[File, Standard]In his award-winning seminal essay, ‘The worst mistake in the history of the human race’, Jared Diamond argued that in transiting from hunting-and-gathering to agriculture-based production, humans committed their most cardinal error. Many contemporary scholarly viewpoints insist that in Africa, colonial rule indeed brought great improvements in economic development, long-term health and well-being, and that, without any plausible counterfactual evidence, Africa is poorer today than when it was colonised. One would have expected these bitter formative experiences to make the fruit of independence much sweeter and highly treasured. In stark contrast, colonial rule was arguably quite orderly, responsive, selfless and tribeless. Each year we commemorate our independence with remarkable pomp, yet, we lack genuine reflection on the role of collective memory and history in our nation building.

Source: Standard Digital May 10, 2021 21:22 UTC