By Paul Okojie
“We are fighting our enemies in order to prepare a better and happier life for our youths”. These are the words of Late Patrice Lumumba of Congo. If we must understand Imperialism as Africans, it means state policy, practice and the domination by one country of the political, economic or cultural life of another country. The word imperialism has evolved with time, many Africans have been blindfolded with the benefits of western civilization the misplaced identity of the African man.
The imperialists penetrated the coastal regions of Africa in the late 14th century, to establish colonies. These people saw the potentials in Africa and wasted no time in engaging the continent with their strong need for the control of her natural resources, New markets. This means Places to invest profit, place for growing population to settle, that is how they got involved in the slave trade that lasted for centuries, they did not only trade on other markets they also traded with African cultural values and morals, Africa was stripped of everything that it owned by the imperialist they landed on our coast with their naval ships loaded with rifles, gun powder, and Bibles they called our society a place of savagery, they hated every part of Africa, and their greed for profit sparked them, they killed, kidnapped, looted, coursed Africans and made them to do their will.
More so, this imperialist ideology have not ended, Africa was self-sufficient before they came, they wanted us to live like them, think like them, act like them so they started Nationalism. Their quest for power and security for a global empire has not stopped to this present day, they execute this by teaching our children how to imbibe the spirit of Nationalism in their favour and interest. They have also changed how we think and how we believe that their culture is the best, and superior making Africans their modern slave.
These imperialists propagandist have used Africa as a dumping ground for materials that are no longer relevant in their society, they export their education new weapons, new medicines, improved ships and never give us Africans the room to advance and develop like them. Africa to them is just their means of disposal and survival. Imperialism in Africa is taught as something natural that takes place in every society, but this is to their advantage. Has the imperialist norm worked? Yes it has worked we now dress like them, act like them, think like them, they have create a troubled society for us. They have made us kill our own brothers for their gains. Many crisis in Africa was as a result of their manipulative strategy, one of these activities was the assassination of Patrice Lumumba of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) who was killed on the 17th of January 1961 because he wanted the activities of exploitation by imperialist to stopped, but he was tamed and killed.
This happened decades ago and such actions have never stopped in Africa to this present day. Our leaders who were killed by the imperialist identified our problems as a continent and wanted to let us have a share of our resources but their actions was designed for us to remain backward as a continent. These killings have been happening across Africa. Nigeria is no exception, six years after our independence they gave us arms so we can kill each other just for them to have control of our oil. they are willing to destroy any nation because of their business interest. The eastern region of Nigeria was tamed because of oil they use the media to manipulate other regions of Nigeria because their quest for oil was deep and a means of their advancement. These imperialist have invaded our privacy as Africans and have taken complete control of our society through their forms of modernization and manipulative communication.
Now Africanism is dead, xenophobia is alive we are struggling to trace back our steps, our young generation have been disillusioned, with the plague of technology, hopelessness has replace hope, the Mediterranean sea has now become the death bed for man and women of African descent, our princes and princesses die trying to cross the sea for a better life walking into slavery freely without being sold. Our children have chosen to be slaves; they walk through the desert for a better life because the tube in their living room brought by the imperialist who have sold fantasy to them, and have taught them that the western culture is better than the African culture. The devices held by African children now have taken them away from reality; this illness has no cure because our leaders in Africa choose a culture that the gods of the land didn’t understand. Imperialism must be resisted at all cost, because it doesn’t bring peace to the land rather in brings anarchy, doom, destruction and division amongst African Nations.
Finally, we must understand why they want us to be like them, but cannot give us equal opportunity as they have. Why have they not allowed us to develop our Natural resources without going through them? Why have they not given us the information about their medical, educational, technological breakthrough? How can they leave us to stay under- developed and keep us dependent on them? They own the banks our African leaders deposit their stolen money, they own the tools our banking system operates with. Imperialism is the bane of African misfortune and we must resist it now before we lose out completely.
