Africa better off under Colonial Rule from Planck's Constant

Petrol station, Keffi
Flickr Photo by: MikeBlyth.

Africa has enough oil and mineral wealth to make every one of its inhabitants a millionaire. Since its "release" from the shackles of colonialism, Africa has steadily become poorer compared to the rest of the world [Wiki]. Despite earning over $100m a day from oil exports, Nigeria [50% Muslim] and Angola are ranked among the 30 poorest countries in the world [BBC]. If bleeding heart do-gooders in America and Europe minded their own business since the 1960s and never sent aid, there would have been half as many people in Nigeria today which would have meant that the remaining population would have been twice as well off as they are today [See my post For Gods Sake - Stop Helping Africa].

Nigeria two generations ago had a population of about 35 million and today it is teeming with 150 million poor souls [Wiki]. As Nigeria becomes more and more Muslim the fertility rate will continue to increase; incredibly, the United States Census Bureau projects that [the] population of Nigeria will reach 356 million by 2050 and 602 million by 2100, overtaking the USA as the 3rd most populous country in the world all the while continuing to fund terror against its own people, its neighbors, and the West.

What Africa needs desperately is to be colonized again, but by America. In order for the Western world to invest in Africa there has to be political stability, decent roads, schools that educate not inculcate subservience to Allah, and reliable sources of water and electricity. Two of the greatest successes of the modern world occurred with the American Colonial occupation of Germany and Japan. Who would not invest in those countries when America was dictating the social and economic policies of those nations?

If Nigeria were controlled by America it would not have squandered the $400 billion it received in oil revenues since 1970 [BBC] with almost all of it going to fund local wars or into private bank accounts outside of Nigeria. Certainly even a pessimist would have to agree that at worst, the money would have gone to American corporations and therefore unavailable for funding wars or other evil purposes.

Despite living in a country that produces more than
160,000 barrels of oil a day, most Chadians buy their
gasoline from sellers who store it in used soda
and liquor bottles.
Photo: Raymond Thibodeaux for the Boston Globe

All over Africa, oil and mineral monies never make it to the poor.

Boston Globe News,
30 Apr 2006,
Anger rises in oil-rich Chad as funds don't aid the poor
Three years after Chad [53% Muslim - Bernie] began exporting its oil with assistance from the World Bank, few people outside the capital have access to electricity, running water, paved roads, and health clinics. Public schools are nonexistent. Life expectancy is 46 years for men, and only slightly longer for women.

The thwarted hopes of many have turned to resentment toward the government of President Idriss Déby, widely perceived here as using the nation's oil wealth to enrich himself and those close to him. It's a perception shared by Transparency International, a Berlin-based corruption watchdog, which last year rated Chad as the most corrupt country in Africa.

Even in South Africa, which was once a decent economic power, the dismantling of Apartheid did not improve the lot of blacks. The unemployment rate is 25.5% (2006 est.) and 50% of the population lives below the poverty line (2000 est.) [CIA Factbook].

South Africa is a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for forced labor and sexual exploitation; women and girls are trafficked internally - and occasionally to European and Asian countries - for sexual exploitation; women from other African countries are trafficked to South Africa and, less frequently, onward to Europe for sexual exploitation; men and boys are trafficked from neighboring countries for forced agricultural labor; Asian and Eastern European women are trafficked to South Africa for debt-bonded sexual exploitation.

Now I am not saying that Apartheid was a good thing for blacks, but Africans have not used their mineral wealth properly. I believe a good American style Colonial control of Africa would be the best thing for Africans.

Certainly the problems in Iraq are precisely because we tried to let Iraqis govern themselves. We should have done for Iraq what we did during the half century of occupation in Germany and Japan: let two generations grow up under American-style democracy. Sadly, we are a bully that could have made the world into a peaceful, productive place; instead, we try to please everyone and show how sensitive and caring we are. Now we speak softly but we dropped our big stick.

Related:
Indigo Red has a great How Big is Africa Map, go see.