Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, by Richard Dowden
Out of Africa always something new in armchair solutions, with the eternal certainty that none will work. Colonialism? Bad. Decolonisation? Disastrous. Neo-colonialism? Wicked. Bob Geldof? Er, no. So, leave the place alone and its bonjour Mugabe, or worse.
For well-wishers from the north it has been a slow learning-curve. Colonialism was designed by Whitehall mandarins and old Wykhamists who knew what was best for the natives. Settlers were sent in to grow food and extract minerals and generally bring the place forward. The settlers managed to grow a vast amount of food, although they needed rather a lot of land to do so profitably, which left the natives feeling restless. When the colonies became expensive they were abandoned and decolonisation was designed by a new generation of mandarins who also knew what was best for the natives. The Punch humorist, Pont, summarised both situations:
The most disturbing nightmare
Which haunts each White Man’s son
Is: ‘If there had been no White Men
What would the Blacks have done?’
Nearly 50 years ago the Colonial Office hauled down the Union Jack and lined the natives up beneath brand new flags telling them that henceforth they belonged to nations they had never heard of.
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