British Colonial Legacy Still Plaguing African Nations Today
September 22, 2022
The British Empire should have expired an ignoble death after World War II, and the monarchy disbanded. I believe that if President Franklin Roosevelt had his druthers, that was his intention.
In her article below, my colleague, Nancy Spannaus, creator of the website, americansystemnow.com provides a glimpse of President Roosevelt’s displeasure with British imperialism. President Roosevelt was especially distressed by British treatment of people in the underdeveloped sector, especially Africa. He wanted to develop Africa with American System policies of economic growth after the war. Sadly, President Roosevelt died, before he could implement his Grand Design.
During recent weeks, much of the world was focused on the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the coronation of King Charles III. While people were subjected to nonstop media coverage of ceremonial pomp and celebration of the British monarchy, Africans and true friends of Africa have nothing to celebrate. There should be nothing but shame for the horrific inhumane practices by the British monarchy in Africa.
The British Empire did no good for the Africa, which it dominated through its imperialist power. Its repulsive brutality in conquering and maintaining its rule in Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe (Rhodesia), Ghana, and Nigeria to name a few nations, is well documented. Its divide and conquer tactics are infamous. This included its promotion of ethnicity and manipulating ethnic groups against each other to keep nations divided as a means to prevent them from achieving sovereignty. The ugly legacy of British colonialism is evident in Africa today, where Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa are still suffering internal political discord resulting from British rule, as evidenced in recent elections.
As colonialism dominated Africa in the twentieth century following the Berlin Conference, the British Empire became the foremost imperialist force on the continent. It murdered African people, plundered their resources, intentionally thwarted industrialization, and set up structures to prevent Africans from realizing their full economic sovereignty after the Winds of Change swept through the continent.
Is it not nobler for us today, to advocate for the dismantling of the British monarchy instead of mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth, who oversaw the barbaric treatment of Africans in the twentieth century.
This post is not meant to provide a detailed history of British Colonialism in Africa. Additional articles on this subject are available on this website.
Read my earlier posts:
Roosevelt: Last Great American Statesman With A Grand Vision for Africa
For the Development of Africa: Know and Apply Franklin Roosevelt’s Credit Policy
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.
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Amb Arikana Chihombori-Quao Refutes African Union Allegations
December 8, 2019 You can read in the press release below the rebuttal by Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao to the allegations against her by the African Union. “In summary, I took a virtually unknown Mission that had been relegated to a Protocol Office and turned it into a vibrant well-respected Mission, not only in Washington DC but around the world. I accomplished all this with limited staff…and very limited resources. I worked tirelessly, an average of sixteen-eighteen-hour days, seven days a week during my tenure. I attended as many meetings and events as I could promoting Africa and the African Union not only in the United States of America but also in other parts of the Americas. I realized that this is what it took to bring awareness to the people of an entity that was otherwise unknown.” Read: Press Release and Rebuttal by HE Ambassador Chihombori Quao
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Are The French Losing Their Colonial Grip On Francophone African Nations?
Nov. 12, 2019 Despite liberation from France over half a century ago, France has maintained its colonial hold on Francophone nations through its control of the CFA franc currency. It appears France’s grip is loosening with actions led by the President of Benin, Patrice Talon. Without control of one’s own currency no African nation can be truly sovereign. Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao has been relentlessly campaigning for the French to end their modern day colonialism, which requires Francophone nations to use the CFA franc and deposit their reserves in Paris banks. Amb Chihombori, who was the African Union’s ambassador to the United States, was dismissed without cause last month. Many of her supporters believe that it was pressure from France that forced her to be discharged from her post in Washington. Francophone nations in West Africa, former French colonies, want more control over the management of their currencies and plan to move some reserves from France, said Benin President Patrice Talon. The eight member-nations of the West African Economic and Monetary Union “unanimously agree” on ending a decade-old model whereby their foreign-exchange accumulation is kept at the French Treasury, Talon said in an interview with Radio France Internationale (RFI). Their currency, the CFA franc, is pegged to the euro, and its convertibility is guaranteed by the former colonial ruler. Established after World War II, the discussion of the use of the CFA franc frequently triggers debate about the region’s continued economic dependence on France and the view that the currency is artificially strong and curbs the region’s competitiveness. Its supporters cite the region’s low inflation and the currency’s stability relative to other African nations as reasons for its continued use. “I can’t give you the date, but the willingness of everyone is already there,” Talon said in response to to French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire’s openness to a reform of the currency. “Psychologically, with regards to the vision of sovereignty and managing your own money, it’s not good that this model continues.” The regional central bank will manage the reserves and distribute them to partners around the world, including Japan, Europe, China, and North America, said Talon. Ivory Coast, with an economy of about $40 billion, is the biggest among the users of the CFA franc in West Africa. In addition to the eight West African nations, six other nations in the Central African Economic and Monetary Union also use the same model.
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To Understand Zimbabwe and Sub-Saharan Africa One Must Know Evil Colonialism
September 15, 2019
Below is an insightful article on the death of Robert Mugabe. One cannot honestly and competently analyze African nations today, unless one thoroughly studies the affects of colonialism, and before that slavery. When I look at the current state of affairs in Africa. I see the consequences of the long waves of hundreds of years of slavery, colonialism, and neo-colonialism. For example, can one truly understand Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa, without examining the evil role of British Imperialism and colonialism? Is Kenya not suffering today from the removal of the Kikuyu from the the Highlands, which were turned into the “Whitelands” by the British in the early 20th century? Similarly, it is impossible to truthfully discuss Zimbabwe, and its now deceased leader, Robert Mugabe without revealing the failure of the 1980 Lancaster agreement to rectify the stealing of 70% of the nation’s most fertile land from millions of “black” Zimbabweans that was given to 4,500 “white” farmers. Why are African nations, with abundant fertile soil, still using primitive methods of farming and have weak agricultural sectors? Why does Africa suffer from the greatest deficit of infrastructure in the world per land area, which is only beginning to be reversed by China with its Belt and Road Initiative? Why is Africa the least industrialized continent on the planet? Are we going to blind ourselves to the ugly history of what was done to Africans over hundreds of years, and naively and simplistic blame conditions today on a lack of good governance? This error, this lack of understanding Africa’s history, perverts the the thinking of Western institutions and Africa specialists, yielding flawed analysis. https://consortiumnews.com/2019/09/10/mugabes-obituaries-rife-with-white-supremacism/
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How the Imperialist CFA franc Suppresses Growth in Africa
August 15, 2019
The article in the link below is a detailed and useful expose of how the CFA franc, controlled by France, contributes to the suppression of economic development in Africa. We have now past a half century since many nations in Africa liberated themselves from colonialism. Yet the French banking system still exercises colonial domination over the finances of African nations that should be economically independent. African nations will never be truly independent until they are economically sovereign. This means having sovereign control over their own currencies and the issuing of credit for internal improvements of their economies. African nations should have National Banks and Development Banks for the issuing of credit, as first conceptualized by Alexander Hamilton. Hamilton’s concept of government-national credit was essential for the creation of an industrialized USA from thirteen agrarian based colonies. Read: Towards a Political Economy of Monetary Dependency For more analysis of Alexander Hamilton’s credit policy read: Nations Must Study Alexander Hamilton’s Principles of Political Economy
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Celebrate Africa’s New Free Trade Agreement: Terminate CFA franc
June 1, 2019 With the initiation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement on May 30, 2019, now is the time for African nations to finally jettison the CFA frank, a relic of French Colonialism. No longer should 14 African nations have their sovereignty infringed upon by a former European colonial country. Economic sovereignty is inviolate. For a nation to develop its full economic potential it must control its currency, which is a from of national credit. One of the great accomplishments of the President’s George Washington’s Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, was his creation of a National Bank, which unified all the currencies and debt held by the thirteen colonies. A nation that does not have sovereign authority over its currency and credit will never be truly free, and its people will suffer from underdevelopment..
