Zone1 How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

[Mikeoxenormous]

Now let's get down to the nitty gritty.

ALL RIISE!

5. 1 Expatriation of African Surplus under Colonialism
(d) The Colonial Administration as Economic Exploiter

In Britain, the notorious slave-trading port of Liverpool was the first to switch to palm oil early in the 19th century when the trade in slaves became difficult or impossible. This meant that Liverpool firms were no longer exploiting Africa by removing its labour physically to another part of the world. Instead, they were exploiting the labour and raw materials of Africa inside Africa.

It was on this very issue of currency that the colonial government did the most manipulations to ensure that Africa’s wealth was stashed away in the coffers of the metropolitan state. In the British colonial sphere, coins and notes were first issued through private banks. Then this function was taken over by the West African Currency Board and the East African Currency Board established in 1912 and 1919, respectively. The currency issued by those Boards in the colonies had to be backed by ‘sterling reserves’, which was money earned by Africa. The manner in which the system worked was as follows. When a colony earned foreign exchange (mainly) through exports, these earnings were held in Britain in Pounds Sterling. An equivalent amount of local East or West African currency was issued for circulation in the respective colonies, while the Sterling was invested in British Government Stock thereby earning even more profit for Britain. The commercial banks worked hand in hand with the metropolitan government and the Currency Boards to make the system work. Together they established an intricate financial network which served the common end of enriching Europe at Africa’s expense.

The contribution to sterling reserves by any colony was a gift to the British treasury, for which the colony received little interest. By the end of the 1950s, the sterling reserves of a small colony like Sierra Leone had reached £60 million; while in 1955 the British government was holding £210 million derived from the sale of cocoa and minerals from Gold Coast. Egypt and the Sudan were also heavy contributors to Britain. Africa’s total contribution to Britain’s sterling balances in 1945 was £446 million, which went up to £1,446 million by 1955-more than half the total gold and dollar reserves of Britain and the Commonwealth, which then stood at £2,120 million. Men like Arthur Creech-Jones and Oliver Lyttleton, major figures in British colonial policy-making, admitted that in the early 1950s Britain was living on the dollar earnings of the colonies

https://abahlali.org/files/3295358-walter-rodney.pdf

The whites came in and the people were living in shit houses, civilization was brought with the white man, yet when whites were chased out by black dictators, soon the countries went back to shit houses......

 

[AZrailwhale]

I'm going to skip to chapter 5.

ALL RIISE!

TONIGHT'S LESSON:

5. 1 Expatriation of African Surplus under Colonialism
(a) Capital and African wage labour
Colonial Africa fell within that part of the international capitalist economy from which surplus was drawn to feed the metropolitan sector. As seen earlier, exploitation of land and labour is essential for human social advance, but only on the assumption that the product is made available within the area where the exploitation takes place. Colonialism was not merely a system of exploitation, but one whose essential purpose was to repatriate the profits to the so-called ‘mother country’. From an African view-point, that amounted to consistent expatriation of surplus produced by African labour out of African resources. It meant the development of Europe as part of the same dialectical process in which Africa was underdeveloped.

There were several reasons why the African worker was more crudely exploited than his European counterpart in the present century. Firstly, the alien colonial state had a monopoly of political power, after crushing all opposition by armed force. Secondly, the African working class was small, very dispersed, and very unstable owing to migratory practices. Thirdly, while capitalism was willing to exploit all workers everywhere, European capitalists in Africa had additional racial justifications for dealing unjustly with the African worker. The racist theory that the black man was inferior led to the conclusion that he deserved lower wages; and, interestingly enough, the light-skinned Arab and Berber populations of North Africa were treated as ‘blacks’ by the white racist French. The combination of the above factors in turn made it extremely difficult for African workers to organise themselves. It is only the organisation and resoluteness of the working class which protects it from the natural tendency of the capitalist to exploit to the utmost. That is why in all colonial territories, when African workers realised the necessity for trade union solidarity, numerous obstacles were laid in their paths by the colonial regimes.

