Imperialism’s consequences for Africa

Adekeye Adebajo’s book, focused mainly on contemporary African events, has been written with coherence, clarity and forcefulness for a wider audience. Adebajo does this by bringing into focus an important event in the past – the division of Africa at the will of few European States at the Berlin Conference under the leadership of Otto von Bismarck (Iron Chancellor), at the Berlin Conference during the period of 1884-85. The author shows using a catalogue of events how this event continuing to sway Africa in general and contemporary African international relations in particular.

The book consists of three parts: The quest for security, the quest for hegemony and the quest for unity. In the first part, Adebajo examines Africa’s security institutions such as the African Union (AU), and sub regional bodies, their visions and missions –to take active part to muster the will to resolve disputes that arise in the continent. Next the author discusses the political peacekeeping and socioeconomic roles of the UN and UN-AU hybrids in Africa. The discussion is also dominated by two UN-secretary-generals – Boutros Boutros-Ghali and Kofi Annan – and their roles in the context of Africa. The second part, which consists of five chapters, assesses Africa’s quest for leadership, discussing Nigeria and South Africa’s role in leadership and capabilities as well as weaknesses. In the third part, the discussion extends to the visions and strategies of some prominent African statesmen, such as Kwame Nkrumah (Tanzania) Gamal Abdel Nasser (Egypt), Nelson Mandela, Thabo Mbeki (South Africa) Olusegun Obasanjo, Muammar al-Gaddafi etc, and their role in creating unity and/or disunity in Africa. Last but not least, the book also touches on Barack Obama’s presidency, and China’s role in Africa.

It was refreshing to read a detailed and interesting book of this kind. Its structure is coherent and subject matter dealt with appropriately, reflecting on many related and vital issues. Adebajo has managed to analyse successfully the main points described above. He uses the techniques of persuasion to establish the truth of a statement, giving statistics, footnotes and references. The facts, statistics and events are immensely rich and the analysis measured and balanced. The anecdotes are revealing. It reads well. There is emotion but it transcends to strategic thoughts. Adebajo writes:

‘Putting old wines in new bottles will clearly not integral Africa. African leaders must revert to the first option and focus on the hard work of strengthening and funding fledgling institutions that they have created, and establishing one effective economic pillar in each African sub region. They must get their domestic houses in order and build strong economies and stable democracies. After all, there has to be something to integrate for integration to succeed.’ (p267)

The author provides a much-needed perspective about the challenges faced and some meaningful suggestions about what really need to be done to fix them. Adebajo is not lacking the holistic past of Africa; he breezily tracks the political and socio-economic developments and decays of Africa ever since the Berlin Conference. Contents being described such a way it helps the reader realise, through many sensuous details (people, episodes and events).

While at times, some of the contents may present themselves as sudden bursts of inside. He writes:

‘It is the torch of the liberation that Gandhi handed to Martin Luther King Jr. to wage the successful civil rights movement in America that in turn made possible to day for a black man, Barack Obama—a gifted Kenyan Kansan political prophet—to become the most powerful man in the earth.’

The book starts and ends by giving Barack Obama a prominent place, which I find less suitable and too hasty. Adebajo describes Obama with many adjectives. It comes out as Barack Obama as somebody – a newly emerged alchemist. It is confusing and difficult to understand author’s motivation here.

Adebajo’s main argument focuses on the division of Africa by European imperialist powers and its consequences. The book covers substantial facts details about colonisation. However, I missed reading about European slavery and Arabic slave dealers and some African monarchies’ involvement in the matter. In addition, I would have liked to see more details about how African leaders, social and political system functioned before such invasions. Therefore, I am reluctant to use the words ‘historical analysis’ to describe the book.

In addition, the preface of the book runs into ten pages. This may discourage the reader. Only when I started reading the introduction, did I feel that I wanted to keep on reading it. Perhaps author may want to shorten the preface or move the section to the conclusion.

Finally, without any hesitation, I would like to recommend this book to others who are interested not only in contemporary Africa but also want detailed analysis of the Berlin curse that is still affecting her future. It is a useful book that boldly criticises the West as well as Africa for the continent’s slow socioeconomic and political recovery.

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* Nilani Ljunggren De Silva is a researcher and academic advisor at the University of Stockholm.
* Adekeye Adebajo’s ’The Curse of Berlin: AFRICA After the Cold War’ is published by the University of KwaZulu Natal Press (ISBN 978-1-86914-196-7).
* Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.