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Sarah Colegrove SOC 350 11/17/2012 Integrative Explanation Africa has experienced poverty, oppression, and underdevelopment on a large scale since the time of colonization. Why? Basil Davidson, in his book The Black Mans Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State, takes an integrative approach in explaining why Africa has poverty, oppression, and underdevelopment. Davidson begins his argument with the idea that Africa has become distanced from their history. The elite in Africa were cut off from the history and culture of Africa for a variety of reasons. Some of this occurred through slaves who were taken captive in Africa, moved to a different part of the world, set free at a later date, and returned to Africa. Many of these returning Africans picked up on the ideology of Europe and were some of the main proponents of colonization and continued interference in Africa. Africa would be free: except, of course, that in terms of political and literate culture, Africa would cease to be Africa. (Davidson 1992:38) Davidson examined the Asante nation that was in Africa before colonization and argued that Africa was not foreign to organized government (and was in fact starting to resemble the nation-states that were present in Europe before Europeans even had a significant influence in Africa). There was an assumption, powered by racism and the idea that the West was superior in all areas, that Africa did not have a well-functioning government and society; that Africans

needed the West to step in and help them form a democracy and free market system. This was not at all the case. The Asante nation had a government that was functioning. It had a governing structure and a middle class that were beginning to emerge. When the colonization powers invaded Africa, they destroyed the Asante nation and created it to fit their own Western image (Davidson 1992). The nation-state and nationalism are at the very core of Davidsons argument. European powers invaded Africa and took them off of their own path of development and tried to force Africa on to the European path of development. When the colonization period came to end, the colonizing powers formed the territories into nation-states. This nation-statism looked like a liberation and really began as one. But it did not continue as a liberation. In practice it was not a restoration of Africa to Africas own history, but the onset of a new period of indirect subjection to the history of Europe. (Davidson 1992:10) This attempt at liberating Africa can be seen in the education system that was established. There was the thought that education would help Africa to become more self-sufficient since there would be more intellects. However, Above the entrance to every school there was an invisible but always insistent directive to those who passed within the magic gate to the white mans world: ABANDON AFRICA, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE. (Davidson 1992:42) This nation-state and nationalism has caused other problems, such as the process, largely, of nationalism that has crystallized the division of Africas many hundreds of people and cultures into a few dozen nation-states, each claiming sovereignty against the others, and all of them sorely in trouble. (Davidson 1992:13) This has caused violence to emerge not only among differing nation-states but also within a nation-state as people groups who had traditionally aligned themselves under different governing groups were thrust together (whether

or not they wanted to be) and are now vying for power. The nation-state that was seen was that advancement toward the nation-state was the only feasible route of escape from the colonial condition. (Davidson 1992:113) Also, the national conflict, embodied in the rivalries for executive power between contending groups or individuals among the elites, must continue to take priority over a social conflict concerned with the interests of most of the inhabitants of these new nation-states. (Davidson 1992:114) Tribes and tribalism have existed in Africa for a long time. These tribes were not that different from what had been in place in Europe. This tribalism since colonial times has started to take the shape of clientelism. Tribalism referred to the idea of a group of people united by common ideas and goals with representatives who were the spokesperson for the common interests. The clientelism that emerged out of the tribalism because of the European influence and nation-state was where an individual, such as a politician, struggles to gain political power. These individuals give supporters things, such as money towards schools in their district, so that they can continue to have their support on the local, state, and/or national level. It said that for as long as these countries had been colonies, government had always been by rigid dictatorship. Fact said that colonial powers had invariably ruled by decree, and decree had been administered by authoritarian bureaucracy to which any thought of peoples participation was damnable subversion. Fact went on to say that the new nation-states inherited the dictatorship and not the democracy. (Davidson 1992:208) A way to combat the ill-effects of the West imposed nation-state is through mass participation. Democratic participation would have to be mass participation. And mass participation, patiently evolved and applied, would be able to produce its own version of a strong state: the kind of state, in other words, that would be able to promote and protect civil

society. (Davidson 1992:294-295) This mass participation by citizens of the various African nations within their own nations could help to assist Africa to start to think for themselves again. It would help them to move away from the West and become their own entity with their own ideas and goals (Davidson 1992). Davidson seems to be getting at the heart of why Africa suffers. They have been forced into a system of governance, thought, and way of living that is not African. This has caused poverty, oppression, and underdevelopment as clientelism and corruption has been able to run rampant throughout many parts of the continent. Development has been stunted because they were forced off the path of development that had been working in Africa to one that was foreign. Nation-states, whose boundaries were determined by the colonial powers, was just one of the ways that the West oppressed (and continues to oppress) Africa. Poverty has grown and been sustained through the clientelism and ensuing corruption that caught many leaders (Davidson 1992). The West needs to stay out of Africa and let the people of Africa shape their own future rather than the West dictating what will happen. Davidsons argument appears to be much more complete in comparison to Ayittey (1998), who looks internally, and Leonard & Straus (2003), who look externally. Davidson argues that the Wests penetration into Africa and their imposition of the nation-state on African society along with the fact that corruption did develop among the leaders in Africa (through clientelism) seems to combine the arguments of Ayittey (1998), who blamed poor African leaders, and Leonard & Straus (2003), who blamed destructive enclave economies. Davidsons suggestion of mass participation by the people to overcome what has been forced upon them seems to be one of the more practical solutions to helping Africa become Africa again. However, even getting to the point of mass participation would more than

likely be a long drawn out struggle which could worsen the situation before it got better (Davidson 1992). Davidson argues that the reason why Africa faces the immense problems that it does is a direct result of the nation-state that Europe forced upon Africa. He gets to the heart of the argument by saying that Europe and the colonial powers forced Africa off of their path, history, and culture. They forced Africa to accept the European way of doing things, even though Africa was developing and the European way did not fit into the systems that were already in place. The nation-states have caused harm but hopefully with time and effort, Africa will be able to reclaim their history and their own path (Davidson 1992).

Works Cited Ayittey, George B. 1998. Africa in Chaos. New York: St. Martins Press. Davidson, Basil. 1992. The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation-State. New York: Times Books. Leonard, David K. and Scott Straus. 2003. Africa's Stalled Development: International Causes & Cures. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishing.