Are African countries still colonized? — A Case Study of Ghana.

11 min readOct 13, 2019

Africa is a continent of fifty-four countries containing vibrant people with unique cultures made of diverse ideologies. The continent contains almost 30% of the world’s remaining natural resources, the largest reserves of precious metals and some of the greatest physical features in the world (Boyes, 2013). With such attributes, African countries continue to seek financial aid from western countries and it seems like Africa cannot survive without this financial aid. European countries have also proved to more powerful than African countries and almost every year, they have a certain percentage of their national income meant to support African countries. At the 2001 Labor conference, the Britain’s prime Minister at the time, Tony Blair, said that ‘The state of Africa is a scar on the conscience of the world’ and that the West should ‘provide more aid’. African governments regularly seek and depend on financial aid from western countries without analyzing the potential and wealth they have within to support their citizens. This paper seeks to find out whether African countries indeed obtained independence or they are still colonized by the western countries. This dominance of the Europeans over Africa largely depends on power they have over Africa in terms of economic, social and political systems and this also creates privilege for most of the whites over Africans. The Paper will focus on a case study of Ghana; one of the Africa countries to check whether it is still colonized or not.

Darrell, an author, defines colonialism as the extension of a country’s rule beyond its own borders (J.Dozlowski, 2010). Based on this definition it is evident that western countries are still exercising their rule in Africa. European countries have been able to implement their policies in Africa because of their superiority over the African countries in terms of technological advancement, civilization, finances, military strength and among other factors. This power also presents privileges to all the whites that come to Africa because they are attached to a sense of ‘superiority’ and this makes it easy for them to implement their plans in Africa well as it is hard for Africans to do the same in the European countries.

In Ghana, Oil was discovered and exploited by energy companies from the western countries. for example, on June 2007, the Ghana News Agency reported that Oil was discovered in Cape Coast by Tullow Ghana, Kosmos Energy. The surprising fact is that these companies own 30.8 per cent and 22.9 per cent respectively. This is more than 50% of the revenue generated from the oil (Boadi, 2008).The Ghana government seems unbothered and they seem to be grateful to these foreign companies instead of focusing on how to carry out the oil exploration by its own citizens and conduct the entire process to generate maximum revenue. With these foreign companies, few citizens benefit from the oil and most of the citizens are left hanging without enjoying the benefits of their natural resources. Meanwhile, African engineering students are prepared and highly encouraged in schools to join these foreign oil exploration companies instead of enhancing skills that lead to creativity of exploiting the oil by themselves.

Secondly, Ghana does not decide its economic policy but rather it’s the IMF and World Bank that dictates Ghana’s fiscal, monetary and economic policies. Before February 24th 1966, Kwame Nkrumah had plans of achieving economic independence of the country through his seven-year economic development plan. Nkrumah built various companies like Sugar factory at Komenda, Takoradi Mills, Shoe factory in Kumasi among others and this presented greater employment opportunities for the citizens. All these projects were run by a government that was determined to elevate the economy of the country through rapid industrialization without restrictions from the foreign countries. However, since the overthrow of Nkrumah, all the developments were destroyed when World Bank officials were invited to Ghana by the National Liberation Council in the aftermath of the 1966 coup. The World Bank sabotaged and crippled the economy by deliberately fixing the price of Cocoa which is the main export and revenue generator. The world Bank did this because they opposed Nkrumah ideas of transforming Ghana into a developed economy as this would make it difficult for the European countries to control the country. The World Bank’s idea led to the collapse of Nkrumah’s developmental projects since there was no enough revenue to finance the projects he had started. In the long run, the World Bank and IMF made Ghana to accept flawed economic policies such as the Economic Recovery Program and Structural Adjustment Programs and these programs had conditions attached to them. During this time, Ghana had no option but to accept the policies since they needed the money to help in the economy. The World Bank advised the country to privatize state enterprises which meant that Nkrumah’s projects were going to be sold or left out with no finances hence collapsing. This led to a high level of unemployment and fallback in the economy (Osei, 2014). In this case, the World Bank and IMF could implement their policies because of their power and privilege over Ghana in terms of finances and military superiority.

