Africa’s Modern Economy: Colonialism in Development Disguise
By Amjad Farid Al-Tayeb
The debate over Africa’s relationship with the countries that once divided and colonized it has resurfaced in recent months. At the Annual Governance Gathering in Marrakech, Morocco, in early June, an informal assembly of prominent African figures, Sudanese-British billionaire Mo Ibrahim sparked wide controversy during a conversation with former African Union Commission Chair Moussa Faki. Ibrahim criticized the AU’s reliance on external contributions for 70 percent of its budget.
“You call them colonizers, but when they give us money, they become partners… This is a farce. Either you are serious, or you forget the whole thing,” he said.
While such remarks may appear on the surface to defend African sovereignty, they obscure a fundamental fallacy in assessing these financial contributions. These so-called “development partnerships” are not charitable donations from the West—they are, in essence, overdue reparations for centuries of systematic colonial exploitation.
A History of Exploitation That Cannot Be Erased
Africa’s subjugation began in 1415 with Portugal’s occupation of the Moroccan city of Ceuta, marking the start of a predatory colonial expansion that culminated in the notorious “Scramble for Africa” of the 19th century.
The 1884–85 Berlin Conference formalized the division of the continent among European powers, with no regard for African peoples, or their cultural, ethnic, or social systems. European expansion in Africa was not presented as a political and economic takeover but framed in Western discourse as the “discovery of Africa,” a brazen denial of the fact that the continent had been inhabited for millennia by indigenous peoples with rich cultures, social and political systems, and deep historical ties to neighboring civilizations.
This exploitation, which endured well into the latter half of the 20th century, left deep scars and chronic economic instability that still afflict Africa today.
Institutionalized Racism: The Most Enduring Legacy of Western Dominance
Between the 15th and 19th centuries, over 12.5 million Africans were enslaved and forcibly transported to the Americas between 1501 and 1866. The transatlantic slave trade—one of the most brutal facets of Western colonialism—was not only an economic exploitation but was underpinned by an elaborate ideological framework that dehumanized Africans, casting them as inherently inferior, and entrenched the notion of white racial supremacy.
These concepts became embedded in the modern world order, influencing international relations, economics, politics, and culture, with effects still evident today. This was not an isolated historical episode but a systemic process that gave rise to modern racism as both an ideology and an institutional practice—one that sustained the colonial enterprise by legitimizing the trade in human beings and locking Africa into a subordinate position in the global hierarchy.
Resource Drain: A Legacy That Continues
The economic plunder of Africa under colonial rule reached staggering proportions. Conservative estimates suggest that the British Empire alone extracted more than £35 trillion (in today’s value) from its colonies worldwide, alongside vast amounts of cheap or unpaid labor and immense quantities of commodities such as rubber, sugar, and oil.
More alarmingly, the outflow of wealth from Africa continued long after the end of direct colonial rule. A recent study revealed that between 1970 and 2010, $814 billion (in 2010 dollars) left Sub-Saharan Africa through capital flight, illicit financial flows, resource mispricing, and debt-servicing on coercive loans. This figure far exceeds the total value of official development assistance and foreign direct investment the continent received in that period—demonstrating a persistent pattern of exploitation.
The Cost of Lost Opportunities
Beyond direct financial losses, colonialism severely curtailed Africa’s potential for development. While Europe’s overseas assets amounted to 70 percent of its GDP by 1914, Africa’s growth during the colonial era barely reached 0.9 percent. Colonial powers dismantled local economies, land tenure systems, and industrial potential, imposed monocrop economies, fragmented trade zones with artificial borders, and suppressed independent scientific, economic, and intellectual advancement.
Investment patterns reflected deep racial bias. Britain, the largest colonial power, allocated just 16.9 percent of its overseas investment to all its colonies (excluding Canada, Australia, and New Zealand)—less than the 20.5 percent it invested in its single former colony, the United States.
Political and Social Systems Distorted
Colonialism did not merely strip Africa’s economy; it disrupted the natural evolution of its social and political systems. It aborted the organic emergence of stable African states. Instead of institutions evolving from local societies, imported structures were imposed to serve colonial capitals.
Traditional governance systems were dismantled and replaced with externally imposed authoritarian authorities. This severed the vital relationship between society and state, a foundation for lasting political stability. The result: a legacy of civil wars, coups, and chronic instability, leaving behind autocratic institutions dominated by military or ethnic elites.
Europe itself, of course, endured centuries of internal conflict before achieving constitutional democracy and the rule of law. But crucially, Europe’s transformations emerged from within its own social and political fabric—an opportunity Africa was denied due to imposed colonial domination.
Historical Facts and the Astronomical Cost of Colonialism
While development aid is rarely classified as reparations, in response to Mo Ibrahim’s remarks, it can rightly be seen in that light.
In 1999, the African World Reparations and Repatriation Truth Commission called on colonial powers to pay $777 trillion in reparations—about $1.34 quadrillion in 2023 dollars. More recently, consultancy firm Brattle Group estimated the cost of the transatlantic slave trade at $100–$131 trillion. Even using the lower figure for Africa’s colonial losses, the reparations bill is astronomical.
If international partners were to cover the African Union’s entire $650 million annual budget as “compensation,” it would take roughly 153,000 years to bridge the colonial plunder gap. Even assuming all current African aid—about $3.5 billion annually—were reparations (ignoring the fact that donors often recover $2.15 for every dollar given), Europe would still need more than 28,500 years of continuous payments to make up the loss, assuming zero inflation or interest.
Beyond Irony: The Battle Over Historical Narrative
The stir caused by Ibrahim’s comment may stem from the AU’s decision to designate 2025 as the “Year for Justice for Africans and People of African Descent Through Reparations.” While no one seriously expects Europe—or any former colonial power—to pay, these claims remain justified. Merely voicing them, however, appears to unsettle European investors, particularly amid current global economic fragility.
In criticizing AU funding sources, Ibrahim overlooked the widely held view of his guest, outgoing AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki, as a “disaster” for the organization—accused by AU staff of corruption, nepotism, and leadership failures, with an alleged “mafia-like cartel” operating with impunity within the AU.
On one point, however, Ibrahim may be right: his mockery of the slogan “African solutions to African problems.” This slogan is deeply problematic. Africa’s challenges are not “African” in an ethnic or purely geographic sense—they are political, economic, and social challenges shaped by ongoing geopolitical exploitation.
Former colonial powers played a decisive role in creating these problems, which demand solutions that match their nature: political, economic, and social strategies crafted through policies tailored to reality. That requires not just financial resources but also an honest acknowledgment of their origins—and a genuine investment in building Africa’s human capital so the continent can craft its own solutions.