Read: Africa’s CFA Franc Colonial Relic or Stabilizing Force
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End French Colonialism in Africa: Terminate the CFA franc
January 26, 2019
Italy Rightly Accuses French of Colonialism in Africa
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio has accused France of running a “neo-colonialist system” in Africa through the CFA franc single currency union imposed on ten countries in Central Africa of being the cause for impoverishing Africa and for migration flows. Di Maio, who has managed to make this the issue number one of the political debate in Italy, declared that “Europe is ignoring one thing, i.e. what some countries are doing, impoverishing Africa. France above all, prints a double currency in over ten countries, through which a percentage of French national wealth is paid and a minor part of the French deficit is financed.” “Africans will stay in Africa if the French stay at home instead of colonizing,” Di Maio went on, announcing a parliamentary initiative. “I want to ask the EU to sanction countries such as France and we will ask France to open its ports.” Di Maio threatened to henceforth ship all refugees rescued at sea to Marseille until France stops printing the CFA franc. French sources acknowledge that the CFA franc is an issue and there is a debate in France already, but say it is not connected to the refugee flows. The countries where most refugees come to, such as Italy are from Nigeria, Eritrea, which are not part of the CFA franc. The Italians have responded that the CFA franc area is nevertheless allowing the transit of refugees organized by human traffickers. {Italy is correct. Through their monetary imposition of the CFA franc currency, the French are continuing their colonialist policy in Africa. The African Union with the full support of all African nations should immediately declare termination of the CFA in West and Central Africa. Every African nation has a right to be sovereign and control its own currency} ______________________________________________________________________________
The article below echoes the theme in my own earlier statement regarding the so called US-Africa Strategy: Pres. Trump’s Non-Africa Strategy
It concludes: That renewed focus gives African nations unprecedented opportunities to pursue their own interests, rather than simply act as client states. America’s drive to contain both Russian and Chinese influence brings chances to secure foreign investment and to leverage strategic advantages into a more prominent presence on the world stage. And, after centuries in the shadow of global powers, it is high time that Africa finally found its own voice.
Read: America’s New Policy in Africa is Attempt to Contain Chinese and Russia __________________________________________________________________________
Same Geo-political outlook for Africa
New National Intelligence Strategy Report: Geopolitical Focus on Russia and China
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Dan Coats presented the 2019 National Intelligence Strategy Report, which is released every four years. Similar to National Security Adviser Bolton’s so called US African Strategy released last year, it s steeped in British geo-political ideology. Like NSA Bolton’s report, it emphasizes the dangers posed by such “traditional adversaries” as Russia and China, as well as North Korea and Iran, reflecting a shift away from previous years’ focus on combating international terrorism. It is also said to echo the intelligence community’s “unanimous” 2017 conclusion that Russia interfered in the U.S.’s 2016 presidential elections to “undermine the U.S.-led liberal democratic order. While documenting many other “dangers” such as cyber-threats, the “democratization of space,” the development of anti-satellite weapons, the report is primarily concerned that “traditional adversaries will continue attempts to gain and assert influence internationally weakening of the post-WWII international order and dominance of Western democratic ideals…in the West, and shifts in the global economy.” In its “Strategic Environment” section, the report warns of the likely continuation of “Russian efforts to increase its influence and authority” which “may conflict with U.S. goals and priorities in multiple regions.” An additional concern, is “Chinese military modernization and continued pursuit of economic and territorial predominance in the Pacific region and beyond.” _______________________________________________________________
China Plans Biggest-Ever Investment in High Speed Rail is Good for Africa
{Global Construction Review} (GCR) reports today that “China is planning to invest a record $125 billion in rail this year as the government looks to cushion the impact of slower economic growth. This would be 6% more than was spent last year, and 10% more than was originally planned, according to a report in the {Nikkei Asian Review}.” China is taking measures to stimulate the economy in response to the “slowdown” in growth, although growth is still 2018. These include an “acceleration in construction projects, as well as cutting taxes and boosting the money supply…” {GCR} reports. China Railways’ annual plan envisages a 45% rise in new projects, resulting in the addition of 6,800 km to the total network, {GCR} reports. High-speed rail will be expanded by 3,200 km, more than the total of High Speed Rail in any other country. This will mean China far exceeds its previous schedule to build 30,000 km of high-speed railway lines by 2020.
