Colonialism is thought to have ended in the 20th century; however, might it still exist in the present?
Neo colonialism is a term that is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, “the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies.” In simple words it is the control of less-developed countries by so called developed countries through indirect means.
Several countries in Europe, are involved in this exploitation to this day, for example-
14 African countries have declared independence from France, but they still pay 65% of their foreign currency reserves to France and 20% more for their own financial liabilities- so in effect, each colony has only about 15% to use from their own money.
Additionally, multinational corporations steal a lot of wealth from Africa- Hershey, Mars and Nestlé all use child labour on cocoa farms. Children from the Democratic Republic of Congo work in mines for several hours a day in dangerous conditions to mine cobalt for companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft. Starbucks buys coffee at 4$ per kg from Ethiopia and sells it at 200$ per kg, thus making a massive profit. British companies have mining operations in 37 Sub-Saharan countries and control over 1 trillion $ worth of valuable mineral resources.
36 billion $ is owed to Africa as a result of climate change that they did not cause, European countries have used a lot of their fossil reserves especially during the Industrial revolution, starting what is known today as ‘global warming’ and places at the Equator like Africa will suffer the greatest consequences.
To conclude, Africa is a rich continent which is currently being drained of its natural resources and active measures need to be taken to stop this.
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