An Historical Assessment and Analysis of Economic Imperialism in West Africa

What is it about?

The story of West Africa has been shaped by the policies, decisions and actions of dominant imperialists countries since about over 500 years. Starting with imperial merchant capitalism along the West African coast in the 16th Century and French gradual acquisition of Senegal as a colony as from 1677, West Africa has remained under the imperialist hold. More than 60 years since West African countries started gaining independence; they remain dependent on imperial masters, producing raw materials with vast resources and wealth appropriated to imperial countries. The consequences of economic imperialism on West Africa have included brain drain (through migration skilled and experienced labour), exploitative resource extraction, proxy and resource influenced civil wars, illegal trade in natural resources and mass poverty. Many Africans, thus, view the continent as a hopeless land with internalized intentions to migrate to the West at all costs. This has led to legal and illegal migrations, visa overstay, human trafficking, and the dangerous trans-Saharan migration route to Spain and Italy. The world sees and broadcasts poverty, starvation, conflict and Saharan migration in the West African sub-continent, but hardly reports the exploitative imperialistic processes that have produced poverty and misery in West Africa in particular and across sub-Saharan Africa in general. This chapter examines economic imperialism and suggests ways to reverse it in West Africa.

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Why is it important?

Understanding the dynamics of imperialism in developing countries today, helps broaden our understanding about world affairs in general and african affairs in particular.

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