‘African heritage’ an African film shows how Ghanaian citizens never got the chance to enjoy the fruits of their natural resources because whites had control over their country. All the whites in the country where privileged and all the best social services belonged to the whites. In this case, just being white in color presented a privilege and a level of supremacy over the blacks who owned the country. African people like ‘Bosomfield’ who were given some power under the British rule felt privileged and did everything to please the whites to maintain their positions. Bosomfield even ordered for the killing of his fellow Ghanaian citizens who were fighting for their rights and this is a clear image of how the idea of the European ‘superiority’ had affected his identity as an African (Anshah,1989). Such scenarios continue to date for example when an African goes to one of the western countries, he comes back to Africa with a forced accent, fashion and style trying to show how he has transformed into a more ‘civilized’ person than living in Africa. Statistics from the World Bank show that Ghana lent out a total amount of 730 million dollars in 2016 and this shows that Ghana is a country is a strong economy. The country contains vibrant citizens and young leaders. These youths have an entrepreneurial spirit to solve challenges facing Africa. Schools like Ashesi University have come to teach Africans how to critical think and pioneer change in their society. This shows that Africa has achieved a significant level of Independence.

In an article arguing whether aid is constructing or destructing Africa, Moyo, a Ghanaian economist, talks about the fact that aid is making Africans lazier. He mentions that Aid has been and continues to be an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian for most parts of the developing world. This is because most of the leaders who receive this aid are corrupt and this distorts the market and all projects that cannot progress without funds causing the need for ‘more’ aid. Ghana received 1.01 million dollars from the U.S government in 2017 and this was aimed to cater for Economic development, Education and social services, health and other governmental programs (Moyo, 2010). Ghana has also been receiving Aid from the different western countries to support different projects however it seems the need is not coming to an end. About the Oil and gas Industry of the country, The Africa Centre for Energy (ACEP) a non-governmental organization dealing in energy threatened to sue the government over failure to publish annual reports on projects implemented with petroleum revenues for the past three years. This is a distinct lack of accountability and transparency of the government if it cannot even release annual reports to show the allocation of revenue generated from the petroleum (Ghana News Agency, 2015). Such leadership challenges also attribute to the need of more ‘aid’ since such leaders are not transparent and divert the revenues to their own needs causing African countries to be chained to western countries for financial assistance.

Cesaire explains in his book ‘Discourse on colonialism’ that colonialism works to decivilize the colonizer though torture, violence and race hatred. In his perspective, Europe was the creation of the third world countries and notes that the white’s ideas of being ‘civilized’ turned the colonized people into ‘barbarians’. Cesaire talks about how the civilization which 6was implemented in Africa made a lot of Africans to forego their traditions and culture hence making a lot of Africans to lose their identity and ‘wear the hat’ of supremacy by the whites (Cesaire, 1972). This continues to present Ghana where a product made from Western countries is valued and is more likely to be bought compared to a local product. This is because the western products are high quality, more luxurious and durable compared to the local ones even though it is not the case sometimes.

Based on the above research and different authors ideas, it clearly shows that Ghana is still undergoing colonialism. All the aspects in Ghana’s society; political, social and economic, western countries have a role to play and their influence is prioritized due to the support they offer to the country. This is not only a problem in Ghana but the whole continent of Africa. This research also proves that one of the major reasons why Ghana is still colonized is because of bad leadership which is causing the country not to fully utilize its resources thus creating a more need for ‘aid’ to keep developmental projects running. Africa in general is still facing diverse types of colonial rule and this presents to set back the countries behind. This is quite sad for Africans however it should be noted that there is quite several Africans who are focused and believe this is the and generation for African countries to cut their dependence on foreign aid.

References.

Ansah, K. (1989). African Heritage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ7kRWhRSzM.

Boadi, B.-D. (2008, October 20). Guarding Against The Stealing Of Ghana’s Oil. GhanaWeb. Retrieved from http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/features/Guarding-Against-The-Stealing-Of-Ghana-s-Oil-151781

Cesaire, A. (1972). Discourse on colonailism . New York .

Ghana News Agency. (2015, February 21st). ACEP to use gov’t over failure to publish projects funded with petroleum revenue. . Business and Economics .

Gyasi, Y. (2016). Homegoing. United States of America .

Gus,H. (2010). Lost Kingdoms of Africa — Asante.

J.Dozlowski, D. (2010). Colonialism . Retrieved from https://books.google.com.gh/books?id=cCsUBMj2cvQC&dq=what+is+colonialism&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Moyo. (2010). Dead Aid:Why aid makes things worse and how there is another way for Africa. Peguin books.

Osei, K. (2014, July 21). Modern Ghana. Why the IMF/World Bank are to blame for Ghana’s economic Crisis. Retrieved from https://www.modernghana.com/news/557602/why-the-imfworld-bank-are-to-blame-for-ghanas-economic-cri.html

Annotated bibliography

Ansah, K. (1989). African Heritage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQ7kRWhRSzM.

