The intent of this blog, no matter what I may have written, is to revisit and summarize old readings from college.
The thought behind this came out of the same part of my mind which favors consumer awareness, the destruction of the "perfect information" assumption in standard economics, and would like to discuss old ideas with new minds.
How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, though I didn't read it until my junior year in college, seems like the perfect place to start. While Social Anthropologists carry this assumption under their belts, it's a point that seems to be lost on most northern hemisphere global citizens: when Europe colonized Africa, it did so at great expense to the people of Africa, and great benefit to the people of Europe, which created an imbalance in power and money that exists even today.
The reading that we focused on was Chapter 6 from Walter Rodney's book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, entitled "Colonialism as a system for under-developing Africa." Because this is my first attempt and because I am out-of-practice and not entirely interested in recreating my college experience, this post is intended to serve as a summary of Chapter 6 section 1.
The chapter begins by acknowledging argument that while there was an undeniable benefit to colonialists at a cost to the colonized, that it was paid back in social services. This chapter contends that there was absolutely no positive side-effect for Africa out of colonialism. Firstly, because the quantity of what was built was negligible. Secondly, because they to served to eek further resources out of Africa and into the pockets of European colonialists..
Similarly to the intent of European colonialists who came to the Americas, colonialists who set up shop in Africa were individuals who could not afford luxury in their own country, and set up a system so they could in Africa. Social services built there by colonialists were used primarily by colonialists.
While health services in Africa did not serve Africans as much as they did Europeans, their health was also being threatened by the newly-imposed labor industries. Mining, a common industry poses tremendous health threats to miners including even scurvy. Also, thanks to the economic system that was set up, Africans working for the colonialists were not paid enough to feed themselves.
Furthermore, social services were only offered to Africans who worked for the profit of the colonialist power. Railroads were only built in locations that helped ship out exports and imports, or to move colonialist troops. Subsistence farmers were not offered assistance, and internal trade was not promoted by railroads.
In this section, Rodney elaborates on the disturbing bank system that was put into place by the colonialists. Essentially, banks were made primarily for generating even more capital to Europeans at the expense of Africans. In fact, many of the banks were birthed from the capital made through the slave trade. Banks were even discouraged from issuing any credit in the first place, to insure that the capital flow was from Africa to Europe.
One of the most interesting points, to me, in the article is in response to those that would contest that services were provided, and they were paid for by the colonialists. To that though, Rodney responds (italics preserved) :
"African workers and peasants produced for European capitalism goods and services of a certain value. A small proportion of the fruits of their efforts were retained by them in the form of wages, cash payments and extremely limited social services, such as were essential to the maintenance of colonialism. The rest went to the various beneficiaries of the colonial system. (232)"
Another commonly claimed benefit to colonialism is introducing capitalism to Africa. The problem here, as Rodney sees it, is that capitalism as a discrete system is not what Africa received. Instead, the African economy received "capitalist elements" that went up against existing societal standards in a destructive way. Rather than interacting on a purely monetary basis, challenges were put up against familial ties.
Capitalism consists of a working and a capital-owning class. Africans were not afforded the opportunities to own factories or in any other way join that class. Rodney describes the capitalism of Europe as "one of competition, elimination and monopoly. (236)"
To Rodney, the most surprising failure in bringing capitalism to Africa is the failure to create a modern working class with any level of self-sufficient skill in the industrial market. In that sense, industrialization was not entirely introduced either. Jobs requiring technical expertise were reserved for European ex-patriots. More advanced labor was done off the continent, and as a result, Africa still imported many finished goods. Since Africa offered Europeans a great deal of man-power, that was used in exchange of advanced technology. meaning "far too many Africans were crowded on to inadequate land, and were forced to engage in intensive farming, using techniques that were suitable only to shifting cultivation. In practice, that was a form o technical retrogression, because the land yielded less and less and became destroyed in the process. (239)"
Because wages were low, many farmers continued subsistence farming to feed and clothe their family, but still needed to generate a profit in order to pay taxes. Brute force is what kept people from revolting.
Rodney also discounts claims that colonialism brought nationalism or independence. He refuses theories that it was the "initiative" of Africans to move into the labor industry.
The section ends thus: "Bourgeois liberty, equality and fraternity was not for colonial subjects. Africans had to make do with bayonets, riot-acts and gunboats (244)."
In terms of my own opinion, while I agree with most of Rodney's points, I see the failure to fully implement capitalism as a great luck rather than a failure, as it presents the opportunity now to preserve or revisit positive aspects of alternate economies. Though I do concede that it allowed for a really unfortunate starting point post-independence.
Maybe next time I will revisit this point from an economic perspective.
The full text of the book can be found at: http://www.marxists.org/subject/africa/rodney-walter/how-europe/index.htm
Walter Rodney (1942-1980) was born in Georgetown, Guyana. He was awarded a PhD with honors in African Studies at the age of 24. His dissertation, titled A History of the Upper-Guinea Coast was published by Oxford University Press in 1970.
I know citations are few, but I'm still determining the proper process for this blog. Comments welcome.
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