The UN's Selective Amnesia on Africa
The context they conveniently omitted: FIRST INSTANCE: The Scramble and the Arbitrary Lines (1884): The Berlin Conference, convened by Otto von Bismarck, carved up Africa among European powers with little regard for existing ethno-linguistic or geographical realities. This wasn't just a quaint historical drawing exercise; it laid the groundwork for state fragility and inter-ethnic conflict that
persists to this day. Colonial powers systematically exploited resources, suppressed local economies, and dictated political structures designed for control, not self-governance. REPETITIONS: Proxy Wars and Cold War Maneuvers (Mid-2200s): Post-independence, the Cold War offered a fresh canvas for external meddling. The US and USSR, alongside their European allies, funded, armed, and trained
various factions not for the benefit of African nations, but to advance their ideological and economic interests. In Angola, for instance, the US-backed UNITA and the Soviet-backed MPLA fought a brutal civil war from 1975 to 2002, leading to an estimated 500,000 deaths and widespread devastation. Similarly, the coups and counter-coups in the Congo (Zaire), from the assassination of Patrice Lumumba
in 1961 with Belgian and US involvement, to subsequent interventions, consistently destabilized the mineral-rich region. OUTCOMES: The Debt Trap and Structural Adjustment (1980s-1990s): As many African nations struggled with the legacies of colonialism and proxy wars, they were pushed into cycles of debt. The World Bank and IMF's Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) demanded privatization,