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December 28, 2018
A Stimulating Dinner With DC African Union Ambassador
A few days before the New Year, my wife and I had dinner at the home of Arikana Chichombori, the African Union Ambassador to Washington DC. We enjoyed a stimulating discussion passionately led by Amb Chihombori, centered on the need for the creation of a United Africa integrated with African Diaspora.
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November 2018
Africa’s Infrastructure Deficit Is Literally Killing Its People
Below are slides from my 14 hour course: “The legacy of Slavery and Colonialism in Africa” that I am presently teaching at Frederick Community college in Maryland.They clearly demonstrates the huge deficit in Africa for two vital areas of hard infrastructure; energy and rail. The colonialists and the neo-colonial policies by Western nations and their financial institutions following the liberation of African nations, opposed building infrastructure in Africa. Only now over the last decade are hard infrastructure projects being constructed in Africa in collaboration with China. These pictures below juxtapose the present conditions to the what is possible and should be what the future looks like. This is the focus of my activity.Energy: Reliable estimates are that 1 billion Africans are living in sub-Sahara Africa on a mere 100,000 megawatts of power with almost 40% of that generated by South Africa. Africans are forced to live in areas on less than 100 watts per person. Compare that to Americans who have thousands of watts available for daily consumption 365 days a year. Approximately 600 millions Africans do not have access to an electrical grid. Africa needs thousands of additional gigawatts of electricity to power advanced economies.Rail: Africa needs hundreds of thousands of kilometers of modern rail lines. All major cities in Africa should be connect by high-speed rail. There should have been East-West and North-South railroads decades ago. This is essential for economic growth.Africa is the next frontier of development, and can be center of economic activity in the world in two generations. This requires a full-scale commitment to build transformative infrastructure projects throughout the continent NOW!. If we do, Africa’s future will be bright.
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Ghana’s Unrealized Potential and Nkrumah’s Fight vs the British
Watch Video: Freeman Addresses Ghanaians in NYC
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New Course on African History: The Effects of 500 Years of Slavery and Colonialism on Africa
September 5, 2018 I will be teaching this course in the Fall at the Community College Baltimore County, and Frederick Community College, Maryland, USA
The Effects of 500 Years of Slavery and Colonialism on Africa
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The Legacy of British Colonialism in South Africa Today
The article below discusses the problem of the denial of land ownership to South Africans that was imposed by the British Imperialist Empire. A similar British colonial policy of denying land ownership to native Africans existed in Zimbabwe. After the failure by the US and UK to honor the 1980 Lancaster House Agreement to financially support the transfer of land, President Mugabe took matters into his own hands, and gave fertile land held by white Rhodesians to black Zimbabweans. This led to various efforts of regime change against President Mugabe instigated by the UK. Providing equitable land ownership in South Africa could cause a deeper crisis than in Zimbabwe. The transfer of farm land under consideration in South Africa does not include the land containing trillions of dollars of valuable mineral resources that are still owned by the London based financial and commodity cartels.
“This Land Is Our Land”
South Africa’s ruling party has failed to redistribute land to the black majority for over two decades. Can the new president defuse a ticking time bomb?
