How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

I really enjoyed reading this article. It gave me a better understanding of the political and economic things that happen in Africa due to the Europeans. Walter Rodney does an excellent job with describing the effects of the colonial governments in Africa. I thought it was kind of interesting how the African workers were paid. The European civil servants in the Gold Coast was paid an average salary of 40 per month, while Africans got an average salary of 4. That to me was a huge difference in salary given the fact the African labor was reason for the amount of surplus in Africa. Another thing that I found crazy, was how they used taxation, which made it even harder for the Africans to survive. I think it was unfair for them to use the taxation system for exploitation.

The education issue was one part of the article that really got my attention. I remember reading in King Leopold's Ghost how the children were educated, but it didn't really go into detail like this article. I was amazed at the unevenness in education throughout the continent. It was shocking to know that secondary education was rare and other forms of higher education was almost non-existent. In the part of the admission that Dr. Kofi Busia gave he mentioned that the education he recieved taught him more and more about Europe and less about his own society. That is what was so unfair about the education system, what they learned was what the Europeans wanted them to know.

The part of the article about indiviualism was also interesting. I liked how Rodney compared the idea and affects of indiviualism in Europe and in Africa. It was completely opposite in both continents. In Europe it was action that contributed to its goal of conquering the rest of the world. Where as in Africa it contributed to the downfall of its independence. Overall it think this was a good article with wonderful analysis.