The western world doing more harm than good to Africa?

[Kofi]

I created a similar thread a few days ago but I don't think it hurts much to start another thread so here we go again. The west doing more harm than good to Africa? Anytime I ask my friends this question I get several interesting replies. Some of my friends believe the western world is the main reason why Africa cannot develop and anytime I ask them why? some say the western world pretends to help Africa but in reality, the western world benefits from our sweats. In other words, the western world is like a wolf in sheep's clothing preventing Africa from developing. At times they cite issues such as the international market trap and parasitic world trade issues whereby one of the parties benefit by harming the other. Some of their answers make perfect sense to me for example, American timber firms keep cutting down all our trees for timber but pay very little for those trees they cut down. They buy our gold, diamonds and other minerals at very cheap prices because they alone determine the market price for those goods and because we have no other place to sell those precious minerals, we just give it out to them for peanuts. At the end of the day, our golds and precious minerals are gone but we gain very little in return because of the international market trap.

Some of my friends also believe the western world has been manipulating Africa from the time of slavery up till now and they manipulate Africa to their advantage all the time. The western world sometimes create confusions and stir commotions in Africa in order to disintegrate the unity process and then go ahead and manipulate Africa to their own (the western world's) advantage. This is not easy to notice because the western world after creating the confusion and stirring the commotion sends the so-called peacekeepers to come calm the storm after the harm has been done already. They do so so that we will think the western world came to help and not to destroy although in reality, it is nothing but deception and parasitic manipulations.

I don't like blaming the western world for the problems we face in Africa because I believe that If we Africans do not allow those western countries to manipulate us, they cannot manipulate us. They continue manipulating us to their own advantage why because Africans allow ourselves to be manipulated all the time. My Grandparents used to say "if you don't go to heaven, don't blame Jesus" and by that they mean "if u don't succeed, don't blame others but yourself". If you don't work hard and fail in life, don't blame others for your misfortune. That is another reason why I don't like blaming the western world for the problems we face in Africa. I believe if we Africans come together as one people with a common destiny, no outsider can just come in from no where and start manipulating us. In other words, we should blame ourselves instead of blaming all our problems on the western world. It is true the western world manipulates Africa to their own advantage but we Africans allow ourselves to be manipulated so we should blame ourselves and not the western world for the problems we face in Africa.

What do you think?