By Lawan Musa D.
(Baba Lawan)
The historical relationship between Africa and Europe has been profoundly shaped by exploitation, beginning with the transatlantic slave trade. Classical economic thinkers and modern historians agree that enslaved African labor was central to the rise of European capitalism. Adam Smith, in The Wealth of Nations (1776), observed that the wealth of Europe was built on colonial production systems that relied heavily on unfree labor. Although Smith morally opposed slavery, he acknowledged that plantation economies in the Americas—sustained by African labor—generated surplus capital that accelerated industrial development in Europe, especially in Britain.
This observation is further reinforced by African-centered scholarship. Walter Rodney, in his seminal work How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972), argues that Africa’s underdevelopment was not a natural condition but a direct consequence of Europe’s development. According to Rodney, Africa served as a “reservoir of labor” and raw materials, while Europe accumulated capital, technology, and political power. The slave trade, he contends, drained Africa of its most productive population and distorted its social and economic institutions, leaving long-term structural damage.
The abolition of slavery did not end exploitation; it merely transformed it. Classical political theorists such as Karl Marx described this transformation as a shift in the mode of exploitation rather than its elimination. Marx noted that capitalism could not emerge without what he termed “primitive accumulation,” a process rooted in colonialism, slavery, and dispossession. Thus, the end of slavery did not restore justice to Africa; instead, it marked the transition to colonialism and, later, neo-colonial dependency.
The psychological and social consequences of this historical violence were critically examined by Frantz Fanon. In The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon explains how colonial systems destroy self-worth and create conditions where the colonized internalize inferiority and dependency. His analysis helps explain why, even in post-independence Africa, many societies continue to look outward for validation, opportunity, and survival.
These intellectual insights resonate strongly with contemporary African realities. Across the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea, young Africans risk their lives migrating to Europe. While they are no longer chained, their movement is driven by structural coercion—poverty, unemployment, insecurity, and state failure. As the sociologist Zygmunt Bauman observed, modern globalization creates “human waste”: populations rendered surplus in their own societies and forced to seek survival elsewhere.
This paradox is stark in Nigeria.
Despite official narratives of economic growth and reform, the working class and ordinary citizens face hunger, inflation, unemployment, and underemployment. The reality of daily life contradicts macroeconomic indicators. As Amartya Sen argues in his theory of development as freedom, economic growth without social justice, education, and welfare does not translate into real development. Where people lack capabilities—such as access to education, healthcare, and dignified work—growth becomes meaningless.
In this environment, migration becomes a rational response to systemic failure. Yet many Africans who reach Europe find themselves trapped in precarious, low-paid labor, algorithmically monitored and socially excluded—a condition that can be described as digital serfdom. The medieval serf was legally free but economically bound to the land; today’s migrant is legally free but economically bound to exploitative systems of global labor. This mirrors what Max Weber described as the “iron cage” of modern rationalized economies.
Crucially, responsibility does not rest solely with external forces. Indigenous political elites play a decisive role. The failure to invest in education, productive industries, and historical consciousness perpetuates dependency. Classical Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun warned in the Muqaddimah that societies decline when ruling classes abandon justice, knowledge, and collective welfare in favor of luxury and self-interest. His insight remains painfully relevant to many African states today.
Education, therefore, is not optional—it is emancipatory. A political class that values education and learns from history can liberate society from repeating old patterns in new forms. Without historical awareness, Africans risk mistaking migration for freedom and exploitation for opportunity.
From chains to choices, Africa’s journey reveals a tragic continuity. Yesterday, Africans were forced across oceans to build foreign economies. Today, Africans cross deserts and seas by choice, driven by poverty, inequality, and governance failure, to sustain those same economies. True liberation will come only when African societies confront both their historical exploitation and their contemporary leadership failures—transforming economic growth into human dignity and ensuring that freedom is lived at home rather than sought abroad.
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