{"id":962,"date":"2019-03-10T15:21:05","date_gmt":"2019-03-10T15:21:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wsm.prolerat.org\/?page_id=962"},"modified":"2019-10-21T00:42:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-20T23:42:58","slug":"africa-the-lost-continent","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/africa-the-lost-continent\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa: The Lost Continent?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This article has been reproduced from the Socialist Standard<\/em> (August\n2000),\nthe monthly journal of The Socialist Party of Great Britain <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Africa has been politically backward and na\u00efve throughout the last \ncentury with so many atrocities, anomalies and injustices. Its children \nthought that, one day, things will be better, but since the era of \nindependence dawned the situation has remained the same or even got \nworse. Ills, evils and self-destructions of all kinds continue to plague\n the African continent. Africa has lost its natural, human and material \nresources to wars and massacres. Coups and counter-coups have continued \nto play havoc with African society. Should confidence have been reposed \nin the statements of the likes of Kwameh Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara and \nPatrice Lumumba, to the effect that Africa’s problems will turn to \nbrightness? Is there any optimism for Africa? Will African children live\n to see this happen? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nOne may ask why Africa has remained the poorest continent the world has ever produced. The answer is simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nFirstly, the self-centredness and mass corruption of African leaders \nplays a pivotal role in the continent’s Waterloo. Most African heads \nonly came into power to enrich themselves. The poor and the \nunderprivileged are always the victims of these despots. Statistics have\n revealed that millions of African farmers go without a piece of \nfarmland when their leaders have uncountable hectares of farmland in and\n out of the continent; millions are dying of sicknesses and diseases \neveryday when potential medical facilities would be more than enough; \nmillions are suffering from starvation and malnutrition when there is \nsufficient food; and millions more are living in absolute poverty when \nindividual leaders are saving millions of dollars in foreign banks for \ntheir own interests. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSecondly, the intolerance and lack of respect for one another among \nAfricans, combined to invite trouble in Africa. Africans are killing \neach other and destroying the continent’s resources all because of these\n leaders’ power hunger. It is enough to mention the gun rule and \nslaughtering of people in Algeria, massacres in Burundi, Angola, Liberia\n and Sierra Leone, and killing of innocent civilians in Cassamance \n(southern Senegal) among others. These indicate that African leaders are\n themselves responsible for Africa’s underdevelopment and political \nmayhem. With this era of political ignorance and naivety occupying \nAfrica, there is more than ever need for a continent, indeed a world, \nwithout leaders or political borders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs we entered the dawn of the new millennium, intellectual sycophants \nhave started howling and trumpeting that it will be a millennium of \nAfrican peace and development. One renowned intellectual was quoted as \nsaying that “in the next millennium, Europeans will come to Africa as \nrefugees.” 
\nIs it not during this prelude stage of the millennium that floods \noccurred in Mozambique, killing hundreds of people? That hunger and \nstarvation entered Ethiopia? That thousands died in Nigeria as a result \nof the religious wars? That mass religious suicide occurred in Uganda? \nThat the senseless land dispute heated up in Zimbabwe? And the wars in \nRwanda, Cassamance and Burundi intensified? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWith these madnesses in our midst, only the insane would predict a \nbright future for Africa. Until socialist politics is introduced in \nAfrica, the gloom of this “Heart of Darkness” shall continue. \nAuthor: Sheriff Bojang J.R., The Gambia\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back to the Politics Index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Back to the World Socialist Movement home page<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article has been reproduced from the Socialist Standard (August 2000), the monthly journal of The Socialist Party of Great Britain Africa has been politically backward and na\u00efve throughout the last century with so many atrocities, anomalies and injustices. Its children thought that, one day, things will be better, but since the era of independence…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"magazine_newspaper_sidebar_layout":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-962","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2609,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/962\/revisions\/2609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/wsm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}