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162 Chapter Eight Conclusion After all is said and done, in terms of the “modern” state, the inability of Africans to dispose of tribalism and function as a nation remains a major obstacle in the path of progress. It is time Africans recognize the continent’s predicament today. We cannot now simply dismiss the modern states put in place by imperialists and return to days before colonialism in order to begin establishing new states, kingdoms, or empires by conquering and absorbing the weak as a way of expanding. There is no room for that, given the present world order. Accordingly, while identifying and maintaining individual cultural values, since that is what a person’s identity is all about, we must at least relegate the tribal mentality for the national—certainly easier said than done, yet it seems to be the main highway out of our present quagmire. Unless we begin operating as nations, we will keep building only to tear down, marking time in the path of progress. An objective constitution, a strong and independent judiciary, and a presidency with vision determined to serve rather than exploit its people can help in jumpstarting this process. This is easy to institute, provided our leaders are willing to realize that the welfare of the citizenry is the raison d’être of any organized society or nation, and so begin sharing power. The presidency ought to be a national and not a personal or private institution, or worse still, one that belongs to a clique. In fact, this institution must have a defined term of office, as indeed it is the case, until power hungry African leaders begin toying with the constitution. Nobody with any sense of Africa’s history can doubt the fact that the continent today is not what it would have been without her encounter with imperialist aspirations. That Africa’s unique evolutionary process was forcefully halted and with extreme brutality re-directed by imperialists, is being confirmed daily—the slave trade, colonialism, neo-colonialism, and now globalization. For this reason, Africa’s history can never be complete without the damaging consequences of imperialism on the continent mentioned, albeit to the chagrin of those who feel otherwise. Time has passed, and so Africans should have been able to restructure the course of their evolution, some do posit. Those who argue thus against Africa and the effects of colonialism on the continent, mindful of its chaotic present, including African scholars, are propagandist or else simply frustrated by the goings-on on the continent under kleptocracies headed by unpatriotic indigenes. As a result, these condescending and disillusioned scholars, alien and indigenous respectively, have rushed to self-destructive conclusions like the failed economic strategist who blows his brains out with a gun, or the humiliated politician who hangs himself. There would have been significant value in this claim about the continent had Africa, in all fairness, been given the honest chance to pick up from the shards of imperialist activities on the continent without persistent foreign interference. Tatah Mentan himself, despite his own frustration, agrees with me when he points out that the lack of development in Africa is caused largely by Africa’s asymmetrical relationship with the imperial international system and the weak states it has fostered (Recolonisation 16). This asymmetrical relationship is not a concept of today, but 163 one that was there from the very beginning of relationships between imperialists and Africa. It is for this reason that the colonial legacy remains forever relevant in the discussion of Africa’s plight today, the role of mainly idiotic and/or unpatriotic leaders notwithstanding. In keeping with imperialist goals and the lack of genuine goodwill towards Africa’s progress, imperialists, after hundreds of years of slavery, immediately banded together without giving Africa a breather and divided the continent into colonies. It was with the utmost reluctance that imperialist nations parted with these colonies decades after. Even then, it was only to employ neocolonial tactics which are today segueing into another method of socio-political subjugation and destabilization in the guise of globalization. This fact becomes glaring when it is realized that most of the current loans and aid gestures on the continent today are hypocritical, given the interest earning motive and other attendant benefits attached. Yes, colonialism did not take place in Africa only, but it must be remembered that there are other factors which are always neglected when people argue in this way: the cultures of these different parts of the...

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