Comments by "" (@orboakin8074) on "The Miserable Story of The Congo" video.

Thank you so much for making this video. The sad story of the DRC is pretty common for many African countries. As an African myself (Nigerian, specifically) it always annoys me when most people only attribute Africa's current problems to "colonialism or racism", effectively removing personal responsibility of us Africans, and ignore more important factors like geography, climate, socioeconomic systems, political unity, corruption, and leadership. Thanks for focusing on those areas.
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@rizkyadiyanto7922 That is a solid point. As bad as colonialism was, one good thing no one can deny is the fact that national unity and identity was created in many places it previously didn't exist, like my Nigeria for instance. As imperfect as it is, it is infinitely better than the alternative of balkanized, underdeveloped and fragmented tribes and kibgdoms.
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@JcoleMc Okay, so what? No really, so what? You want me to mail you my birth certificate or Nigerian passport? Look, Believe whatever you want, friend. You are not the first westerner to generalize all of us Africans by assuming we all think the same or that my kind of opinions could only be held by a white person. It means nothing to me.
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@spacecraftcarrier4135 You said it. I think the reason most people use the "colonialism/imperialism" excuse and talk of Africa as a monolith is due to convinience as researching all individual countries takes time for the average joe but still it is better if they do the bare minimum. Thankfully, this is changing.
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@crystalcat1002 Oh no, you are not entirely wrong, friend. A major reason the current borders and ethnic lashes in Africa exist today is due to the imperfect way they were constructed. But border issues aside, Africa's problems existed long before European colonialism and they mainly stem from geography, climate, biological (prevalence of diseases) and societal reasons. And the current state of Africa is, indeed, largely due to the terrible leadership and ethnic schisms that are still present in many countries here but that also existed long before. I can go into more detail if you'd like.
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@TheZackofSpades The borders are an issue but it is mostly due to the politicians and some really regressive cultures. For example, in my country, the south is very ethnically diverse with different tribes and a mix of Christians and muslims but despite this there is more secularism here and as a result, we tend to co-exist with each other and our region is more developed and the economic powerhouse of Nigeria. Ethnic issues still exist but never enough to cause serious rifts. Part of this is due to the fact that the British spent more time in the southern part of Nigeria and imposed their social and economic systems on the region much longer. Comparatively, in the northern part of Nigeria, they are more ethnically homogenous and culturally and religiously similar there but that region is more rife with illiteracy, insecurity (frequent incursions by terrorists/bandits of the same tribe from Chad, Niger Republic etc), rampant corruption, social disunity and underdevelopment. The reason is due to the fact that the British, despite colonizing that part of Nigeria, did not impose their own social and economic systems on the region. The traditional rulers made this deal to secure their own positions but in the long-run, it made their region worse off. The borders are an issue but the culture and the leadership in the areas plays a much bigger role.
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@namso3772 Friend, if colonialism was the main factor behind Africa's long period of underdevelopment and other issues, South Asia, East Asia, Central Asia, South East Asia, South America, and even African countries like Botswana, Kenya, Tunisia, Morocco and Namibia would all be desolate and backwards places rivalling Afghanistan. Africa's problems stem from much more than colonialism. Almost every country and continent on earth was colonised repeatedly throughout history. What makes a country or a region develop is not the lack of colonisation but having good socio-economic systems, national unity, and smart political leadership. Also, the CIA is not the one who installs every dictator in Africa. Most of the time, they ceased power or people just voted for them. Please, don't try and remove personal responsibility form us Africans. Your point about Africa potentially being better without colonialism doesn't hold weight because most of Africa, prior to western colonialism was in the iron age, had subsistence farming, and we had no established nations, no modern technology, no strong economies, no unified national identities, slavery and conquest from other African tribes and Arab conquerors, no modern medicine or infrastructure etc. Western colonialism (yes, because Arabs were colonising Africa before them and doing much worse to us) was not a black and white affair. It had many negative impacts but one would have to be a fool to disregard the actual positives it did result in. For example, slavery was actually abolished in much of Africa thanks to colonialists like British.
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@guishenStreetB Again, no one is denying that the scramble for Africa was based on the need for resources by the west. That is true. Resistance was also severely repressed. No one denies that. No one also denies that the basis and foundation for nation building, economic systems, basic infrastructure, societal development and national identities were borne out of that era of colonialism. Like I have said, it was not a black-and-white affair. It had negatives and positives. The ancestors of the British, French, and even Germans were colonized by the Romans. The South Americans colonized each other and were colonized by the Spanish and Portuguese. Much of sub-Saharan Africa was dominated by west African Bantu people and then later some Arabs, then the Europeans. Colonialism is a sad reality of the human experience and has resulted in negatives for those involved and many positives but ultimately, being beholden to it is pointless because it's in the past and using it a an excuse for all present problems is even more pointless.
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@jeremias-serus Well said. Many of us in Africa know full well how pointless it is to blame the past or Europe for our current issues. We understand how our own corrupt and failing leadership/politicians cause many of these problems and we want to change that.
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@guishenStreetB Nope, didn't forget that. Just didn't bother to include it because it really wasn't nearly as impactful to Africa's current issues as people think. Also, There was the Arab-African slave trade that existed before that, where Africans sold other Africans as slaves, and lasted much longer.
