Can Africa ever regain its independence? By Gabriel Dedji

In February 2018, Black Panther took the cinema world by storm. Interestingly, the
fictional setting of Wakanda: an African Utopia, was integral to the film’s appeal.
Most likely, this was due to the interesting cross between futuristic technology and
indigenous African culture in a nation that was completely untouched by the West
and entirely independent from it in every aspect. I ascribe to the belief that the tale
of Wakanda is an allegory for pre-colonial Africa (I’ll elaborate later). However,
the purpose of this article is not to discuss the movie or even Wakanda at all.
Rather, my question is: is it possible for the African continent or even an African
country to reach a Wakandan level of independence and power in today’s world? I
come from Benin Republic, thus I can speak about West Africa and Francophone
Africa with more clarity than elsewhere.

Returning to Wakanda, what does pre-colonial Africa even refer to? Well, once
upon a time, European explorers hadn’t yet decided to travel to Africa uninvited
and eradicate entire parts of their culture. Coincidentally, the continent was mostly
a peaceful place: business was booming and technology was advancing rapidly.
Just in terms of everyday equipment, Eastern and Northern Africa were pioneers in
manufacturing tools and using metal during the Bronze and Iron ages, absolutely
dwarfing the technological input from Western Europe at the time. West Africa
took the lead in the 16 th  Century. The walls of *Benin City were collectively the
largest man-made structures in the world before being damaged in 1897 by the
British and the great mosque of Djenné in Mali is still an architectural wonder to
this day. 16 th  Century in West Africa was also a great time for education as Mansa
Musa from Mali, probably the richest ruler in history, turned Timbuktu into a hub
for international philosophers and scholars.

In today’s day and age, economies such as Ethiopia, Rwanda and Ivory Coast are
expected to grow rapidly (between 7-7.4%) and many world leaders are watching
the economic growth of Nigeria (2.3%) and Ghana (7.6%). In spite of this, Africa
cannot compete with Europe on an economic scale. This wasn’t the case five
centuries ago. Understandably, you may wonder why I’ve spent such a large part
of this article reminiscing about this fabled pre-colonial Africa. In response, we
can take a look at Benin Republic and many other French speaking countries in
Africa who currently use the Franc CFA (the abbreviation translates to French
African Colony) as their national currency. All of these countries are the only ones
in the world whose currency is made in another country because France is
practically in charge of their economies to this day. It is nearly impossible for
Francophone countries in Africa to find economic independence when they’re
forced to pay 65% of their national reserves annually to France as a compensation
tax for all the good they did to them during slavery. We also have to pay 20%
annually for financial liabilities. As a result, the CFA usually has a consistent
value because France does not allow it to increase or decrease like the Pound or the
Euro.

What happens when Africa tries to regain pre-colonial independence regardless of
these constrictions of freedom? Look at Libya in 2019. The country suffers from
power outages, homelessness and extreme poverty. In 2010, Libya was an African
Utopia: homes, healthcare, electricity and education were all free and poverty was
even lower than the Netherlands (this doesn’t even address Libya’s work in other
African nations). This was until Gaddafi announced his plans for a united and
independent Africa. America confiscated the $30 billion that he had earmarked for
the project in 2011. Later that year, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and US
secretary-of-state Hilary Clinton played their part in Gaddafi’s murder. Shortly
after, much of Libya’s $7 billion dollar gold and silver reserves depleted
drastically, which probably was not a coincidence.

All of this evidence exemplifies Guinean President Sékou Touré's quote: “We
prefer freedom in poverty to opulence in slavery”. Will Africa ever truly regain its
independence? Only time will tell.

*Benin City is in Nigeria; Benin Republic is a separate country