Recently, the Internet has been rocked by the news that Barack Obama’s brother, George Obama, will be making his movie debut in a documentary by Dinesh D’Souza. Interestingly, while lots of people are talking and writing about this topic, commentators seem to be fastidiously avoiding the elephant in the room: George Obama’s preposterous comments about race and African economic development. As an African, the most interesting part of the above clip was the portion in which he lauded the benefits of colonialism and apartheid for South Africa. This is disappointing—but certainly not new or surprising.
George Obama’s comments in the above video demonstrate that colonialism was much more than merely an economic enterprise. It was inarguably a system of cerebral slavery in which Africans were led to believe the lie that white people are intellectually superior to all races, and that blacks are subhuman primitives who are entirely dependent on the benevolent white race to be anything more than jungle-dwelling simians. Many Africans—both those born pre- and post-colonialism—have been indoctrinated into thinking like George Obama.
I am completely capable of rationally weighing the pros and cons of colonialism with respect to the African people. Manifestly, there are some positive externalities that can be seen in Africa post-colonialism. The most important of these is undoubtedly the proliferation of Christianity. However, I refuse to believe the colonial lie from the fiery pit of Hell that posits that black people couldn’t have been economically prosperous without the intervention of the white race. This is complete nonsense. Any reader of non-Western-filtered history would be acutely aware of the fact that there were thriving civilizations on the African continent—well before colonialism and Caucasian interference.
To put it simply, all Africa needs is capitalism. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the world-renowned development economist and Nigerian economic czar, has shown that Africa can make impressive gains in economics once privatization is utilized. However, most African nations are dependent on Western aid flows, which one of my favorite public intellectuals today, the Zambian international economist Dr. Dambisa Moyo, argues —via her massively influential international bestseller, Dead Aid — has impoverished Africa.
George Obama never mentioned the importance of trade—or the importance of having less Western aid. All I heard was, “[The whites] would have developed us.” It’s almost embarrassing to see how Westerners have so infantilized Africans. Africans need to develop Africa. Developing Africa is not the responsibility of Western governments—and all reasonable people can deduce, after decades of adherence to the failed aid model of development, that it probably isn’t the Western goal, either.
Capitalism is what Africans need to be arguing for—not for the return of “white people.” If white liberals go to Africa with a socialistic mindset, rather than one of entrepreneurialism, the result will be the same—continued poverty. There is no inherent magic in the white race. Capitalism is, however, magical at lifting people out of poverty—regardless of the race of the people pushing free-market policies.