Africa Insight - latest Issue

That Africa has made immense progress on many fronts over the last few decades is not disputable. However, numerous challenges face the continent in its effort to overcome the damage unleashed by decades of colonisation and imperialism. Those forces all but destroyed the humanity and existence of the people of Africa. As clearly documented by history, it was through the exploitation and plunder of their natural resources, and by imposing arbitrary boundaries between countries, that colonisation sowed the seeds of division and conflict which still plague the continent today. Africa has faced many conflicts that have fractured and destabilised many regions. Darfur, Somalia, Mali, Burundi and Libya, among others, are cases in point. External mediation has not brought about lasting peace. Furthermore, Western-based economic policies forced on Africa, for example, the market-oriented Structural-Adjustment Programmes (SAPs), along with the myriad of donor aid and related ‘assistance’, have failed to bring about the kind of development that Africa wants.