receives in foreign aid, the bulk of
this aid is 'development aid'. Are we really serious? In Nigeria for instance, the economic
and financial crimes commission estimates that £220billion was 'squandered'
between independence to 1999.The stolen fortune tallies almost exactly with the
£220 billion of Western aid given to the whole of Africa between 1960 and
1997.The same amount equals six Marshall plans. Yes, six times the amount that
was used to reconstruct post war Europe!
And you want to call Africa a poor and
impoverished continent? African leaders are only faithful to their foreign bank
accounts, the resource curse has seen militaries and rag tag outfits kill and maim with wreck less abandon, the
African 'leader' is the greatest impediment to the development of the continent. It’s the reason am
even skeptical of devolution in Kenya, because more 'leaders' equal more problems, what has been
done is the creation of new frontiers for graft, greed and inefficiency. With the typical
African leader, let's
forget all this talk about development and discuss other things like soccer, the weather.
forget all this talk about development and discuss other things like soccer, the weather.
Musiambo Mulongo Isaiah is a Student at the University of
Nairobi
