Colonialism as a viable explanation for Africa's present state

As with many other global issues, establishing the root cause of

Africa's political and economic turmoil is fundamental for
understanding the dynamics of the African continent. Arbitrary
boundaries have been largely responsible for ethnic conflicts on the
continent. This is due to the forced separation of ethnic groups
across states and the forced assimilation of others within states.
Colonialism also replaced the pre-colonial governance structures with
Western ones and created the culture of kleptocracy. This was
through the creation of hierarchical ruling structures.

Within these ruling structures, colonial rulers placed Africans in

positions of leadership and enticed them with status and or wealth.
Economic rewards given to African elites were trapped within elite
circles, creating a dominant class at the expense of other Africans
and the continent's natural resources. Despite the demise of
colonialism, the African elites remained and maintained their
relationships with former colonialists. In this way, elites were
continually rewarded for draining their states' natural resources.
Colonialism furthermore created single-crop economies, which
sentenced African economies to market-based fluctuations. Forced
integration of developing states into the international trading arena
augmented the already prevalent inequality between developed and
developing states.

Despite these undeniable effects of colonialism, Africans have a part

to play in the current state of the continent. With the realisation that
colonial systems were detrimental to African prosperity, the onus fell
on Africans to systematically abandon predatory methods of
governance, in favour of more equitable ones. The extensive record
of African experiences with war and poverty should suffice in
deterring the monopolisation of power or resources, which contribute
to the appalling state of African states. Corruption instead, remains
an overarching problem in a majority of the African states mentioned.
Challenges experienced in the first ten or twenty years of African
independence could be dismissed under the pretext of growing pains
- in this case, the departure from the legacy of colonialism.