Is foreign aid from Western countries and China robbing Africa of its economic independence?

this week on the 77% street debate I'll never be sad about being colonized by the British of all the colonizers had we been colonized black by the Belgians they didn't give a damn I'm about to give up when I hear people talk about they don't have a problem in having been colonized I question how deep are you in this neo-colonial struggle that you've actually embraced yoke your abuser and made them feel made her feel that she was right for doing what they did to you [Music] the 77% is in Nairobi the capital of Kenya and it is in this city that nearly 57 years ago the Kenyan flag went up we were declared independent but how independent is Kenya and indeed the rest of Africa this is the question that we are asking today on our subject neocolonialism why is it still a thing in Africa and who is to blame but before we go too far let's come to an Angela who is a political analyst and a writer here in Kenya how would you describe neocolonialism what does it mean to you I think that Kwame Nkrumah gave us the best definition for neo colonialism which is late-stage imperialism because when we had direct imperialism what you had is foreign countries having direct control influence over people's economy people's labor people's freedom of speech freedom of association but with new colonialism what you have is indirect influence of political decision-making of economic decision-making that's how he defines new colonialism it's the it's the benchmark for how we understand what's happening in a lot of the world that was sort of coming out of the colonial process okay I have a question for the audience I just want to rope you in really early on and I think it's important that we address this we are Deutsche Welle this is Germany's international broadcaster and I'm here as an African am I a function and a tool of neocolonialism just because you moved from let's say an African station to like a wider broadcaster does not make you a tool phone neocolonialism all in the sense that your talent is letting you tell like right now a black story within a predominantly assumed white door Schuette so that does not make you a true one becomes a tool when there a direct interest of a new colonizer okay so let me come to the farmer right here mr. Michael keeping game because your farm as you mentioned is over a hundred years old suddenly older than the nation of Kenya do you feel like you're beholden to the person who began this farm absolutely not Edith is a famous Kenyan author Gugu Adler who wrote a book decolonizing the mind and I believe we need to both the Colin our minds and our hearts as Kenyans 56 years plus after independence we really shouldn't be complaining too much about new colonialism within the context of a cake the coffee sub-sector took four years ago we started what is called coffee tourism so we we invite tourists to come and see how coffee is grown how its processed and then they get an opportunity to taste our brands and that allows us to charge a fee for the tourism component and and sell our coffee on farm let me come back to nan jela because I want to challenge to challenge you basically based on what Michael has said that it's been about 56 years we shouldn't be talking about New York colonization right now look at me and Fairview farm we are doing it on our own when we're talking about colonisation and we're talking about imperialism we're not talking about individual experiences we're talking about a systemic issue yes you're able to grow your coffee and you run your coffee tours but is the price for example that you're that you're selling your coffee at reflective of the labor that has gone into producing that coffee or is it reflective of political priorities that have been set elsewhere is it somewhere else saying that because you're an African country your role is to produce and especially to produce raw materials and those are all questions of power and power disparities and power and power disparities exploitation of power disparities for the profit of certain regions to certain parts of the world is the very definition of neocolonialism okay I'd like to come to Schaefer because I just want to you know piggyback on what nancherla is saying but it is a system and it is exploitative but where are politicians the people who should be at those international tables making better deals for us saying this doesn't work for us anymore Kenneth struggles with the cancer of political leadership that is dysfunctional that is exploitative that its violent that's discriminatory there's also this culture that stems from a neocon colonial space of leadership that excludes people from their leaders which is putting the people into this vicious circle of constantly saying we need better we need better but nothing ever changes because the bubble of and the shield of neocolonialism is so thick so we're saying that oh my goodness that the that neo-colonialism one second is seeping into basically every single factor of our lives politically economically even how we think yes socially and Mordecai oh god I really want to know what your take is on that so as a conservationist you have a very unique idea which is that even narratives around Africa have been hijacked by Westerners can you talk to me about this the NiO colony or the new colony is not is not necessarily a physical space it's it's a mental space and we are so deep in it that even our top government structures cannot sort of fathom how deep we are in it that's why we have a Ministry of Tourism and Wildlife because what conservation is a principal and tourism is a business conservation of wildlife is about our heritage it's not about tourism but this this was where it grew from we we still have the feeling that wildlife tourism is something we do for white people so do you think that this is because we have internalized neo-colonialism so much that we have become perpetrators of neo colonialism precisely it seems you're not the only one there's somebody here in fact is someone clapping but you're saying yeah we are we are responsible for the neo colonialism that we are experiencing whenever I'm having a conversation about in your corner Allison I want to start with decolonized I mind because it's all in the mind I'm an LGBTQ person and most of the time when I sit and look at the history of LGBTQ people when the way when our colonialists came into a country they came with their laws and the Constitution which until today still guiding us but before that we had our ways in which we did things but you see all these things are things that we were taught and then we each analyzed and we we started saying now because this law came and he told us this these are new realities but are they are realities I'm not a wastin person I was born in Kenya raised in Kenya my realities are all from Kenya as a Kenyan child as a child of this soil but every other time I have had to unlearn a lot of things to even accept my truth as a queer person so we'll get we'll get to the real politic around that in just a second but I want to introduce Mohammad eka now because as a photographer you've gone around the continent of Africa with your very fantastic project if I may say and scrambling Africa you know when you hear it said here that it's just as simple as decolonizing the mind but I'm wondering how important our perceptions how important is who controls the narrative and is that shifting so the one of the most important