Before treating patients, doctors search for the causes by examining lab-results and symptoms of diseases to decide best treatment plan. This search for causes in problem-solving is called diagnosis, and is employed by other problem-solvers like computer and car repairers. Contrarily, in setbacks, some people seek to absolve themselves of responsibility by searching for faults as reason to blame other people or factors. Finding faults to blame in other persons/factors for absolving oneself provides excuses for irresponsibility and indifference to the problems. While cause-finding facilitates positive descriptions for healing and development, fault-finding brings negative definitions for limitation and condemnation. By searching and showing faults, many foreign media efforts in defining Africa gear towards Africa’s perpetual limitation.
Many foreigners are quick in defining Africa by post-colonial limitations saying: Africans don’t like to read, Africans hate themselves, Africans prefer foreign products, and Africans are unphilosophical, lazy, cursed, unproductive and corrupt. Unfortunately, some Africans begin to accept and internalize these limiting definitions for themselves, thus losing the courage to improve. This category of Africans join foreign ideologues in negatively defining Africa and blaming Africans for all social anomalies. Many African/foreign scholars, poets, artists and researchers are rewarded for describing immediate faults as images for relating with Africa. Yet, these definers’ unwillingness to trace the causes of present limitations for improvement indicates an intention of blame instead of development. It differentiates people’s sympathetic interest for healing and growth from a cynical interest for blame, self-absolution and irresponsibility.
Humans are bundles of influences, whose decisions and actions are influenced by many factors. These factors include forms and contents of their education, family and society. Like prison effects, these factors influence people’s reactions to their societies and the world. And without considering these factors, observers often make false conclusions about the nature and behaviours of those observed. It is like defining a caged lion by its caged circumstances without considering the conditioning effects of the cage on the lion.
Before the slave-trade and colonialism in Africa, different African kingdoms and communities owned and managed their environment. They had blacksmiths, goldsmiths, leatherworkers, bronze and ivory craftsmen, hunters, crop and livestock farmers, miners and other occupations. They were eager to learn modern ways of using their natural resources for production.
Unfortunately, the colonialists invaded Africa and violently bounded unconsented communities and kingdoms under artificial national boundaries for exploiting resources. The colonialists exploited and exported mineral resources from the bounded African communities to their industries. Later, they appointed, instructed and payed few indigenes to assist in holding down the other indigenes from revolting. Since colonialists seized the resources for industrial production, Africans struggled to get tickets (money) for consumable goods from colonialist industries. To receive these colonial meal-tickets (money), Africans were required to provide services in local administration, crude resource exportation or European goods’ marketing.
Before leaving at independence, colonialists armed and installed Europe-trained indigenes to replace them in controlling the violently bounded communities using colonially-made constitutions and institutions. So, the indigenous people that replaced the colonialists continued seizing and supplying various people’s resources to foreigners in exchange for foreign-meal-tickets. Using international policies, regime-changes, favourite tyrants, wars and economic interventions, the former colonialists have sustained their grip on Africa’s resources. Eventually, they blame corruption in their indigenous replacements as cause of Africa’s underdevelopment instead of their imposed colonial structure.
Blaming African officials’ greed and corruption seems handy for foreigners to distract Africans from the real problem: imposed social structure. They criticise Africa’s post-colonial government corruption without explaining how former independent communities came under a militarized government, or how the resource-seizing colonial structure created the foundation for corruption. Without imposing the prisonlike ‘Western democracy’ on several unconsented communities, African nations would have probably developed differently without their alienated governments. The different communities and kingdoms would still have access to their mineral resources for modern production, sales and social responsibility.
Insisting that Africa’s problem lies with African governments who import and share less foreign goods for the colonially bounded and exploited people is ridiculous. It supposes that Africans only require food and amenities to consume, not access to their mineral resources for productivity. Many western media houses blame African governments for exploiting, starving and suppressing African ‘people’. Yet, their governments supply the guns with which Africa’s colonially-imposed governments exploit the people in exchange for the exploited mineral resources. Hence, foreign media’s effort in defining Africa from present defects and limitations without highlighting their governments’ foundational roles is self-deceptive.
