Before the arrival of European colonial powers, African societies thrived under their own systems — rooted in community, culture, and sustainability. Land was communal, wealth was measured in cattle, relationships, or contribution, and trade was conducted through barter, cowrie shells, beads, iron tools, and other indigenous systems of value. Africans were not rich in money, but they were rich in life — self-sufficient, free, and able to define prosperity on their own terms.
But when the colonizers came, they didn’t just take land — they took control of how Africans lived, worked, ate, dressed, and even thought. And one of their most powerful tools for achieving this was the money system — a foreign concept imposed on a continent that had never needed it for survival.
The Birth of the Colonial Trap
Colonial powers like Germany and Britain, who ruled over what is now Tanzania, introduced a cash-based economy with one goal in mind: control. They imposed taxes on African households — such as the hut tax or head tax — and demanded that these taxes be paid in colonial currency. But Africans didn’t use this kind of money before. So how would they get it?
The answer was simple and sinister: you had to work for it.
The very same colonial authorities who demanded taxes also established farms, mines, railways, and offices where Africans could labor in exchange for that money. These jobs paid just enough to survive, but not enough to escape. And so, the system ensured that Africans would leave their land, abandon traditional ways of life, and enter a cycle of labor and dependency — not out of choice, but survival.
We Earned Money Only to Give It Back
Once you earned the money, you had to give a portion of it back in the form of taxes. The money was printed by the colonizers, distributed through their jobs, and then collected back into their pockets. The cycle was brilliant in its cruelty: they gave you just enough to keep you working — but never enough to be free.
And whatever money you had left after taxes? You spent it buying goods that were now sold by colonial merchants — salt, sugar, tools, soap, clothes — most of which your community once produced on its own. Your culture, your self-reliance, and your land-based wealth had all been replaced with products and systems that made you dependent.
The Death of Self-Sufficiency
The traditional African economy — based on subsistence, sharing, and sustainability — was destroyed. People who once fed their families from their farms were now growing cash crops for export. Land that was once communal was now surveyed, taxed, and privatized. Communities that once wore handwoven fabrics now wore European clothing, sold back to them from the very cotton they had grown.
To keep up with this new way of life, Africans had to work more, buy more, and owe more. A self-sufficient society became a consumer economy, and colonizers became the suppliers.
From Colonization to Aid: The System Evolves
Even after independence, the economic systems set up during colonial rule remained largely intact. Today, African countries still rely heavily on foreign loans, foreign aid, foreign investment, and foreign imports. And those loans and “gifts” often come with conditions that keep African economies tied to global powers. We are told we are being “helped,” but in truth, we are being managed — still stuck in a system where we are seen as producers of raw materials and consumers of finished goods.
A Psychological War
The greatest damage of colonialism wasn’t just physical or economic — it was psychological. Colonizers made us believe that we were inferior, incapable, and in need of help. They made our traditions look primitive and our systems irrelevant. Even today, we measure progress by how Western we look, speak, or dress.
But we must remember: poverty in Africa was not natural — it was engineered.
The Way Forward
The road to healing starts with understanding what was taken and how it was taken. We must reclaim:
• Our stories.
• Our economies.
• Our minds.
We must produce for ourselves, think for ourselves, and define success in ways that honor who we are — not who we were told to become. The future of Africa will not be written in aid reports or charity campaigns. It will be written by Africans who wake up, speak up, and rise up — refusing to be victims of systems they never chose.
