Identify the problems that two African countries (not including South Africa) have faced since Independence. To what extent can these problems be fully attributed to Colonization?

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Nisha Kanabar                10R        

Identify the problems that two African countries (not including South Africa) have faced since Independence. To what extent can these problems be fully attributed to Colonization?

If Africa were a person, it would be a wise, young, memorable woman with a difficult past. It would be wise because of its knowledge through experience, young because of its age in comparison with other countries, memorable because of its life-long history, and a woman because of its patience and grueling work. The continent Africa, to some extent is all these things; but because Africa consists of at least 54 different countries, each with its own chronicle, it is cannot be a person, for a person is a characteristic individual. Thus, Africa is not as wise and collected as it should be. Young? Maybe; memorable? Possibly; but wise? That is debatable. One of the most fascinating things about Africa is its suffering and challenging past. Throughout its years of struggle, its ultimate independence by 1970 has been its biggest achievement. Due to its previous colonization and control, this period was a large step for the continent. Africa was faced with several problems and challenges, some brought shortly after, and some occurring long-term. Whatever the case, many of these difficulties have affected the lifestyle of Africans today that sets Africa apart from the rest of the world at present. The continent is labeled as being the “Third World”. The “Dark Continent”. Why? Why is Africa different from the rest of the world’s continents? The answer is categorized into three different forms. The reason Africa is diverse to continents such as America, Australia, Great Britain is because it suffers from the problems that it did since its independence, which can be classified into the groups ‘Economic’, ‘Social’ and ‘Political’. The economic difficulties only made the social challenges even worse, and aspects such as starvation, lack of communication and infrastructure, and unemployment led to the spread of diseases, poor knowledge and education, and appalling bribery and corruption. Because of one trouble leading to another, civil wars were not uncommon, and the unstable governments of the countries were just ‘the icing on the cake’. The mixture of problems made African lifestyle a constant struggle, which still somewhat exists till today. However, these tribulations are dated back since many years, and there are theories to what provoked them. One of the most popularly accused sources has been the effect of colonization on Africa. However, surely these problems cannot all be blamed on the colonies? This poses the long-thought question: to what extent can these problems be fully attributed to colonization? It is not possible to be firm on this response, though; different factors may have influenced different things. Therefore, Africa’s independence could not have fully been held responsibility for all Africa’s post-independence suffering, only to a certain level. Good examples of countries that have clearly experienced these difficulties differently are the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ghana.

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Every 3.6 seconds a person dies of starvation. Starvation in Africa is known as one of the most frequent means of suffering. It causes death and terrible, crippling malnutrition. This is one of the problems that are recognized internationally, as it is now becoming "most serious humanitarian crisis taking place in the world today." In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) the starvation catastrophe after independence was just beginning, and continues till present-day. One-third of the DRC’s 50 million population is said to be vulnerable to starvation. Most of this crisis is due to the disastrous wars between the government ...

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