Most African countries are indeed suffering from bad governance. Since Independence, the majority of the leaders that have taken the helm of leadership in African countries, are those that work to satisfy their interests and the interest of the West at the expense of their citizens. These leaders have plundered and looted public funds that ought to be used for the development of their countries. They are corrupt. They manipulate the Constitution to serve their interest. They rig elections, impose themselves on the citizens, and live lavishly while the masses suffer. These leaders are weak and have no vision to build a great country. In fact, the right words for them are not leaders but thieves who only care about how much public funds they can loot before their tenure expires. Despite this weak and bad leadership that Africa has been plagued with since Independence, does this mean that African countries are not capable of ruling themselves and so need to be recolonized by the West? Is recolonization by the West the only option to build Africa?

Interestingly, some people think that the answer to these two questions is yes. Shocking right? I mean, everybody knows that there are still some facets of neo-colonialism such as how Francophone Africa is required to pay colonial debt to France meanwhile it has to keep 50 percent of its foreign reserve in the French Treasury. However, outright colonialism where Europe and Western countries ruled African countries, directly ended decades ago, with everyone thinking that that chapter of African history had been closed. Certainly, we know that there are still people who are not happy that African countries gained their right to self-governance and wish that colonization continue up to this day because of the massive profit they would gain but to think that someone can come out and openly say that Africans should be recolonized is downright shocking. Please watch this video. ( play the video of Erik Prince saying that Africa should be recolonized)

This man who just confidently and without mincing words declared that African countries should be recolonized because they are not capable of self-governance, is none other than Erik Prince, a former US Navy officer and the founder of Blackwater, an American private military company. This company may have changed its name three times from Blackwater to Xe Services and currently Academi but it’s no different from the Wagner mercenary group. Blackwater has been hired by the US military countless times for missions promoting US foreign policy most notably in Iraq. The company became widely known in 2007 after one of its missions ended in the massacre of 17 unarmed people, including two children. Initially, the employees involved in the massacre were sentenced, however, when Donald Trump came into power, all of them were pardoned. Imagine that. Now, the 2007 massacre is the only mission carried out by Blackwater that the world knows about. What about the others that remain hidden and may even be worse off, leading to the destabilization of a whole country?

So, how can a man who created a military-for-hire group that is responsible for causing havoc and infiltrating countries have the guts to say that African and Latin American countries should be recolonized by the US, the same country responsible for destabilizing countless countries around the globe? No doubt it is simply Western superiority rearing its head again. According to Erik Prince, a recolonization of Africa is justifiable because Africans struggle with self-governance as a result of having leaders who prioritize personal gain over the welfare of their citizens which then leads to African citizens migrating to the West for a better life, something he called an invasion. So, to stop Africans from invading America, their countries need to be recolonized. To make his statement seem sympathetic he added that “if you go to these countries and you see how they suffer, under absolutely corrupt governments that are just criminal syndicates, a lot of them deserve better.” With these words, Erik seems like he truly cares about the poor African masses but that’s just a cover-up. This same mindset that Erik Prince has is the same mindset that started colonization in the first place. These imperialists tell themselves and the world that they are taking over another man’s land for the betterment of all, meanwhile, the truth is, it’s all to serve their interest.

As one critic said, Erik did not say that Africa should be colonized again because he cared about the betterment of Africans, he said so not just because of the access to abundant resources that the United States would have but also because of the profit that he would make if it happens. In essence, he is just promoting himself. I mean, for him to come out to the world to talk about the need for colonization again without the fear of the backlash, doesn’t it mean that he has people in top places who agree with him? The unfortunate thing in all this is that some people in Africa agree with Erik Prince and you can’t exactly blame them because they are tired of the current state of their countries despite the huge resources available. One Nigerian citizen upon hearing Erik’s call for recolonization commented that at least if African countries are colonized by the USA, then there would be good roads, constant light, and the naira will be scrapped in favor of the dollar. Another stated that he would gladly welcome recolonization with open arms because the leaders have done nothing but enrich themselves at the expense of the masses. It is truly heartbreaking that things are so bad that some Africans now believe that Africans are not capable of self-governance and should be colonized again.

However, It seems that they have forgotten that there was a reason Africa fought for Independence. If everything was rosy and sweet, why did African leaders fight for the right to self-governance? The fact is that the same people they are calling to colonize Africa are the same people responsible for the current state of African countries. Think about how the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the colonization of African countries pushed the continent back in terms of development. Yes, they may have built roads, hospitals, schools, and ports, but the colonial masters built these infrastructures in strategic places to serve their interests. Roads, ports, and bridges were built to transport raw materials gotten from the colonies to Europe. Mining companies were established to mine minerals. Schools were built to indoctrinate and civilize Africans. The people who lived in the best streets were not Africans but Europeans. So, what makes those Africans who believe that Africa will be better off being recolonized think that it will be any different now?

In a world where despite the efforts put in place to eradicate racism, there are people among the leadership of the West who still hate the black man and regard the black man as an animal, so what would happen if people like that get the chance to rule African countries? No doubt, it will simply be a repeat of the past and may even be worse off. Erik Prince and his proponents may say that Africa only has leaders who loot and enrich themselves at the expense of the masses but what about all the leaders in Africa who attempted to change things? What happened to them? They are all dead, assassinated by the West. From Patrice Lumumba to Thomas Sankara, Muammar Gaddafi, and M.K Abiola. Whenever there is a leader who attempts to do something different, he is quickly eliminated because the West knows that if Africa becomes stable and developed, the continent will assume power and they don’t want that. If this is not the case, why is it that all Western interventions whether in the form of military or economic always leave the African country worse off than before their intervention?

Take the case of African Independence for example. When African countries got their Independence, most of these countries were not stable financially and economically because the colonial masters took everything with them, and some of them such as Francophone Africa were in debt, not because they borrowed money but because they were required to pay for the benefit they supposedly enjoyed during the era of colonialism. Imagine that. Now, in the guise of helping African countries, the IMF and the World Bank introduced the Structural Adjustment program which provided debt relief to African countries in exchange for adjusting their economy to be more capitalistic and promoting liberalization. However, one thing all the research on the SAP program will tell you is that the adoption of the SAP program left African countries in more debt, an inflationary spike, and a complete failure of the economy. Today, African countries are still struggling to solve the effect of the SAP, and the reason why the program failed was that it was never their intention to help Africa. The SAP meant that the Bretton Woods institutions had “control of African exports which consisted mainly of raw materials and commodity products, and since they had control, they could easily influence the price, reducing the amount they paid for the product and at the same time increasing their own exports into Africa. And so, profits were “exported to the West” and economic growth was crippled through limited local investment. This is the reality of Africa.

Some people may point out how far China and even India have come but the fact is you can not compare Africa and China. The whole system has been rigged against the African continent from the beginning and is compounded by the fact that its leaders are weak-minded people who cannot stand for their people. However, there is hope. New leaders such as Ibrahim Traore and Julius Malema are emerging who have chosen to say NO to the ideas and interference of the West. Hopefully, these leaders are the ones who would take the continent to a greater height.