Wages paid to workers in Europe and North America were much higher than wages paid to African workers in comparable categories. The Nigerian coalminer at Enugu earned 1/- per day for working underground and 0/9d per day for jobs on the surface. Such a miserable wage would be beyond comprehension of a Scottish or German coalminer who could virtually earn in an hour what the Enugu miner was paid for a six-day week. The same disparity existed with port workers. The records of the large American shipping company, Farrell Lines, show that in 1955, of the total amount spent on loading and discharging cargo moving between Africa and America, five-sixths went to American workers and one-sixth to Africans. Yet, it was the same amount of cargo loaded and unloaded at both ends.

https://abahlali.org/files/3295358-walter-rodney.pdf

I think that you would find there was a large discrepancy in the cost of living between Europe/North America and Africa. That's one reason for the difference.

 

[IM2]

(d) The Colonial Administration as Economic Exploiter

In addition to private companies, the colonial state also engaged directly in the economic exploitation and impoverishment of Africa. The equivalent of the colonial office in each colonising country worked hand in hand with their governors in Africa to carry out a number of functions; the principal ones being as follows:

(a) To protect national interests against competition from other capitalists.

(b) To arbitrate the conflicts between their own capitalists.

(c) To guarantee optimum conditions under which private companies could exploit Africans.

The last mentioned objective was the most crucial. That is why colonial governments were repeatedly speaking about ‘the maintenance of law and order’, by which they meant the maintenance of conditions most favourable to the expansion of capitalism and the plunder of Africa. This led the colonial governments to impose taxes.

One of the main purposes of the colonial taxation system was to provide requisite funds for administering the colony as a field of exploitation. European colonisers ensured that Africans paid for the upkeep of the governors and police who oppressed them and served as watchdogs for private capitalists. Indeed, taxes and customs duties were levied in the 19th century with the aim of allowing the colonial powers to recover the costs of the armed forces which they despatched to conquer Africa. In effect, therefore, the colonial governments never put a penny into the colonies. All expenses were met by exploiting the labour and natural resources of the continent; and for all practical purposes the expense of maintaining the colonial government machinery was a form of alienation of the products of African labour. The French colonies were especially victimised in this respect. Particularly since 1921, the local revenue raised from taxation had to meet all expenses as well as to build up a reserve.

https://abahlali.org/files/3295358-walter-rodney.pdf

 

[IM2]

an, you are so out of touch with reality. I never said that they were "WHITIES" but they sure werent "LOSER BLACKIES", either..

Black or white? Ancient Egyptian race mystery now solved

Not too many Africans in this bunch that is closely related to ancient Egyptians.

Iraq...............................................................................................................Jordanians
View attachment 806061 View attachment 806063
Palastinians..................................................................................Turks
View attachment 806064 View attachment 806065

I am completely cognizant of reality. Black Egyptians have always existed.

My father had this complexion. White gave themselves credit for Egypt but:

These ancient paintings tell a different story.

 

[Mikeoxenormous]

I am completely cognizant of reality. Black Egyptians have always existed.

My father had this complexion. White gave themselves credit for Egypt but:

These ancient paintings tell a different story.

Only after they were conquered by the light skin Egyptians, from the tribes of the South. You know, enslaved at first then given freedom if they served the Pharoh's well.

 

[Kruska]

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa​

 

[Kruska]

Animals were killed for Ivory and furs.

You mean African's didn't do that? or the elephant saying: No you can't have my tusks, because I am property of the Fusi Watusi tribe?

The resources of Africa were not returned to build infrastructure, clean water, schools, hospitals needed for a modern society

Obviously you have never been to Africa.

 

[rightwinger]

You mean African's didn't do that? or the elephant saying: No you can't have my tusks, because I am property of the Fusi Watusi tribe?

Obviously you have never been to Africa.

You bet your ass Africans did all the work at slave wages

Europeans took home all the profit

 

[Hector12]

Read the chapter and stop trolling.

Because I assume you have read the book, I expect you to be able to express its arguments using your own words.

Prior to European colonialism the Bantu were at about the same level as the German tribesmen written about by Julius Caesar and Tacitus about two thousand years ago. The political unit was the tribe. They had agriculture and the use of iron. They had no systems of writing and mathematics, and no cities.

Prior to the coming of Columbus the Maya Indians had developed indigenous systems of writing and mathematics. Maya mathematicians were using the concept of zero before European mathematicians: Roman numbers have no zero. Maya astronomers were able to predict eclipses of the sun and the moon. The Aztecs adopted Maya writing and mathematics.

 

[Mac-7]

Europe raped Africa of its resources while returning little of the revenue generated to the people who actually resided there.

