Where Is The Future of Africa?

Africa is the second largest continent in the world with a total area of 30,330,000km. Africa has a total population of about 1 billion and has a total of fifty five countries. In terms of industrialization, Africa is the least industrialized continent continent. Some of the economic activities in Africa are mining gold, agriculture, tourism, and fishing.

Before colonization of Africa by European countries, it was already civilized. Some countries had systemic political organization such as kingdom and monarchy. They also had both social and economic organization. Economic activities included hurting and their social civilization was evident due to practice of religion and marriage.

The European interest in Africa started an early or as the 1st century. They were interested in the region due to the raw materials and favorable environmental conditions. Additionally, they need a place to accommodate their growing population. There was scramble and partition of Africa among the European countries, hence in 1884, at the request of Portugal, the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck convened a meeting about how to partition Africa. After the Berlin Conference, different African countries were colonized. By 1914, all Africa countries had been colonized except Liberia and Ethiopia. This colonization continued until 1990, when the last country gained independence from the European powers.

After independence, the African countries started developing gradually. Many countries formed their own government systems and adopted different means of developing industrially. Africa has greatly developed transport. For example, the establishment of the Standard Gauge railway in Kenya signifies the great development. Between 2002 and 2009, Africa had the fastest growth in mobile phone subscriptions in the world.

Post-Independent Africa is now the focus of a new scramble. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War,  the USA and European countries have been trying to invest their own economic and political interests in Africa. For example there has been an oil rush in sub-Saharan Africa, due to demand for oil and gas and the volatile situation in the Middle East. The new scramble may lead to conflict, corruption and environmental degradation of our continent, so as Africans we ask ourselves this question, where is the future of Africa with this resurgence of foreign dominance?