De-neocolonizing Africa via Trade and Commerce Route in the Digital Age

The African continent has experienced continuous invasion by external forces which have altered its history for hundreds of years. The continent is highly endowed with human and natural resources which when efficiently and effectively utilized have the capacity to fully develop the continent. For instance, virtually all countries in the African continent have one natural resource or more. Such resources include precious metals such as gold, aluminum, coal, granite, as well as agricultural products like groundnut, cassava, cocoa maize, millet, sorghum, and edible fruits. The continent once boasted of the largest timber company in the world, the African Timber and Plywood (AT&P). In the earlier times of its civilization, the continent was self-sufficient and any external interference was for the purpose of mutual trade. However, with the invasion of the Europeans and others into Africa, the narrative took a drastic turn. Europeans and other explorers brought their culture into the continent with dire consequences. Eurocentrism was forcefully imposed (Amin in Eurocentrism: modernity, religion, and democracy—A critique of Eurocentrism and culturalism, Monthly Review Press, 2009; Dussel in Nepantla: Views from South 3(2):165–188, 2019; Said in Critical Inquiry 26:175–192, 2010) and African civilization was truncated (Goody in International Development: The aid effectiveness debate, 2009). The economic structure was altered with colonialism as a phase interwoven with slavery as a mode of production. With so much viable resources and relatively cheap labor, Africa became a treasury opened to plunderers. Several countries exploited the resources, repatriated these resources to develop their countries, and left Africa in shambles. The great Trans-Atlantic trade that thrived for many years is a clear testimony to this fact; and this article sets out to explore this discourse in a bit to leverage on the digital technology to de-neocolonize the African commerce and trade routes.