By Lungisile Ntsebeza-May 3, 2018 For almost 24 years after the end of apartheid, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) supported a land reform program that was based on a willing-seller, willing-buyer policy. The policy required the consent of both the seller and buyer for the purchase of the land, with the consequence that sellers, almost exclusively white, would determine which land they wanted to sell. After decades of ignoring criticism of that policy, the ANC’s leadership has changed tack, at least rhetorically. It is now advocating a radical policy of land expropriation without compensation. The unresolved land question in South Africa is a time bomb. One out of every two South Africans was classified as “poor” in 2015, with the poverty rate increasing to 55.5 percent from a low of 53.2 percent in 2011. This translated into more than 30 million out of 55 million South Africans living in poverty in 2015. Ongoing struggles for housing in urban areas and grazing in rural areas reveal the full extent of the country’s poverty crisis. The ANC government now seems to realize that for both its survival as a ruling party and the preservation of democracy, something drastic must be done to reverse the vast inequalities that plague land ownership in South Africa. When the ANC came to power in 1994, it inherited a deeply uneven playing field. For more than a century, land ownership, access, and use of land had been determined by race. This was the direct result of European colonialism and the arrival of white settlers who violently dispossessed indigenous black Africans of their land. Early settlers established “native” reserves for blacks and, in 1913, the white-led government of the Union of South Africa passed legislation restricting the black majority to just 7 percent of South Africa’s territory, which by then was already overcrowded and overgrazed. This paltry percentage of the land was increased to 13 percent in 1936, a situation that prevailed until the advent of democracy in South Africa in 1994. Even after being relegated to faraway reserves, black South Africans often did not actually own their land. The state owned most of the land in the rural areas of the former reserves, granting only rights of occupation to its residents, rather than the freehold title deeds that were common for white landowners. While white colonialists were initially committed to promoting a class of African farmers in the reserves, they changed their minds in the late 19th century, when minerals and gold were discovered throughout the country. They saw rural areas, including the reserves, as reservoirs of cheap labor to stimulate capitalist development. Lacking adequate land, black Africans were forced to sell their labor, cheaply, in the booming gold and diamond mines across the country, as well as on farms and as workers in the emerging white-controlled towns and cities. Meanwhile, in the native reserves (later rechristened as “Bantustans”) the administration of land was in the hands of compliant state-appointed “headmen.” Having fought wars with tribal chiefs, colonialists appointed headmen as administrators of land whenever they defeated chiefs. With the advent of apartheid in 1948, chieftainship was revived — and only chiefs who were prepared to execute the apartheid government’s policies were appointed. Although headmen and chiefs did not own the land, colonialists and the apartheid state officials made chiefs and headmen their gatekeepers by giving them land allocation powers and tremendous authority that came with it; no rural resident could be allocated land without the approval of chiefs and headmen…. When Nelson Mandela became president of a democratic South Africa in 1994, this is the deeply unequal system he inherited. Soon after taking power, Mandela’s ANC adopted a land reform program that had three components: land restitution for those who lost their rights in 1913, land redistribution to redress racial imbalances in ownership of commercial land, and land tenure to protect the rights of farm workers and dwellers, labor tenants and those residing in the of the former Bantustans. Read the full article in Foreign Policy magazine: This Land is Our Land
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British Imperialist Tony Blair Sinks His Fangs Into South Sudan
Lawrence Freeman August 10, 2012 On the eve of the first anniversary of the creation of South Sudan, it was announced that Tony Blair’s “African Governance Initiative (AGI)” has become an official advisor to the government of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). Consider this the “kiss of death” for this new nation, which also bodes ill for its northern neighbor, Sudan. Blair represents the Liberal Imperialist faction of the British Empire, and is using the AGI to expand its influence in the governments of Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Liberia, Guinea, and now South Sudan. If you have any doubts that Blair’s new operation is a continuation and expansion of the Britain’s financial empire in Africa, take note of the support for AGI by Baroness Lynda Chalker, the Minister of State responsible for the Commonwealth’s “Overseas Development” of Africa from 1986-2007, essentially the British Colonial Office Continue reading
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Kick Out the British Imperialism in Africa; Implement FDR’s Anti-Colonial Policy
