How Did Colonization Affect Africa

Africa is a considered as being the most struggling continent of earth. It is a continent counting today 1.8 billion inhabitants. Africa is surrounded by the Mediterranean Sea, the Southern Atlantic Ocean, the Northern Atlantic Ocean, the Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. It is full of natural resources. Africa is not developing as fast as it should. Why is that? Why is this big continent left behind with all potentials? What are its nations not doing right? Answering these question may require to look into the problem from different perspectives. Some would argue that Africa’s current situation has a lot to do with its history. Some other would point out the bad management of the continent by its leaders as the true cause of the problem. Other
Slavery and colonization had had the most significant impact on Africa, and certainly have something to do with its today’s struggles. Slavery is an involuntary human servitude and it requires slaves to do domestic or field labor, serve as wives or concubines. It goes back to the prehistoric period of Africa, but it was later amplified by the European expansions in the 15th century. The impact of the European slavery was remarkable. "During slavery many of the able-bodied people, between 18 and 40, were taken out so society's ability to reproduce itself economically, socially and culturally was impaired," says Zagba Oyortey, a Ghanaian cultural historian. Moreover, the millions of millions deported from Africa were men in the vast majority leaving the responsibility to women by their own. It was later officially abolished in 1833 by the United Kingdom with the Slavery Abolition
When power is centered in hands of a few, it leads to bad governance and a high level of corruption. “Corruption impedes economic growth by discouraging foreign and domestic investment, taxing and dampening entrepreneurship, lowering the quality of public infrastructure, decreasing tax revenues, diverting public talent into rent-seeking and distorting the composition of public expenditure” (Kufandarerwa 2017). In other words, corruption weakens institutions and denies access to the basic needs for the less privileged people. Many African nations are among the most corrupt nations in the world resulting in wars, starvations, lack of subvention for a modern system of education and medical care, and in vast immigration of its youth toward other continents. For instance, Mali in West Africa and the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) in Central Africa have huge mineral resources. The first is the third producer of gold in Africa and the former is the first producer of coltan in the world (coltan is a precious mineral used in almost all the electronic devices), but these two countries are among the poorest in the world. Their different governments extract the economy leaving the people with less than $4 dollars a day. Indeed, whenever the level of corruption is high, the hope to see people striving is