When talking about Africa, what do you think of first? Poverty, hunger, desolation, war? This may be our deepest impression of Africa, but is Africa really what we think it is? In my opinion, these are only one side of Africa. What does the true face of Africa look like? And where is the root of such suffering in Africa? With these doubts I opened this book, I hope to find the answer from it.
The first thing to explain is an obvious fact that the external world’s perception of a country or a region is always lagging behind for more than ten or twenty years. Just like China, the world always thinks that China is still the way it was in the 1980s and 1990s, struggling with food and clothing, but the reality is that China is no longer the country that still worries about food. Especially in the recent past 1989, I believe that every Chinese can feel the country’s progress and development, and China’s international status is also increasing day by day. In fact, Africa has made great progress in recent years. Some countries are accumulating their own strength even after stabilizing, such as Algeria, Morocco, South Africa, Congo, etc. Of course, there are still many problems in them that need to be solved urgently, but Looking at the whole of Africa, they have at least stabilized or have enough experience, but it will take years of hard work to see results.
The current scientific research shows that human ancestors reproduced and migrated from Africa, whether it is Europe, Asia, or the distant Americas. Although each place has its own historical research, at least so far, it has not been able to prove the comparison. The older race in Africa. Africa has also seen glorious dynasties in his long history. Timbuktu is one of them. It was once portrayed as a country full of gold, just as attractive as Marco Polo's China. About the glorious history of Africa, we may know more about Egypt. After all, he is still one of the four ancient civilizations. The most important thing is that we can still see the pyramids, sphinxes, mummies and so on. It is more convincing for us. Africa was once so strong in history, and it shouldn’t be worse if it continues to develop in this way. Islam and Christianity have spread in Africa on a large scale, but these don’t seem to be the key points. The Arabs have repeatedly used force. They have invaded this land, even India has visited here, but they have not had much impact on Africa. Until the 15th century Europe opened the era of great navigation, some European maritime powers gradually went out of their homes and explored more overseas resources. From this time on, the destiny of Africa will be rewritten. Portugal is a country closer to Africa. With its powerful strength, it has opened his overseas colonial era.
After the Portuguese arrived, they seized huge profits from Africa. Then the European powers were more like wolves smelling blood. Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, etc. came here one after another to establish their own colonies. The most powerful of these are Britain, France and Germany. They each have their own spheres of influence. Among them, Britain and France are relatively fiercely contested countries. They each have their own management methods for colonies. The British management of colonies is , Send a governor to take charge of the local management, and the others below can use the locals to manage themselves. The French management style is not the same. Those colonial countries are more like French "organs". They only unconditionally obey the suzerain state and continuously supply the suzerain state. In fact, this has had a profound impact on the countries that later became independent in Africa, and it still affects these countries to this day. Since the United Kingdom allows a part of the local elite to participate in local management, it is easier for countries that later to separate from the United Kingdom to gain independence to adapt to their own management of the country. The French are different. Because France only allows its own officials to manage, and the locals have only to obey, it is difficult for a country that later separated from France to gain independence to manage the country on its own. When returning to the embrace of the suzerain country, one has to explore management methods alone, and some have since entered a state of division, and the wounds have not been healed yet. Here I would like to mention that another country is Belgium. This country may not be very familiar to us. Even if it is placed in Europe, Belgium is still a small country. It is conceivable how small a country is. It is used for the colonial rule of Africa. The Chinese idiom describes a great traitor as loyalty, and a great falsehood as true. Because Belgium started late, when they wanted to get a share of Africa, the old powers such as Britain, France and Germany had already wrestled in Africa, so they thought of a high-sounding reason and sent an explorer to it. The Congo River explored, explored, and then moved in for the sake of protecting the area, and then colonized it grandiosely. This is not the most important thing. What is even more cruel is that Belgium’s colonial rule on the local area is neither like Britain nor France. In fact, it is extremely cruel to suppress the local colonial rule. The local blacks were forced to work and continuously supplied resources to his suzerain. If anyone showed a sense of resistance, he would be executed. In addition, his family members would be subjected to cruel punishments such as beheading, beheading, and feet. Hand chop is a common penalty. Later, in the Belgian colonial area of the Congo, a large number of people with no hands, feet or other disabilities were left behind, and most of them were children. In addition, it also instigated local ethnic sentiments and ethnic conflicts. Later massacres in Burundi, Rwanda and other places were actually related to their rule. It can be said that the Belgian rule is the ultimate squeeze of the local area. With the current international community’s attention to Africa, the brutal colonial rule as it was at the beginning is now basically extinct, but the scars left by it have not been healed so far, and they often recur.
After entering the 20th century, the national independence sentiment in Africa has been on the rise, especially in the mid-to-late 20th century. Heroes leading national independence have appeared everywhere, countries have declared independence, and the trend of decolonization has swept Africa. European colonial countries also seem to see that the end of colonial rule is an irreversible trend of the times, so they gradually recognize their independence either actively or passively. At a time, Africa became independent of dozens of various political powers, large and small. But independence is just the beginning. The newly established regime also encountered various problems. Most of the first-generation leaders who led its independence did not receive a higher and more systematic education, and more of it conformed to the prevailing conditions at the time. Trends and their own personal charm led the independence movement, and the management of the country after independence is a big problem. This has also caused many countries to become independent, but the country seems to have entered a more chaotic state. The economy has collapsed, the system is chaotic, and the domestic parties and races struggle with each other and conflicts. Some countries have to return to the embrace of the original sovereign state. Some countries think that all their sufferings stem from the "dictator" who led them to independence. They think that overthrowing him will get democracy and freedom, but the fact is that they didn't get what they wanted, and instead entered a more chaotic state. , Of course, this does not rule out Western countries in the trouble. These are similar to the riots in Hong Kong, China. Perhaps it is because Africa has been under too long and cruel colonial rule that their ideology and culture have been faulted, and they have no self-reliant thinking ability. Even after independence, it is difficult to maintain it alone. After experiencing many pains, Africa is gradually calming down. They are reflecting and exploring, looking for the future of Africa. It may take hundreds of years to heal the wounds. Ethnic conflicts and dependence on the sovereign state still exist, but the emergence of China and India in Africa seems to have opened another window to Africa. With China's continuous investment and construction in Africa, there will be no shortage of African wounds healing in the future. A good medicine.
Looking back at everything that Africa has experienced, it seems that we have all experienced it, but the hard-working and intelligent Chinese people did not let this country stay in the quagmire for too long. Even today we still face the hostile attitude of external forces towards us, we can all deal with it calmly, and I believe the future will be the same. Africa’s problems have historical reasons as well as their own problems. To borrow a quote from the former British Prime Minister Blair, "When it comes to Africa, it always feels desolate. I have said on many occasions that I think Africa is the whole world. A scar on conscience". There are many things we can think of when we travel across Africa, and we should learn from history to develop ourselves.