TwoCents | THE END OF COLONIALISM: AN UNPOPULAR OPINION

What if I told you that Independence was a scam? That the labour of our heroes' past though honoured and hallowed forever in our Nation's story was a lie, a play on the grand stage of Global politics.  In school, I was taught about multiple tipping points that led to the successful fight for independence; one being the education of prominent citizens who fought the white men for independence, another being that our participation in foreign wars made us see through the mysticism that was the powerful white man. We saw that they were indeed mortals, mere flesh and blood. But over the years of reading, I have come to realise that like every good story, history is easily rewritten, edited and also can easily be made up. To understand what happened and get the full story, we need to zoom out and expand our lens past the geography of Nigeria and see the world like the colonialists saw it, a chessboard with moving pieces and parts; i.e. any nation that wasn't predominantly white or European. Because there were 2 races at that time; the powerful whites and every other primitive inferior one.  Like the fight for intelligence, nuclear power or the space race, they competed for who had the most colonies. In that era, colonises signified power in the form of resources. After the abolition of slavery, they had to go for the next best thing, natural resources and if they could also get the minds of the best of that race working for them indirectly, was it really a loss? They played the game of benevolent masters or vindictive and spiteful lords, depending on which got the job done, or which was more economically feasible. Because you see, wars have always been costly; preparing ammunition, paying men enough to risk their lives, providing food, water and welfare, and then shipping all these to a faraway land was a venture not to be taken lightly, especially if the reward was not high. So, this was a period where the powers that be and European nations shared sovereign nations like a slice of pie, some getting the indigenes to sign documents which literally said they were under the protection of the colonial master. Just like gangsters telling you to pay protection money, except this document was a proof of ownership. They showed the other European nations the document and it meant "They are mine, stay clear." These were the rules of engagement among them, breaching it meant war because the first rule is "do not mess with the money."  A beautiful book I read called "A Peace to End All Peace" by David Fromkin speaks beautifully on how the British and other nations fought for and carved up the Ottoman Empire into what we now know as the Modern Middle East. Most importantly, it gave me an insight into why the British had to re-strategise their approach in other colonies, this is because those in the Middle East fought them nonstop. So they kept needing to move men around to recapture and defend territories that they had occupied. It costs them time, money and infrastructure. They made deals and counter-deals with different clans and even blood relatives, turning brother against brother and even father against son. Then there was World War II, which put a massive strain on the power structure and world order. They used every resource available to them, including their colonies, conscripting them in a war that didn't directly affect them. The agitation, scuffles and struggles to put out the multiple fires in the different British colonies had left them stretched thin. America spoke against the colony arrangement and a new agreement was made. The colonial masters were to pull out and give back sovereignty to the nations. But before they left, they had one more card up their sleeves.

Other insights from Oluseyi Vandy