Summary and Conclusion

The main message of this book is that postcolonial African migration to the West will continue even in the absence of poverty, conflicts, and climate change because paradoxically we are trying “to be” by imitating our (former) tormentors. Africa must be peaceful, prosperous, and globally respected and be able to prove white racists wrong instead of flocking to the West like the Great Migration of the wildebeests in Masai Mara or Serengeti. As stated in the introduction, I started this book project with the research question “Why are postcolonial Africans who are not acutely affected by poverty, conflicts, or climate change willing to migrate, especially to the West which is often criticized as neocolonial or imperialist?” In the chapters above, I showed that the postcolonial African migration to the West is primarily caused by a mimetic desire for being through recognition against the background of slavery, colonialism, Western cultural hegemony, and imperialism. The postcolonial African will to migrate to the West is unbroken irrespective of conflicts, poverty, and climate change. I argued, especially based on mimetic theory, that postcolonial African migration to the West is not only a flight from poverty, the effects of climate change, and conflicts but also a flight from the colonized and dehumanized self, from perceived inadequacies, driven by the adoration of the West and entreaty for recognition. We overcame physical and historical external slavery and unfreedom but are unable to emancipate ourselves from our mental slavery. Postcolonial African migration to the West is a journey of free choice guided by disguised internal slavery.