Page 83 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 11

COMMUNITY

As Ake has argued, the result is found itself utterly isolated, increas-
that the African elite who took over ingly relying on violence, at war
power from the colonial admin- with the rest of society and with
istrators were too superficial and rival factions among its own ranks.
Fr. Anselm Adodo is a catholic priest and shallow and diverged from society's It was not the military that caused
director of one of Africa’s largest phyto- traditional structures. Although military rule in Africa, Ake argued,
medicine company, called paxherbals, and political independence brought by intervening in politics; rather, it
Director of Pax Centre for Integral Re- some change to the composition was the character of politics that
of the state managers, the state's
engendered military rule.
search and Development. His most recent character remained much as it was
books include ‘The Idea of the Commu- in the colonial era. It continued to The first part of the African libera-
niversity’ (Beacon academic, 2019), and be totalistic in scope, constituting a tion story was the 'successful' strug-
‘Healing Plants of Nigeria’ (Routledge, statist economy. It presented itself gle for political independence from
the colonial powers. The second
as an apparatus of violence, had a
2020). Anselm is a visiting lecturer at narrow social base, and relied for part was the era of independence
Nigeria’s premier University of Ibadan, compliance on coercion rather than when power 'successfully' shifted to
Nigeria, a Fellow of the Nigeria society of authority. the African Nationalists. Commit-
ment to development was already
Botanists and an adjunct research fellow of The political intensity was further implicit in the ideology of the
Nigeria Institute of medical Research. reinforced by the tendency to use nationalist movement. The writings
http://www.paxherbals.net/ state power for accumulation. This of such leaders as Leopold Senghor,
practice was associated with the Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkru-
new political leaders' weak material mah expressed the urgent need for
base, who had been economically African societies to become more
marginalized by the colonial regime's competitive in the modern state sys-
discriminatory economic policies. tem, a need often crudely expressed
Even when they came to power, in terms of "catching up with the
they had little experience of entre- West". African leaders adopted the
preneurial activity and little or no ideology of development to replace
capital. Invariably they were obliged that of independence. African lead-
to explore the one leverage they had: ers then insisted that development
control of state power to strengthen needs unity of purpose and the
their material base. utmost discipline that oppositional
attitudes do not serve the common
The need for a more secure mate- interest. It was easy to move from
rial base drove the indigenous elite there to the criminalization of politi-
to increase the economy's statism. cal opposition and the establishment
An increasing range of economic of single-party systems. Therefore,
activities was brought under the the ideology of development was
The power of the colonial state was state's control, notably by nation- exploited to reproduce political
not only absolute but arbitrary. For alization, to facilitate the appro- hegemony; it got limited attention
instance, the colonial governments priation of wealth by state power. and served hardly any purpose as a
made the colonies produce the Coercion was used to constrain the framework for social transforma-
commodities they needed. When masses' political expression, now tion.
the Gold Coast (now Ghana) was disillusioned with their leaders' per-
colonized, it did not cultivate cocoa. formance. Coercion was also used The conflict is apparent in the Afri-
The colonial government decided to impose "political unity" amid can leaders' actions who proclaimed
that the country would be suitable considerable social pluralism, which the need for development without
ground for farming cocoa and duly had become very divisive for being necessarily translating the ideology
introduced the crop. By 1939 cocoa politicized and exploited by compet- into a social transformation pro-
accounted for 80% of the value of ing elites. gram. They did so not because they
its exports. were interested in such but because
The political elite's dominant faction the struggle for power and survival

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