Colonialism Rebranded: Why the West Still Fears a Free Africa

Commentary by Richard David Hames, thought leader, philosopher-activist and author.

“The colonial playbook is open again—its pages bloodstained, its logic unchanged. We know this script by heart. The West enters, cloaked in the language of democracy, security, and civilization. It leaves behind a trail of shattered sovereignties.

Look at Burkina Faso. Today, they declare education a right, not a privilege. They mine their own gold and invest the returns in the defense of their land. They have told France: enough, your time here is over. Get out. And don’t come back.

And what follows? A familiar chorus from Western capitals: Dictator! The US Africa Command’s own General Langley warns that Captain Ibrahim Traoré’s government is dangerous. But let’s ask the only question that matters: Dangerous to whom?

We’ve seen the fate of those who dared to dream of a liberated Africa. Gaddafi. Sankara. Lumumba. Their crime was not tyranny—it was independence. They wanted to build, not beg. They dared to imagine a continent that governs itself, owns its resources, and writes its own future. For this, they were branded monsters—then hunted, deposed, or murdered.

Gaddafi’s Libya was no utopia, but the 2010 UN Human Development Report told a story the West will never broadcast: Libya, under Gaddafi, had the highest Human Development Index in Africa. Free education. Free healthcare. Housing for all. Gas for pennies. Then came the NATO bombs and the 'liberation.' Today, Libya is a shattered mirror. Is this what freedom looks like?

Let’s drop the pretense. The West does not fear dictators—it fears independence. It fears an Africa that mines its own gold, grows its own food, and educates its children for free. It fears African leaders who defend their people with African wealth, not Western charity. It fears countries that refuse to sign away their futures to foreign corporations. It fears elections that reflect the will of the people, not the designs of puppet-masters and compromised elites.

To every young African, hear this truth: Colonialism never left. It only changed masks. It returned as predatory debt, fake democracy, resource plunder, and the quiet assassination of every leader who dared to say: 'Africa belongs to Africans.' The coloniser returns with 'aid' in one hand and contracts in the other, as if you are helpless, as if you have no memory, as if you have no will.

But you are not children. You are not slaves. This continent is yours—its rivers, its gold, its diamonds, its future. No Western general, no foreign journalist, and no imported puppet has the right to choose your destiny. If you want freedom, real freedom—the kind that can’t be granted or revoked by outsiders—stop begging and start building. Stand up. Remember those who came before. Refuse the old script. Write your own. The hour is late. The world is watching. And the choice is yours.”