The film talks about the colonial period of Ghana in which the citizens where depressed while the British enjoyed all privileges and resources of the country. One educated Ghanaian who studied from Cambridge is elected as a government official and he seems to forget his identity as an African. He tarnishes the African settings and calls them Uneducated. Bosomfield cares less about the depressed Ghanaians but due to continuous dreams, he seems to remember is heritage and joins the citizens to fight for their rights though he dies in the pursue.

This article analyses the risk Ghana’s oil is facing due to the increased foreign oil exploration companies. The author mentions that the foreign oil exploration companies set the rules and standards creating a higher chance for the country to be cheated of its resources. These companies receive high percentages of the resources and even the revenue that the government receives from this resource, some incompetent leaders decide to steal the money for their selfish interests. This leaves the citizens with little or none to gain from their own natural resources creating a more dependence of Ghana on foreign aid.

Cesaire, A. (1972). Discourse on colonailism . New York .

In his book, Aime talks about how colonialism has greatly affected the third world countries. He blames European countries for the cause of third world countries and he believes it is because of their pursue to create a ‘civilized’ world that led to the formation of ‘barbarians’. Aime further talks about the two major problems western countries have forgot to solve; the problem of the proletariat and the colonial problem. The civilization meant to solve Africa’s problems is instead creating more problems because Afrcains have to forego their traditions and culture to meet the expectations of the whites which makes the Africans to forgot their identity.

Ghana News Agency. (2015, February 21st). ACEP to use gov’t over failure to publish projects funded with petroleum revenue. . Business and Economics .

This article by the Ghana News Agency talks about the dissatisfaction of the ‘Africa Centre for Energy Policy’ — an NGO which requested the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to provide them with the annual report about the expenditure of the revenue from the Oil and gas Sector. The Ministry failed to provide the information for the last three consecutive years which raised suspicion and the NGO vowed to sue the government because this showed lack of transparency and competent leaders.

Gyasi, Y. (2016). Homegoing. United States of America .

The book talks about the story of two half-sisters separated by European forces; one goes into slavery while the other becomes married to a British slaver. The book traces the generations of families who follow as most pass through the nightmare of slavery. Most of generation growing up in a foreign country they undergo through great misery like racism, torture and unfair treatment. All these stories of the different family members portray the colonial rule of the Europeans and how slavery created dynamics in the life of both Africans and Europeans. The book is also a good demonstration of power and privilege and how it affects different people in society.

J.Dozlowski, D. (2010). Colonialism . Retrieved from https://books.google.com.gh/books?id=cCsUBMj2cvQC&dq=what+is+colonialism&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Darrell talks about how America was founded based on colonialism and slavery. In the search for riches and labor they met Africans and some of their leaders cooperated leading to rise of slavery. Europeans conquered the African territories easily since the had weapons and most of the energetic Africans had been carried away into Slavery to the west African countries. This led to the rise colonialism. The author further talks about the nine key colonialism concepts; colonies, economics and trade, European nations, explorers and conquerors, Native Americans, government, wars and battles and religion. The Author also talks about the early history of the early world exploration and the whole events led to colonialism.

Moyo. (2010). Dead Aid:Why aid makes things worse and how there is another way for Africa. Peguin books.

Moyo compares countries that seek aid to countries that do not seek aid. He concludes that countries which seek aid are more poorer and suffer greater consequences. Due to Africa’s current crisis of competent leaders, he mentions that the aid meant to run programs does not fulfil its function due to corruption and embezzlement of funds which creates even a need for more aid. The makes the country poorer because the aid comes with sanctions making the country more vulnerable to the western countries rule. Moyo suggests the dead aid proposal where western countries give African countries aid for the next five years and then support. This is aimed at giving African countries to think through there system and find suitable way of utilizing their own resources to survive.

The author gives a brief history of how Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had a vision for Ghana after independence. Nkrumah developed different projects to secure employment for the citizens and this was aimed at achieving economic independence of the country. During this period, Ghana underwent major and rapid industrialization however the British had an agenda and plotted to distort all his achievements. Overthrowing Nkrumah led to the downfall of the economy and the IMF/ Bank World introduced polices which were aimed to revive the economy but in actual sense, it just distorted it. The author mentions that the IMF was aimed at distorting the economy of the Ghana and currently the country follows economic policies from IMF. This shows that the country does not have economic independence which limits growth.

Gus,H. (2010) Lost Kingdoms of Africa — Asante.

The documentary gives an insight about the old kingdom of Ghana called Asante. The author tries to trace back the origin of the kingdom and how activities were carried out. He talks to different people and visits

Are African countries still colonized? — A Case Study of Ghana.

Written by Tumuhairwe Ronald