The Transfer of World Powers

By Ezrah Aharone

As the Republic of Ghana pioneers Africa with its 50^th anniversary of independence this year, it makes you wonder how and why the whole African continent could be under colonial rule for so long. Up until the slave trade, West Africa had experienced centuries of contiguous development. Afterwards came the dawn of a rapidly declining Africa and a rapidly accelerating Europe with lust cravings for wealth and power. As Africa faltered, Europe went on to become a collective group of world powers.

Contrary to revisionist history, when Europeans first arrived in West Africa, they encountered many well-educated, culturally aggrandized people whom they learned from, enslaved, and colonized. The general notion of Africa being a “dark continent” with people living in the wild, swinging from tree to tree, is just as ridiculous as thinking that everybody in America is rich.

The rise and fall of nations, and the subsequent “Transfer of World Powers” can be an interesting phenomenon. Ruling nations often appear too strong to be surpassed or defeated. When world powers like Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome were at their zeniths, it seemed they could never be replaced. Few would have wagered on their demise. And the same holds true today with the seeming invincibility of the West. Based on the present world structure, can you envision the world without America being a central power, or withMali for instance becoming a central power?

Nevertheless, nations and world powers do fall and the most unforeseen nations have risen to power. This was the case when the comparatively haggard, but determined European began to trounce Africa. Based on the world structure prior to slavery, Europe’s population was sparse from wars, feudalism, and the Bubonic Plague. Those were times of great tribulations for Europe, making its rise improbable and unexpected. But it cannot be overlooked that Europe’s rise hinged directly on its contact with Africa, and subsequent control of Africa’s human and natural resources. Only thereafter did Europe penetrate the clouds of the Dark Ages.

To better understand the obstacles of their unlikely rise, consider all the logistics and slim margins of error necessary for their scale of success. Despite assistance from Africans, it’s uncanny that small numbers of Europeans could board what were originally rickety-rackety ships bound for Africa. Upon arrival, they would then strike deals to load hundreds of unwilling and even defiant Africans. Against all odds they cumulatively transported millions of Africans thousands of miles to a knowing destination of death or enslavement. Over the course of centuries Europeans enforced slavery until they got tired of its diminishing returns.

What’s even more mystifying is that rather than ultimately exercising sovereignty, Africans in America embraced Americanization with pride instead. With Africa being ravaged and depopulated, the stage was naturally set to successfully colonize the entire continent for its mineral and energy resources. All totaled, this was an extraordinary feat of unheard and near-impossible proportions, which circles of Europeans probably still brag about in private.

Japan and China however held their own in Asia. Both are two of the few non-Western nations with the rare distinction of not being colonized by Europe, and both have historically been unafraid to flex their sovereign muscles to rattle the nerves of the West. It’s curious that today’s descendents of the nations that were enslaved or colonized by Europe, currently comprise the majority of the billions who now live in poverty worldwide.

From slavery to colonialism to free-market globalism, the West has had little problem working together at Africa’s expense. Despite being individual nations with different languages and cultural backgrounds, they have tag-teamed against Africa with a form of “Pan-Europeanism” for expanse. At the same time, Africans are racing faster and further to the bottom of the barrel of underdevelopment.

With the West stepping on the gas of Pan-Europeanism, our chances for comparable development are bleak without the resurgence of Pan-African ideals. In proper context, “Pan-Africanism” is not clichéd, outdated revolutionary jargon that’s more radical than attainable. Neither does it imply a single nation encompassing all African people. As Africans, we too are culturally diverse and philosophically unique. Yet we must discard our fragmented approach to development, and commit to functional practices of collectivity for the greater good of the whole.

Since the Renaissance, Europeans have not lost an inch of ground in their quest to Westernize the world. The benefits and wealth generated from Pan-Europeanism allowed them to consummate the “Transfer of World Powers” from Africans to Europeans. If we therefore as Africans, do not place the highest premiums on African interests and stand prepared to defend them, no other people will do so on our behalf.

People either shape or they get shaped by history. For far too long, we have followed Europeans verbatim as they operate to keep the scale of world power tilted in their favor. Over the last 400 years, one of the greatest differences between Africans and Europeans is that Europeans have had clearer and more ambitious visions of collective power for themselves, along with a fiercer resolve to act and become world leaders—Not followers.