The Berlin Conference of 1884-85: Where Africa was bought for the price of no penny. 135 years down the lane, where is Africa?

The Berlin Conference of November 15th 1884- February 26th, 1885, is one in the history of Africa which posterity will for generations and centuries, remember when Africa was bought for the price of no penny. In 1884, at the request of Portugal, German Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck, called together the major western powers of the world to negotiate questions and answers to end confusion over the control of Africa. Bismarck appreciated the opportunity to expand Germany's sphere of influence over Africa and hoped to force Germany's rivals to struggle with one another for territory.

The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 also known as the Congo Conference(German: Kongo Konferenz) or West Africa Conference (Westafrika-Konferenz), regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New imperialism period and coincided with Germany's sudden emergence as an imperial power. The conference has also been termed by many political scientists as the "Scramble for Africa".

According to ThoughtCo., "At the time of the conference, 80 percent of Africa remained under traditional and local control. What ultimately resulted was a hodgepodge of geometric boundaries that divided Africa into 50 irregular countries. The new map of the continent was superimposed over 1,000 indigenous cultures and regions of Africa. The new countries lacked rhyme or reason and divided coherent groups of people and merged together disparate groups who really did not get along". In attestation to this, take Nigeria for example where the Northern part of the country accounts for about 83% of the total land mass. Such irregularity in boundary sharing.

During this conference where the fate of Africa was decided without any of her representative, fourteen countries were represented by a plethora of Ambassadors when the Conference opened in Berlin on November 15, 1884. The countries represented at the time included Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, The Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden-Norway(unified from 1814 to 1905), Turkey, and the United States of America. Of these 14 nations, France, Germany, Great Britain, and Portugal were the major players in the conference, controlling most of colonial Africa at the time.

The initial talk of the conference was to agree that the Congo River and Niger River mouths and basins would be considered neutral and open to trade. Despite it's neutrality, part of the Congo basin became a personal Kingdom for Belgium's King Leopold II. At the time of the conference, only the coastal areas of Africa were colonized by the European powers. At the Berlin Conference, the European colonial powers scrambled to gain control over the interior of the continent. The conference lasted until February 26, 1885 — a three month period where colonial powers haggled over geometric boundaries in the interior of the continent, disregarding the cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the indigenous African population.

Following the Conference, the give and take continued. By 1914, the conference participants had fully divided Africa among themselves into 50 countries. The major holdings includes:

• Great Britain took Egypt, Sudan(Anglo-Egyptian Sudan), Uganda, Kenya(British East Africa), South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe(Rhodesia), and Botswana. The British also controlled Nigeria, Ghana(Gold Coast), The Gambia, abd Sierra Leone.

• France took much of West Africa, from Mauritania to Chad(French West Africa), as well as Having and Republic of Congo(French Equatorial Africa).

• Belgium and King Leopold II controlled thr Democratic Republic of Congo(Belgian Congo).

• Portugal took Mozambique in the east and Angola in the West.

• Italy's holdings were Somalia(Italian Somaliland) and a portion of Ethiopia.

• Germany took Namibia(German Southwest Africa) and Tanzania(German East Africa)

• Spain claimed the smallest territory which was Equatorial Guinea(Rio Muni).

The Berlin Conference was described by Harm J. de Bli in "Geography: Realms, Regions, and Concepts:"

"The Berlin Conference was Africa's undoing in more ways than one. The colonial powers superimposed their domains on the African continent. By the time independence returned to Africa in 1950, the realm had acquired a legacy of political fragmentation that could neither be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily."

From the postulation by Harm J. de Bli, what can be deduced from it in essence is that, the superimposition by the colonial powers into the domain of the African continent even after many years, has led into different political and social fragmentation which had continued to bedevil the African continent and which "could never be eliminated nor made to operate satisfactorily". The adherents of the conference acted in sheer ignorance, obliviousness and disregard of the continent's cultural and linguistic boundaries already established by the indigenous African population. Most of the African society was made up of Kingdoms and clans and these kingdom and clabs had their culture, tradition, beliefs and way of doing things. Merging these disparate Kingdoms as one will be a total disregard of the common nitty gritty (understanding their way of life) and may most likely spell doom. It is like co-habiting a lion and a goat together just because they are animals that for sure will be fatal.

135 years down the lane, where is Africa? How has Africa thrived amidst the seemingly disregard of their indigenous, cultural, and linguistic boundaries? How has Africans been able to live amongst themselves as a country? I will take Nigeria as a case study. Despite the One Nigeria mantra sung in Nigeria ab initio, have Nigerians lived in oneness? Without mincing words, and with all sense of candor, Nigerians are not one and has never been one and would never be one. Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to cause animosity, but rather trying to be a realist. If we could avert our minds back to thr Civil war, what was the remote cause of the war? Marginalization! Caused by who? Nigerians? No, the colonialists! Why? Nigeria was never to be! It is a blatant mistake by the colonialists because these are people with different culture and way of live who can't live together no matter what. That's why up until now we still have clamours for secession because they can't stand. The union was a foisted one, with no foundation and with such flagrant disregard of the people's history, culture and boundaries, and nothing can stand without a strong foundation.

The Rwandan Civil War of 1990 -1994, the Burundian Civil war and other civil wars caused by long-running disputes by groups across Africa accentuates all these.

135 years after, can Africa say the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 was beneficial or detrimental to Africa and it's growth? A question begging for answer.