Injustice behind colonization

Injustice behind colonization

Introduction

            All over the world today, uncontrollable conflict is found mostly in regions where conquest took place. Colonial crimes entail the unjustified acts by a nation against another nation for which the collar nation is held accountable through the punishment of its leaders. A considerable proportion of these interminable conflicts trace their roots in ante-colonial or soviet policies more so those concerning territorial borderlines, oppression of native people, and the privilege given to some people over others. We have noted that the source of the challenges besetting indigenous people in the colonial mindset that has gain clutched people’s minds. In this article am going to exhaustively discuss the lack of justice that resulted from colonization.

The exploitation of natural resources

The prime motive of colonization was for the colonizers to acquire raw materials for their industries in the home nations. The process of getting raw materials led to the foreigners exploiting the natural resources which could have helped the local communities.  In access to the natural resources, vital landscaping occurred, which left the lifestyle of the locals with no peace. For example, trees used to cut down to provide firewood t used in powering the steam engine trains. Trees were also the source of timber used in the construction of houses in the foreigners’ countries and the building of a ship. Consequently, soil erosion increased, which resulted in siltation in water bodies that greatly affected fishing activities.

Disruption on the way of living of local communities

Before the colonization process, communities had settled on areas which favoured their socio-economical lifestyles. When the colonies came, they forced the local communities to relocate and create new settlement areas for large scale agricultural production. At any given time, people moved without consulting the local communities and which any resistance to the resettlement could lead to death. The local communities moved to areas with less fertility which accounted for the famine disasters in different states of the world. The reason behind some countries having low agricultural produce is that even after they got freedom, the leaders who got in power inherited the lands initially taken by the foreigners..

Introduction of foreign diseases

            In some nations, the colonization process brought about a variety of ailments. I can confidently say that some of the infections were not common with the local communities for the periods before colonization. A good example is a disease called Rinderpest that affected the people of Shona people found in Botswana and Zimbabwe in Africa. This disease was introduced by settlers and affected the livestock of the Shona people. Another infection is jiggers.  Jiggers is common in Kenya and was brought by the Indian people who were involved in the construction of a railway line that links the port of Kenya and Uganda. In Zimbabwe, the foreigners intentionally infected the local communities with different diseases with the purpose of eliminating them and their livestock. Anthrax bacteria was one of the infections used to reduce the population of the local communities and their livestock.

The artificial creation of national boundaries

            Fourthly, before the colonies came, edges were unrestrained, and there was no consultation for intercommunity movements. During the colonization epoch, colonial powers divided continent to countries. A good example is the African continent that was divided into colonies for themselves and as a result, creating artificial national boundaries for themselves. Consequently, the African states lost supremacy and the right to take control of their destiny or even carry out the diplomacy and management of their resources. These boundaries are the origin of the current independent states of Africa. It is with no doubt that the effects of these boundaries are still felt in the present day in conflicts of communities in a country.

Foreign dependency

Most experts link foreign dependency to colonial trade patterns. Less developed countries are as a result of the exploitation of the materials which were destined for the industries of their colonial masters. Even after achieving independence, most of the former colonies had few trained workforces that could enable them to compete globally. Due to this reason, they had no option other than continuing to export cheap raw materials to the former colonial powers. Eventually, the industrial countries sold manufactured goods back to former colonies, something that is still happening in the present days.

Erosion of our culture

In the colonization era, communities were split up, and others erased from existence. For example, during the scramble and partition of Africa, the colonialists never minded of people living in a particular location. In that time, clans were destroyed, and communities split up. The missionaries had communities abandon their practices and beliefs. The missionaries considered those practices backwardness. Any society that resisted had their entire villages burnt down. For instance, in West Africa, the French who were the colonial masters assimilated Africans. Africans were forced to abandon their native language, beliefs, culture and adopt the ways of the French.

Urbanization

            Urbanization is associated with the emergence of many social evils. So if the problems are linked with urbanization include increases of crime in urban centres and growth of slums. Up to date, social ills in urban areas is a significant experience in African countries. In most states, the government has tried to find solutions, but the condition has confirmed to be uncontainable. The social evils are triggered by the poverty experienced by those people living in the urban areas and have not secured jobs may be due to lack of required skills or lack of employment in an economy. In the pre-colonial era, the community used to take care of all its members and therefore, there were no such levels of poverty as seen in the post-colonial days. Urbanization lured most of the young people resulting in them moving rural to urban areas in search of white colour jobs and employment opportunities in the industrial labour. Those people who do not successfully secure jobs in urban areas often engage themselves in criminal activities to earn a living. Others and mostly, women find themselves engaging in prostitution to make their livelihood. As a result, this accounts for the full spread of HIV/AIDs in African states.

The imposition of coercive and repression state rule

            Before the colonial era, local societies were stable with their way of governance and much structured cultural norms and institutions. When the colonialists came, they thrust their leadership on the people. In their direction, they brought about the subdivisions of land ownership and where everyone in their society piece of land. Initially, the communities used to do communal land ownership whereby the land belonged to the whole community, and everything was looked from a communal point of view. After independence, the subdivision of land rule is practised by most of the communities and has led to family breakups, and deaths as people fight over land ownership.

Capitalism

Lastly, after independence, leaders who were thrust on the locals were the ones who took over the leadership. These leaders obtained plenty of wealth for themselves. They allowed a compromise to companies from the former colonialist to keep on operating their business to date. The companies are involved in diverse sectors of the economy, like transport and mining. Consequently, the local communities feel that the current leaders are carrying out similar interest of the colonial masters. The same feeling by the local community resulted in the formation of movements like the second liberation, by the disagreeing communities who are basking in poverty and cannot afford the basic needs like their leaders.

Conclusion

In conclusion, colonization left a negative impact on the social system of states and in the economy. Most of these impacts are felt to present day and the effects echoing into the future of many years to come more so in African states. Some the injustices behind the colonization include; exploitation of natural resources, disruption on the way of living of local communities, the introduction of foreign diseases, artificial creation of national boundaries, external dependency, erosion of local communities’ culture, urbanization, and capitalism.

References