The Lingering Effects of Colonialism After Independence

Introduction

Colonialism is the maintenance of political, social, economic, and cultural domination over people by a foreign power for an extended period( W. Bell,1991). Independence is when a country is politically free from the control of the government of another country. This paper argues that colonialism does exist even after the period of independence, one can see this when looking at the following aspects; culture, religion, education, and political ideology.

Culture in the post-colonial Period

A culture is a group of people's way of life. Culture can be taught, and people are taking the one they think is better to suit their lifestyles. As people evolve, therefore, culture continues to change with time. This has happened all over history, all over the world. The society that exists now is distinct from the culture that has been and will be different from the culture that exists, Whether through internal or external powers. It indicates that imperialism has not only had overlooked impacts on society but has also moved to the inexorable logic of modernization. In one of the movies called “Keita, the Heritage of Griot” it shows that colonialism has really affected African culture this is displayed when Djeliba who was staying at Keita's household while teaching Mabo he was eating modern food he did know or did not exist in the past like spaghetti. Djeliba could not pronounce nor use silverware because they did not have the before colonization, so he washed his hands and used them instead, therefore, this really shows that colonization did not end there but rather the society got westernized even with an illusion of being independent. In the desert flower film, the culture of genital mutilation was burned although is some African countries they are still practicing it, with the same people who colonized Africa they did something really good, this really shows how colonialization is still in practice even after African countries got thier independence. From the film we see Waris standing up and speaking her truth to help stop this culture that really ends and destroys young women’s lives however, I still believe that Africa is still colonized with everything the colonizers are doing does shows they are not independent even after independence.

Colonialism and colonialism are two main ways of perpetuating underdevelopment in Africa by European powers. Education, however, predates colonization, but the nations of Europe used their strong powers to implement an educational system that was so alien to ensure that African nations were subjugated and abused. The need for European nations to have imperialist direct political control over their colonies so as to ensure the protection of their economic interests. So, colonialism is not just merely a system of exploitation, but one whose main purpose was to repatriate the profits to the metropoles. By exporting the profits created by African Labour to Europe, the development of Europe was assured.

Colonies gained a lot from the education which really showed when they fought for their independence but they lost their ways of accumulating their African education and they even forgot about teaching the upcoming generation their African education and African ways of doing things because from the movie “Keita, the heritage of Griot” Djeliba was talking about the house the schools do not teach young people about their history but American past. Mabo’s mother who considered Mabo to be successful only if he could master Western education was worried about the griot’s influence over Mabo’s performance at school and his future. His father on the other hand did not want to be stern towards both his son and the guest who he admired. This is a good example that colonialism continued even after colonialism.

This paper argues that colonialism has served as a crucial component in the historical processes through which modern democracies were created and sustained, even after African countries gained their independence. Focusing on the development of 'people'–in other words, those who are regarded as citizens and therefore have the right to participate in political decisions–To preserve the deployment of colonization through democracy as a power that unifies, restricts, and stabilizes people in the metropolis by using violent forms of exclusion. And yet, contrary to other types of exclusion that were regarded as incidents or aberrations and as symptoms of the evolutionary development of democracy, political scientists have often believed colonialism is totally alien to democracy and indeed antithetical to the two basic democratic principles: the sovereignty of the people and equality. Postcolonial theorists, on the other hand, argue that colonialism is a strategy employed by democracies (and, of course, by other regimes) as a means of achieving not only geopolitical and economic goals but also social and political goals within the metropolis. Although African got their independence they are still under colonialization because the political structure is of the western, to really show they are independent they could have continued their ways of ruling not taking the ways of their colonisers and defining independence with their colonizers. This paper argues that Africans are still colonized even after independence from the movie of Lumumba, it really shows that still in 2000 they are still practicing their colonizer's ways of ruling by not giving the king absolute power to rule the country.

“Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels” were very sentimental about the role of religion in how it influenced the way of thinking in people. They said that religion is opium. It is an opium which drags people to accept poor conditions without complaining. When the Europeans came to colonize Africa, they didn't just do that with the pressure so they put on Africans. Colonization has been driven through the use of faith, and Christianity in general. Many Africans now identify as Christians, and many as Muslims. Christianity seems to have done the most to affect the black person's consciousness in Africa. African traditional religions have been washed away, especially with Christianity, they are viewed as pagan and heathen in nature.

While everyone has the right to their religion, it is the same religion that influenced the history of Africa, especially with the advent of imperialism and colonialism on which it was founded. Throughout Africa, Christianity has done a major thing: to persuade black Africans to reject all their customs and to promote colonization. The Africans were conditioned to reject all African things and embrace a new way of life, a new way of life, a new order that separated them from who they were at first from the movie Yeele new religions are introduced to Africa and they are made to feel that thier religion is bad so they leave it to practice the new religion which is Christianity and Islam after they got their independence one will ask why they are not going back to their old way to show how free and independent they are but they still continue to practice they religion of their colonizers which really shows how colonized they are still are.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one would notice that even after they got their independence they still practiced what they learned from their colonizers, they did not change to and go back to their way of doing things like religion they still practiced these religions and considered it bad, they changed their culture which means they continued with western religion and culture not only that education and lastly their way of ruling, instead of going back to having chiefs ruling their countries they opted to continue with the system of their colonizer so in a way they are still colonized because they are letting their colonizers define what development is and how so be obtained while they can choose for themselves since they became independent countries.