We will take your Ivory, furs, gold, diamonds, minerals, oil and give you nothing in return

Is it any different today when red china is taking african resources?

Africans have had 75 years of freedom and havent learned a thing

 

[toobfreak]

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa​

Who developed Europe? That's right--- Europeans.

Who developed Africa? Not Africans. Apparently they can't develop themselves.

They've been waiting around for the invention of welfare.

 

[Woodznutz]

It’s 450+ pages long. How about you summarize it instead of copying and pasting if you care about the subject so much?


Personally I think Africans are not meant for Western style civilization. They are a tribal people and hunters and should live that way, not trying to conform to Western standards and living in large cities. In many ways such a life is probably a lot more rewarding. A “simpler“ life doesn’t mean it is inferior.

True. I live a simple life and love it.

 

[Woodznutz]

Cherrry picking pictures that confirm your bias shows just how much you need to read this information.

Naiirobi Kenya

Khartoum Sudan

Addis Ababa Ethiopia

The America you don't post pictures of

I'm not summarizing anything. Read the information so you can learn something because your summary of Africa is inaccurate and it should be debunked using evidence presented by experts on African history. We have not had a hard time adapting to anything. This is where your delusions come into play. We have faxed racism, that has been the problem. Other races have had the same problem and jews are not a race. Indians get here on the H1B Government program that gives them jobs. You do need to read what happened because you do not know the half. You believe a bunch of white nonsense.

Perhaps the 'curse of Canaan' is still in effect. The Jews are clearly still under a curse.

 

[IM2]

Having set up the police, army, civil service and judiciary on African soil, the colonising powers were then in a position to intervene much more directly in the economic life of the people than had been the case previously. One major problem in Africa from a capitalist viewpoint was how to induce Africans to become labourers or cash-crop farmers. In some areas, such as West Africa, Africans had become so attached to European manufactures during the early period of trade that, on their own initiative, they were prepared to go to great lengths to participate in the colonial money economy. But that was not the universal response. In many instances, Africans did not consider the monetary incentives great enough to justify changing their way of life so as to become labourers or cash-crop farmers. In such cases, the colonial state intervened to use law, taxation and outright force to make Africans pursue a line favourable to capitalist profits.

When colonial governments seized African lands, they achieved two things simultaneously. They satisfied their own citizens (who wanted mining concessions or farming land) and they created the conditions whereby landless Africans had to work not just to pay taxes but also to survive. In settler areas such as Kenya and Rhodesia the colonial government also prevented Africans from growing cash-crops so that their labour would be available directly for the whites. One of the Kenya white settlers, Colonel Grogan, put it bluntly when he said of the Kikuyu: ‘We have stolen his land. Now we must steal his limbs. Compulsory labour is the corollary of our occupation of the country.’

In those parts of the continent where land was still in African hands, colonial governments forced Africans to produce cash-crops no matter how low the prices were. The favourite technique was taxation. Money taxes were introduced on numerous items – cattle, land, houses and the people themselves. Money to pay taxes was got by growing cash-crops or working on European farms or in their mines. An interesting example of what colonialism was all about was provided in French Equatorial Africa, where French officials banned the Mandja people (now in Congo Brazzaville) from hunting, so that they would engage solely in cotton cultivation. The French enforced the ban although there was little livestock in the area and hunting was the main source of meat in the people’s diet.

Finally, when all else failed, colonial powers resorted widely to the physical coercion of labour – backed up of course by legal sanctions, since anything which the colonial government chose to do was ‘legal’. The laws and by-laws which peasants in British East Africa were required to maintain minimum acreages of cash-crops like cotton and groundnuts were in effect forms of coercion by the colonial state, although they are not normally considered under the heading of ‘forced labour’. The simplest form of forced labour was that which colonial governments exacted to carry out ‘public works’. Labour for a given number of days per year had to be given free for these ‘public works’ – building castles for governors, prisons for Africans, barracks for troops, and bungalows for colonial officials. A great deal of this forced labour went into the construction of roads, railways and ports to provide the infrastructure for private capitalist investment and to facilitate the export of cash-crops.

https://abahlali.org/files/3295358-walter-rodney.pdf

 

[Woodznutz]

Having set up the police, army, civil service and judiciary on African soil, the colonising powers were then in a position to intervene much more directly in the economic life of the people than had been the case previously. One major problem in Africa from a capitalist viewpoint was how to induce Africans to become labourers or cash-crop farmers. In some areas, such as West Africa, Africans had become so attached to European manufactures during the early period of trade that, on their own initiative, they were prepared to go to great lengths to participate in the colonial money economy. But that was not the universal response. In many instances, Africans did not consider the monetary incentives great enough to justify changing their way of life so as to become labourers or cash-crop farmers. In such cases, the colonial state intervened to use law, taxation and outright force to make Africans pursue a line favourable to capitalist profits.

