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5000 refugees. That’s how many arrived in Lampedusa on one day alone last week. The Italian government is overwhelmed by this and is asking for help from the EU. But France announced last night that it would not accept migrants who have arrived in Lampedusa in recent days. Although the majority of them speak French.

Their language is a remnant of the 20th century, when France had colonies in Africa. A time when Great Britain, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal and Spain also ruled African territories.

Is there more left of the colonial era in today’s African countries than just the language? About power relations that are responsible, among other things, for today’s refugee flows? The German historian Wolfgang Reinhard asked himself exactly this question in his book ‘The Subjugation of the World’ and now answers it in an interview.

Wolfgang Reinhard, more and more people are fleeing Africa across the Mediterranean Sea back to Europe. Are these refugee flows a payback for the colonization of the continent by European states in the 20th century?
Wolfgang Reinhard: No. The refugee crisis cannot be directly explained by colonialism. But indirectly.

To what extent indirectly?
I see the large development gap between Europe and many African countries as the main reason for the current refugee crisis. On the one hand, this is because many African countries are politically and economically unstable. On the other hand, this is because European countries in particular have promoted unfair economic conditions in the recent past.

Do you have an example?
European surplus products, among other things, were exported to Africa at low prices, with which African suppliers could not compete. For example, the subsidized chicken from the EU that threatened local poultry farmers in Ghana. But this is no longer an imbalance in colonial power. But simply an imbalance in economic power.

Nevertheless, national boundaries once drawn by European colonial powers still exist in Africa. Doesn’t that have an impact on the stability of a country today?
Yes absolutely. Colonialism has definitively destroyed Africa’s political, social and cultural structures. When most African states became independent sixty years ago, these structures could no longer be repaired. Instead, they tried to adopt them from Europe. Sometimes that worked well, for example in Botswana. But in many other countries this did not work.

Why not?
As you said, the boundaries of the colonies remained. But the colonial powers often drew these boundaries completely arbitrarily. You can also see this when you look at the world map. There are huge countries like Nigeria, where people who had nothing in common had to become a nation. Neither language, nor culture, nor way of life. And then there are boundaries that separate people with the same language and culture. Naturally, this creates tension. In many African countries there is still no such thing as a national feeling that holds society together within national borders. Moreover, some African countries are so small and their borders are so illogically drawn that they have little chance of developing economically.

That sounds a bit like Europe’s fault.
This black and white thinking about the ‘European perpetrators’ and the ‘African victims’ is wrong. The European colonizers could not have colonized Africa without the cooperation of local allies. People who knew the environment, could translate and exercise power.

It denies Africans any responsibility.

Nevertheless, Europe’s goal in Africa was to exploit the land and its people.
Naturally. And at the same time, some people from Africa also wanted to benefit from this exploitation.

That sounds quite similar to today. They said European states were exploiting Africa under unfair economic conditions. At the same time, there have been repeated reports of corruption in African countries.
Precisely. That is why European development funds in Africa are often lost due to corruption. For this very reason, the question of whether colonialism is responsible for this initial situation can no longer be answered. It has been too long. The colonists and colonized people are no longer alive. You can no longer be held liable. There are new people responsible for new problems. Which does not mean that colonialism no longer has an influence on today’s events.

Are there also consequences of colonialism for Europe that still have an impact today?
In each case. Racism is one such relic. This is also reflected in the way refugees from Africa are treated.

What do you think it would take to stop the flow of refugees from Africa at some point?
I am a historian. I can only look to the past, not the future. Can’t provide solutions. However, in my opinion, the EU’s refugee policy is catastrophic. The EU has been trying to find a better solution for a long time, but has not succeeded so far. That’s why I don’t think anything will improve anytime soon. There are too many countries in the EU with different interests.