Lessons from Chef Bamba
The purpose of Colonialism
Contents
It’s hard to be succinct AND get the point across without generalising or being misunderstood, which is why I seldom “get political” on social media. But I suppose this is a suitable enough platform.
I’m not a historian, but my eyes tell me that the primary purpose of #colonialism was NOT to uplift the “colonies”. It was to take as much as possible from this continent (and others) and benefit the imperial nations with as little fuss from “the locals” as possible. If it meant encouraging vices, then so be it. If it meant enslaving the people, even better, #freelabour. “Infrastructure” (that was ultimately left behind) was mainly to make the task of removing resources easier. So let’s not pretend that it was to “benefit the people”. If that was the point, there would be infrastructure EVERYWHERE (because people are everywhere) And Lord knows the trillions upon trillions worth of resources that have left this continent -and others- #taxfree over centuries practically built Europe to a large degree. More here.
Now many FINE and DECENT Europeans came over too and became responsible Africans, friends and family even. Maybe if they had been the ONLY ones to come over, the story would be different: Culturally, we have ALWAYS been willing to welcome and share – it’s in our blood. They (the responsible “friends and family”) are a part of us now and we love them, but let’s not pretend #colonialism was something that it was not. If you agree, feel free to share. If you don’t, why not?
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