Author: Prof Siphamandla Zondi, Director: Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation
Date: 07 July 2026
We know that the African past was corrupted by terrible encounters that continue to bear on today and tomorrow.
Key among these is the encounter with the enslaving West that took the slave trade to a new global level, causing Africa to lose not only its non-disabled people, the fruits of their labour as a result, but also its control over its destiny. Through the slave trade, Africa lost its energy and its will to keep becoming. It is like a person who got pierced by thorns during their race to greater ends. They may continue to run, perhaps at a slower pace, perhaps gallantly and perhaps with some progress. But the thorn in their flesh becomes a greater preoccupation of their mind than the normal struggles of journeys to greatness. This preoccupation takes the steam out of their physical strides and, more importantly, saps the energy from their self-belief, confidence and resilience.
The encounter with the imperial West also turned Africa from a civilisation growing at its own pace and under its own conditions into a subordinate people to be destroyed and diminished. Africa became a proverbial piece of meat on the Berlin Conference table, cut into pieces for Western consumption and disposal. It disintegrated into small, unviable pieces called colonies, later called countries. It was shamed, disparaged, robbed, exploited, and denuded such that it would be nearly impossible for it to rise again. Like a person who encountered robbers along their journey and got incapacitated in the process of their ordeal, even when Africa seeks to rise, its scars, its traumas and the physical impairments keep it down.
Later, Africa would encounter global capitalism and its globalisation as a system of great promise, but whose outcome was accelerated plunder, underdevelopment and poverty. It promised wealth for Africa, but in the process, Africa lost its natural resources, young labour and initiative. It remained on the fringes of a prospering Western economic world as a provider of raw material for others’ progress. It participated enthusiastically in material globalisation and even digital globalisation, but it got the short end of the stick.
This history created conditions that, in a manner, make Africa today a virus manifesting in disease and dis-ease. While they are not the only factors, they are the conditions behind problems such as poor governance and leadership. The conditions that continue to constrain Africa include: a high poverty baseline with the most extreme poverty rates globally, in that 23 of the world’s 28 poorest nations are in Africa, in contrast to Europe, which hosts most of the prosperous nations. This is not because it is somehow naturally cursed to be blessed and superior to Europe. Roughly 35.5% of the African population lives in extreme poverty. Africa has registered poor economic inclusion, even when growth rates have been respectable. This also manifests in the lack of affordable housing and sprawling informal urban settlements.
The social and economic infrastructure is in disrepair. Railway and road conditions are terrible in many cases. The physical and operational conditions in many schools, health centres, and social centres are horrible. Access to water and energy remains a major problem for millions.
As a result, there are high levels of mental ill-health, dejection and alienation. Low self-esteem and declining confidence also manifest ubiquitously. The levels of violence and internecine conflict that further fragment populations further weaken their resilience. Division, confusion, dashed hopes, and deferred hope become a permanent feature of Africa.
Under these conditions, Africa keeps hoping to rise, but it stagnates. Africa releases visions and plans that do not get translated into reality. Africa becomes vulnerable to false promises, vain prophecies, and empty rhetoric as these offer hope. It also becomes trapped in external affirmation and promise of partnership from erstwhile oppressors. It rises and then diminishes like a bewitched village hero.
What do we need to do to turn the situation around?
We need to clearly understand the impact of modern African history and how it frames the present and determines the future. We cannot change what we do not intimately understand. An African proverb goes: ” A snake you do not see is the greatest danger to you. We can transform only that which we grasp. We need more exposition of the ghosts of history and their specific dynamics so we can plot how to undo the conditions. Planning what to do without understanding the problem leads to failed, well-meaning efforts.