BY KENNETH DUMBURA
The Scramble for Africa in 1884 resulted in the partitioning of the continent, with lasting effects that are still felt today.
The world powers of the time were interested in grabbing the natural resources of the continent, and a new scramble is underway with the Chinese at the top of the list.
While their methods would have been considered humane in 1884, they are now seen as terrible in 2023. The continent is once again at the mercy of world powers who are only interested in their national interests.
As I arrived in Addis after a long flight from the southern tip of the continent, I couldn’t help but wonder “what if?” What if Berlin hadn’t happened? We would be one massive country that is bigger than Europe, the US, and China combined. Unfortunately, the world powers of the time would never have allowed that, as they desired to divide and rule.
The African Union, which is headquartered in Addis, has been struggling to get unity back again. However, the egg has been scrambled, and unscrambling it to reconstitute the whole is proving evasive if not impossible. The world powers today, including China and Russia, would never want to see a united Africa, as that would make it difficult for them to access our natural resources. The ideals espoused by the Casablanca group of pan-Africanism should have prevailed over those of the Monrovia group, which advocated for nationalism. The Monrovia group believed that each African state should pursue independence first and continental unity later, but they were later proven to be naive.
The mistake made by the Monrovia group was championing nationalism instead of pan-Africanism. They believed that the whole would be the sum of the individual parts, but this is an unsystemic approach that can be proven false with rigorous mathematics. The Monrovia group mistakenly believed that continental unity would flow from nationalism. If the Nkrumahs and Nassers of the world had prevailed, we would be in a different world today.
In conclusion, we need to be wary of new “friends” who are only interested in their national interests. We should strive for pan-Africanism and continental unity for the betterment of our continent…
