Unfair distribution of resources in africa Essay

Unfair distribution of resources in africa - Essay Example The first one supports "continuing to discourage ethnic identification with a view to promoting statewide unity" (Presbey, 2003), or in other words- this approach believes in tearing down the ethnic differences that divide citizens of the same country, uniting everyone and as a result- encouraging a proper and sensible allocation of resources which does not take ethnic origins into consideration when deciding how to allocate the available resources. Contrary to this is the other approach which is extremely prevalent in African governments- taking peoples ethnic allegiances as they are and devising a federal state based on ethnic regions. When this is done, the government then chooses to allocate most resources to the regions associated with their own ethnicity. In other words, government officials allocate resources so that people from their own ethnicity will benefit much more and receive the most, whereas people from other ethnicities suffer from deprivation and an apparent lack of resources. Presbey claims that this method of allocating resources to benefic one group (or groups) at the expense of another group (or groups) started when Africa was controlled by colonial forces. They began a system in which rural farmers were underpaid for their produce, which later subsidized urban centers. That meant that the farmers who worked very hard did not receive any proper compensation for their hard work, their goods were taken away from them and then sold to everyone else, and while the rich could afford to buy this and gain access to other resources and infrastructures- the poor could not, and did not get the resources they needed. This is exactly like what is happening today, according to Presbey, because the Africans just adopted the "colonial system" of resource allocation. What is done today is very similar to what was done then- those who are in control of the country misuse