TITLE:
African Unfreedom: An Escapist Excuse for Underdevelopment
AUTHORS:
John Ezenwankwor, Wenceslaus Madu
KEYWORDS:
Africa, Colonizers, Freedom, Unfreedom, Responsibility, Underdevelopment
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.10 No.4,
November
10,
2020
ABSTRACT: The African continent has played host to
various colonizers from the western world. Most of the countries have negative
tales of the activities of the colonizers before independence as well as their
neo-colonizing activities after independence. On this basis, it is common for
most African scholars to impute the guilt of African woes, particularly
underdevelopment, to the activities of the colonizers. They consider the whole
gamut of colonial legacies in Africa as a doom and a problem to the African
continent. Some of the scholars compared the relationship between the Africans
and their colonizers in terms of fatherson relationship where a father, rather
than give the son fish, gives him poison. This paper, employing a descriptive
method of research accepts the fact that the colonizers were involved and are
still involved in some activities that are detrimental to African development
but rejects the position that the colonizers are entirely the problem. Its main
aim is to stress the point that the greater militating factors against the
proper development of the African continent are self inflicted. It gives a
verdict that Africans as human beings like the colonizers, have the freedom to
take control of their events and take the responsibility for their actions that
have in various ways affected her development instead of imputing blame to
others.