When colonial governments seized African lands, they achieved two things simultaneously. They satisfied their own citizens (who wanted mining concessions or farming land) and they created the conditions whereby landless Africans had to work not just to pay taxes but also to survive. In settler areas such as Kenya and Rhodesia the colonial government also prevented Africans from growing cash-crops so that their labour would be available directly for the whites. One of the Kenya white settlers, Colonel Grogan, put it bluntly when he said of the Kikuyu: ‘We have stolen his land. Now we must steal his limbs. Compulsory labour is the corollary of our occupation of the country.’

In those parts of the continent where land was still in African hands, colonial governments forced Africans to produce cash-crops no matter how low the prices were. The favourite technique was taxation. Money taxes were introduced on numerous items – cattle, land, houses and the people themselves. Money to pay taxes was got by growing cash-crops or working on European farms or in their mines. An interesting example of what colonialism was all about was provided in French Equatorial Africa, where French officials banned the Mandja people (now in Congo Brazzaville) from hunting, so that they would engage solely in cotton cultivation. The French enforced the ban although there was little livestock in the area and hunting was the main source of meat in the people’s diet.

Finally, when all else failed, colonial powers resorted widely to the physical coercion of labour – backed up of course by legal sanctions, since anything which the colonial government chose to do was ‘legal’. The laws and by-laws which peasants in British East Africa were required to maintain minimum acreages of cash-crops like cotton and groundnuts were in effect forms of coercion by the colonial state, although they are not normally considered under the heading of ‘forced labour’. The simplest form of forced labour was that which colonial governments exacted to carry out ‘public works’. Labour for a given number of days per year had to be given free for these ‘public works’ – building castles for governors, prisons for Africans, barracks for troops, and bungalows for colonial officials. A great deal of this forced labour went into the construction of roads, railways and ports to provide the infrastructure for private capitalist investment and to facilitate the export of cash-crops.

https://abahlali.org/files/3295358-walter-rodney.pdf

It's good that Africa is now safely back in the hands of Africans.

 

[IM2]

It's good that Africa is now safely back in the hands of Africans.

That's not exactly true and what this documents is how whites messed up Africa and used that continent to gain wealth. Europe would be nothing without Africa.

 

[Hector12]

Civilization civilizes, but the process is evolutionary and takes many generations. Civilizations select genetically for intelligence. They select genetically against criminal inclinations.

Empires imposed civilization onto barbarians. The Roman Empire imposed civilization on the Celts. The Holy Roman Empire imposed civilization on the Germans. The European empires in sub Saharan Africa ended centuries too soon.

Europeans in sub Saharan Africa built schools, hospitals, electric power generators, water purification plants, and other aspects of white civilization. These are deteriorating not that the whites have left.

Europeans did not hold African Negroes down. They lifted them up. In the absence of whites African Negroes are declining.

 

[Woodznutz]

That's not exactly true...

You could have stopped right there.

 

[22lcidw]

You bet your ass Africans did all the work at slave wages

Europeans took home all the profit

The opportunities are there now. And have for decades Not one from that area has developed free energy or massive ways of comfort for us and the world.

 

[Godboy]

Let's take a serious look at what really happened in Africa from the perspective of an African.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, is a book written by Walter Rodney. Rodney was a historian, political activist and academic. His work is important to understanding the true impact of European colonization on the African content.

So let's start with chapter 2.

How Africa Developed Before the Coming of the Europeans up to the 15th Century

‘Before even the British came into relations with our people, we were a developed people, having our own institutions, having our own ideas of government.’ J. E. Casely-Hayford, 1922. African (Gold Coast) Nationalist

https://abahlali.org/files/3295358-walter-rodney.pdf

Please read chapter 2.

So they were an inferior culture who got steamrolled by a superior one? Welcome to world history.