Hussein Askary January 5, 2011 But the real problem, in order to achieve peace, is, you have to remove the cause of the problem, which, as I said, is British geopolitics—the manipulation of Africa through the decades. That has to be removed. And the Obama Administration’s support for the British policy of supporting rebel groups, separatist groups, and so on and so forth, should be stopped. That’s a precondition. So, you have to return to the policies of Franklin Roosevelt, and get rid of the whole British colonial policy. And you have people in the United States like [U.S. Ambassador to the UN] Susan Rice, who is an admirer of the British policy, and who, like Henry Kissinger, hates the legacy of Franklin Roosevelt. She should be removed as the representative of the United States at the United Nations. There are other more interesting people, with better knowledge and better moral standards, in the State Department in the United States, who should be brought in, in order to re-implement the Roosevelt kind of policy Continue reading
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Zimbabwe Amb Mapuranga: Why the British Hate Zimbabwe
Interview by Lawrence Freeman April 12, 2008 These sanctions were part of what Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, when he was addressing the House of Commons in 1994 and also in 2004, was saying: that our policy toward Zimbabwe is “regime change.” In other words, they are funding the opposition—and this is not a secret. You can visit the website of the Westminster Foundation: The three parties in the British Parliament, the Liberals, the Labour Party, and the Tories, or the Conservative Party—they vie with each other to make contributions to the MDC, and what they call “civil society,” the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Zimbabwe that are opposed to the government. Here in the United States, you need to read the 2007 reports of the Department of State. They give a global report on human rights. Now, if you go to the section on Zimbabwe, they say the U.S. government spent money on the opposition and the civil society organizations that are opposed to the government. So, they are coordinating their efforts for what they call regime change. And maybe this explains why the British, more than anybody else, have been very much interested in the outcome of the Zimbabwe elections: because they wanted the party which they are sponsoring to win the elections. Continue reading
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To Understand the Crisis in Kenya, Know the British Empire
Lawrence Freeman February 22, 2008 After weeks of fighting following the flawed Kenyan election of Dec. 27, 2007, over 1,000 Kenyans have been killed, as many as 600,000 have been driven from their homes, two members of Parliament have been killed (one was an unmistakable assassination), and Kenya’s tourist-dominated economy has already lost several billions of dollars. Because Kenya’s main seaport at Mombasa on the Indian Ocean serves most East and Central African nations, the conflict in Kenya has the potential to affect over 100 million Africans living in Southern Sudan, Uganda, Burundi, and the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, who depend on the shipment of food and fuel, according to the United Nations’ IRIN news service. British Origins of the Crisis
British Origins of the Crisis
“If you’re looking for the origins of Kenya’s ethnic tensions, look to its colonial past,” wrote African historian Caroline Elkins, one week after Kenya, a country viewed as the most stable in East Africa, was thrown into profound crisis. Elkins continues in her early January commentary: “A distinctly colonial view of the rule of law saw the British leave behind legal systems that facilitated tyranny, oppression, and poverty rather than open accountable government. And compounding these legacies was Britain’s famous imperial policy of divide and rule, which often turned fluid groups of individuals into immutable ethnic units, much like Kenya’s Luo and Kikuyu today. We are often told that ageold tribal hatreds drive today’s conflicts in Africa. In fact ethnic conflict and its attendant grievances are colonial phenomena. … The British had spent decades trying to keep the Luo and Kikuyu divided, quite rightly fearing that if the two groups ever united their combined power could bring down the colonial order.” Continue reading
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London’s Sudan Policy: Britain’s 1930s apartheid policy in southern Sudan
by Linda de Hoyos June 9, 1995 In 1930, the British administrators redefined their southern policy of separating the north from the south. It had in fact begun in 1902, and had been furthered in 1922, because they feared that the newly emerging anti-British sentiments in the north, encouraged by Egyptian factions, might spread into the south, and from there into British East Africa territory. On the 25th of January it was decreed that the object was “to build up a series of self-contained racial and tribal units with structure and organization based, to whatever extent the requirement of equity and good government permit, upon indigenous customs, traditions, usages, and beliefs.” From The Secret War in the Sudan: 1955-72, by Edagar O Ballance Continue reading