things I think is that African artists photographers whatever they are need to look more inside than outward while looking for inspiration for their work because most of the time you'll find that when we are guided by things like grants and fellowships you'll find that anytime you look somebody probably someone white somewhere deciding I want to give grants to African photographers to you know look at a certain topic but a topic that I am interested in not something that they're interested in earlier you didn't mention about this bin on DW and the idea that journalism and news and all that Kim we were taught by the West that means all our journalistic photography seeks to look like the journalistic photography that means pictures back KTN photographer will look like pictures by DW photographer why it's unnecessary they are not the same people they are not working in the same context so I think the stories should be different Nigel I just want to come to you so that you can contextualize this for us why is this so important why is it important that artists journalists who are within the continent of Africa are self actualized that they don't use the West as a model you know we talk about consciousness it's about the consciousness with which we move through the world are we moving through the world confidently shirred of our place our value and our contribution to society or are we moving through the world with a consciousness that is somehow crippled that we think that we are less than and so we have to spend the rest of our lives trying to reassert our humanity and I'm just wondering from Tunis is this possible on a political sphere I mean I think we all had the former AU ambassador to the u.s. being very very angry about the fact that some French countries still operate under a CFA how in what ways does neo-colonialism still have an impact in the way we are governed I mentioned the French very briefly the friends have never mentally left Africa ever you can see what goes on in the Congolese like the highest glory of African evolution is to become a Frenchman or a Mademoiselle the French have never lost that mentality but one might argue that Kenyans have not lost that mentality we are after all having this conversation in English no but Kenya's a very different country we may be confused but I want you to address immediately a political leadership or neocolonialism relies on somebody having the leader in their pocket look at the begging bulge you always have whenever the Jinping in Beijing calls it in that case is your gripe then with your own government or with the colonial government that created structures in which we are governed as we are that is very lazy we always tend to blame the British in 2020 we are always trying all the time we keep complaining about our white people by which you mean European people the truth is this right 9 20 20 20 20 February 20 the new colonizer is China all right I'd like to get some more views on this side the problem came with the philosophical foundations of this country like if we're talking about export we didn't Center Kenyans or the people who live in this land we are in so what we're experiencing now is a result of what happened then so the West is still to blame but we reproduce what they did they are to blame but we are reproducing it we internalized it so we shouldn't we shouldn't really Center them whenever we think about development we shouldn't think about this being a tourist destination we should be thinking about how we're going to eat how we're going to make this country better that's a really good point any other person who wants to add on that ok I think the way Africans have always grown up we always think that our problems can only be solved by the salt by the whites like we have been blinded let's try to solve our problems on our own because the whites they want to make you feel that they are the people can solve your problems but is it fair let me ask Schaefer here is it fair to sort of lump the whole Western world into you know there the white saviors they're trying to come and save us we don't need their help is there a room for collaboration or is it just going to this bipolar dialogue well I think I think room for collaboration that existed or that has assumed that I've been assumed to exist has existed in their white terms so even as we collaborate we are collaborating within their own structures within their own agreements within their own engagements within their own requirements right white people have always wanted to enforce and to carry forward their whiteness and their supremacy we should be able to enforce and carry forward our blackness our black supremacy but it's never going to happen because we don't have the leadership that is capable to reimagine our own governance and end engagements out of the frame that is not neo-colonial necessary to Liz of this white resentment this again we are playing here and sometimes they get tired of it a they say oh I won't take white grants that I want something specific to us your government never have won a lot of these scholarships and so on they always wait but you tell your own story in your own way I feel like what's this white resentment I'll never be sad about being colonized by the British of all the colonizers cause history and contextualizing will never be sad because that's the way realpolitik of the way of history had we been colonized black by the Belgians they didn't give a damn but I'm not going to go and keep repenting about 1889 yes yes yes yes and I'd like to give I'd like to give let me come to Schaefer because she's so exhausted her hands are on her head I'm about to give up because the thing is this right so the context is when we when I hear people talk about they don't have a problem in having being colonized I question how deep are you in this neo-colonial struggle that you've actually embraced yoke your abuser and made them feel made her feel that she was right for doing what they did to you tony is saying that the facts can't be changed that the world order at the time was as it was the world order was white people stealing from black Africans that was the word order I think sometimes we speak very carelessly and very casually about very fundamental things there of course as in the mess that we are and I really don't appreciate it okay Tony do you agree with the charge that she was so deeply New York colonized yourself that you don't see why your assurances could have been that is absolute bollocks yeah let me use British languages so people say I'm more in your colony that is bollocks because we're educated in this way yeah it's like those people who fail in life and keep talking about all their father's an alcoholic or their mother never loved them enough and be like that you must lose the victim mentality about the British especially which we have in this country we started with a very critical question neocolonialism why is it still in Africa well the answer is in our history and who is to blame for it apparently we all are thank you for watching [Music] you

Channel: DW The 77 Percent

Views: 81,422

Keywords: DW, DW Africa, Africa, Neocolonialism, African identity, Kenya, Nairobi Kenya, Edith Kimani, Okore, african youth, colonialism, the 77 percent, DW Africa 77, Deutsche Welle, The Gambia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, South Africa, China, Europe, foreign aid

Id: V-klCwMFu2E

Length: 14min 42sec (882 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 03 2020