Question

Evaluate the accuracy of the following claim: "The experience of colonialism has contributed to social and political conflict in developing countries after they achieved independence."

Answer 1

I agree with the claim that "The experience of colonialism has contributed to social and political conflict in developing countries after they achieved independence."

Even though the experience was not the same in settler colonies like Canada and invader colonies such as those in Africa, the result was pretty much traumatic in every case.

In former British colonies like West African countries or the West Indies, the process of colonialism included the erasure of local cultures through violence, imperial education and seprating children from their families to send them to boarding schools. The impact of this in the mind of the colonized has been studied by scholars like Franz Fanon and Homi Bhabha.

The European colonial settlers also draw their own frontiers and reorganized the countries as seen in The Scramble for Africa (1881-1914), so different tribes or ethnic groups that were enemies now are forced to coexist in the same region or country. This has favoured ethnic conflicts in African countries after decolonization.

After these countries achieved independence, they are left with a different culture resulting from the erasure of their own and the imposition of a colonial one, they are left with different geographical space coexisting with enemies and they are also left with few resources, so the social and political conflict is a previsible outcome of such a traumatic process.