Athow Brian and Robert G. Blanton present their survey of African trade dealingss before and after European colonialism in “Colonial Style and Colonial Legacies: Trade Patterns in British and French Africa. ” This survey is rather of import as it is an attempt to scientifically measure the colonial trade bequest in a comparative mode. In fact. it is the lone research of its sort analysing trade dealingss of antecedently colonized provinces of Africa between 1938 and 1985. The authors’ end is to detect whether neocolonialism continues to be in the antecedently colonized African provinces with regard to merchandise dealingss.

In other words. make the antecedently colonized African provinces continue to depend on the colonialists for trade? The underdevelopment of Africa is attributable to many factors. including the fact that it takes economically powerful authoritiess with a strong sense of their ends to authorise their people and develop states. It is a well-known fact that the European colonialists had their ain involvements at bosom. Their materialistic aims could non suit the end of developing Africa. African provinces that came to be ruled by Europeans were forced to bring forth agricultural goods every bit good as natural stuffs to run into European demands entirely.

The “traditional agricultural economies” of the colonised provinces of Africa were forced by Gallic and British colonialists to get down specialising in hard currency harvests that were entirely meant for export. Although the Gallic and British colonialists came to keep important political power over the African people. the local demands of the latter were absolutely disregarded. No admiration. although Africa continues to look exuberant green to the human oculus. its people suffer from terrible hungriness. After all. their demands have been disregarded even after independency was attained from the European colonialists.

As a affair of fact. the writers of “Colonial Style and Colonial Legacies” found that the African provinces that were antecedently colonized by the Gallic continue to hold France as their main trading spouse. Similarly. African provinces that were antecedently colonized by the British continue to merchandise with the British in add-on to other provinces that had been colonized by the British. What is more. the trading manner of the colonialists continues to be used by the African provinces that were colonized by the Gallic and the British. Gallic settlements of Africa were under a centralised regulation.

For this ground. they continue to see France as their main trading spouse. British regulation was decentralized to a big extent. Furthermore. the British had already established trade dealingss between the African colonized provinces and other states across the universe that had been colonized by the British. These trading forms continue to this twenty-four hours. which is the ground why the writers of “Colonial Style and Colonial Legacies” refer to neocolonialism in African trade dealingss. Harmonizing to the writers. old wonts die hard.

Africa continues to endure from terrible poorness because its resources do non back up the Africans. Rather. antecedently colonized African provinces continue to bring forth for the Gallic and the British peoples. Africans are dependent on the moneys they receive for the goods they export to France and Britain. in add-on to antecedently colonized British provinces in other parts of the universe. Sing that Africa appears to be on the losing side of this trade. the article. “Colonial Style and Colonial Legacies” calls for monolithic structural alterations in the political and trade forms applied in Africa today.

It would take African authoritiess to develop a strong sense of their ends to accomplish economic independency for the Africans – this clip holding the involvements of their ain people at bosom.

Bibliography

Brian. Athow. and Robert G. Blanton. “Colonial Style and Colonial Legacies: Trade Patterns in British and French Africa. ” Journal of Third World Studies ( Fall 2002 ) . Available from hypertext transfer protocol: //findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_qa3821/is_200210/ai_n9134671. Internet ; accessed 27 November 2008.