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@guishenStreetB Yes, the west has, and does meddle, in regions like Africa but not to the degree that people imagine and much of their meddling is not largely responsible for socio-political issues all of Africa faces. For example, Idi Amin was not imposed by western powers. he simply used tribalism and strongman tactics to cease power and ruined Uganda. Same thing with Mugabe. In my own country, Nigeria, the current high insecurity and economic hardships are due to the government and president we elected, not due to CIA meddling.
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@guishenStreetB You are right that the Americans, French, and British did partake in slavery but they did more to abolish it. Yes, they didn't do it solely for altruism but to extend their influence. Regardless, it led to the ending of slavery in places like the Benin empire, various Yoruba kingdoms, the kingdom of Dahomey, the Sokoto Caliphate, the Zanzibar sultanate etc.
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@guishenStreetB Oh yeah, again, we all agree with this. The ones throughout human history who had the most impact in terms of conquest or empire building or colonialism or regional/global influence usually had the best technology, or the most people, or the best socio-economic systems. The Europeans just happen to be the ones who had most of these factors to their advantage at that time.
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@scaryhobbit211 Good observation, friend. the answer for how India has managed to remain a unified country, despite the diverse ethnicities and sub-cultures within it, is simply because they are a federation (i.e. each state/province/region has some level of self-autonomy/administration) Basically like the republic United States. That is the solution to Africa's issues; true federalism/republicanism. Another thing that helps India is the fact that their civilization had an early start at coalescing its various peoples and forming a unified identity, unlike much of Africa (with a few exceptions). In fact, the British colonisation of the region actually had a positive effect of accelerating that coalescing. With Africa, sadly, due to geographic and climatic factors that limited agriculture and development of human settlements, the coalescing and blending of multiple ethnic groups into unified groups was not happening here on a large scale. As bad as colonialism was, one major effect it had, and still continues to have on much of sub-Saharan Africa, is that national identities and unity (no matter how imperfect) were created.
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@TouringWolf42 There is some truth to what you say but what about Botswana, Ghana, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kenya, Namibia, Rwanda and a few others? All were colonized and most had (and still have) ethnic divides but they managed to become some of the most politically stable and fast growing/developing economies in Africa with improving infrastructure (Algeria is one of the few African countries with constant power supply). Why hasn't the excuse of "colonialism" held these countries back?
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@sulaak Hmmm, Nigeria might be better off following your suggestion but it will be worse off too, especially economically. Places like the north will suffer economically and become even worse off. My ideal solution is a change of government to a more nationalist one and a restructuring of the constitution to enable more federalism. Let regions and states provide for their own police and security and electricity etc and let them also have their own local laws, still subject to the federal government. The north can do as they want and the south and can do as they want; basically what America and brazil have already.
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@danielvictor3262 Sanakara had some really good ideas and implemented many good policies but he also had many bad ideas and implemented policies that alienated many groups in Burkina Faso and also negatively affected the economy and people's lives and freedoms. If any Africa leader deserves the mantle of being a visionary and a good leader, it is Seretse Khama. He was democratically elected and refused to embrace the destructive marxist policies that the likes of Mugabe were doing and didn't also look at the west or former colonial powers with enmity but actually wanted to to keep the social, economic and political systems they left behind and modify them to better his country and people and also maintain good diplomatic relations with them. Because of that leadership, Botswana is still a rising economic and social power in Africa and a stable one too.
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@starman6468 Very good observations, friend.
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@Amadeo790 Thanks, friend.
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@weirdo4653 oh, I am well aware of those people who say that garbage about us in Africa. I also know they are a loud minority like the same people who say that colonialism is the cause of all our problems here.
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@anxiousadult5114 So the Europeans were responsible for tyrants and butchers like Idi Amin, Mubutu, Mugabe, Abacha (in my country's case) and others? Were they also responsible for the economic mismanagement that destroyed many burgeoning African economies in the 60s and 70s and onwards? Colonialism caused many issues but you would have to be a fool to keep on assigning all blame for Africa current issues solely to colonialism. Even here the only ones who do that are just ignorant pan-African sophists with nothing better to do than talk about problems instead of solving them; basically, our version of slacktivists you have in the west.
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@@TheRealPhilosoraptor99 yah, but i had a few bits of free time in my busy life schedule.
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@jari2018 yeah, this is true. Weird how folks in the western academia and activist circles tend to ignore this fact.
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@hawthorne3889 you said it! I can't tell you how often I have been insulted like that.
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@LadyCeCeFromThaDirty hey, if you feel that way about yourself, why are you telling me?🤣 But seriously, do I look like I give a shit about you or your lies? I am an African literally saying that our countries need to fix our problems like corruption and bad government instead of playing victim and looking for others to blame and here you are mocking me for that. Which one of us looks more foolish, woman?
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@EstaJeanette-nk7fj I am not sure. Lumumba was killed by a Congo rebel faction looking to seize power. Even if the Europeans didn't find them, they still would have killed him because the factionalism and hatred was already there. Robert Mugabe and Idi Amin and others killed political rivals and more democratic leaders because they wanted power and no Europeans made them do it.
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@colbypatterson8273 how so?
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