Dialogue in Pursuit of Development - Are you looking for one of ...

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It is recalled that four centuries (1500–1900) of slavery robbed Africa of
some 20 million of its able-bodied men and women, while 20 years (1880–
1902) of colonialism subjected 110 million Africans to domination in artificial
geographic groupings in a land area of 10 million square miles.
Generations of Africans still cling to the notion that in providing assistance,
Western countries are merely giving back a small portion of Africa’s
resources which the West has used to develop its own economies. This entitlement
perception is reinforced, even today, by the view that the political
independence achieved since the 1960s has not transformed into economic
independence resulting in continued exploitation of a region which in terms
of its endowment – 75 per cent of the world’s reserves of diamonds, 70 per
cent of phosphates and chromium, 65 per cent of manganese, 40 per cent of
gold, and other natural resources such as bauxite, copper, iron ore – should
not be poor or dependent upon foreign assistance. 3
Although a new generation of African leaders are resolved to put history
behind them, much more needs to be done to give recognition to the fact
that the leadership and policy failures since independence are more rightly
the causes for Africa lagging behind.
Colonial alliances
Another historical dimension to aid and the aid dialogue can be found in
the trading relationship which existed between the major western powers
and their colonial states. After independence, the three major powers – Britain,
France and Portugal – established and reinforced in their colonial states
their own language, social and administrative systems. This facilitated a trading
relationship supported by aid flows. There were marked differences in
the manner in which those special relationships impacted the management
of the state and its resources. In the Anglophone states, the system of public
administration patterned after the British system was established primarily
for the efficient management of centralized public resources upon which
trade depended. In places with an inhospitable climate such as West Africa,
traditional structures and systems were left largely unchanged; in others,
such as certain countries in East and South Africa, the introduction of a dual
system allowed the settlers to develop and operate in parallel to indigenous
systems an institutional environment similar to their own.
In Francophone countries, where assimilation into French culture and
society was the goal, the management of national resources and the trading
systems was largely controlled by agents or representatives of France, most
often directly through a physical presence.
3 Corporate Council on Africa, 2000, Atlas of Africa.