Between the 16th to 19th centuries Europeans instituted the largest and most inhumane forced migration programme in history. Europeans needed a cheap (free) source of labour and Africa was blessed with some of the finest specimens of humanity to be found anywhere on the planet.

Europeans solved their labour shortage by simply kidnapping every African they could get their greedy hands on or paid African middle men to do their dirty human trafficking work for them.

A conservative estimate would have us believe that Africa lost between 10 and 12 million of its best and brightest sons and daughters during the period of the transatlantic slave trade. This conservative estimate is challenged by Afrocentric scholars who believe that the number of kidnapped and transported Africans was much higher. It should be noted that the conservative estimate does not include Africans lost along the way from the interior of Africa to their final destination in the world that was new to the Europeans.

Our African ancestors were easy targets for Arab, Asian, and European invaders for a number of reasons. Black people generally are a curious, hospitable, trusting race of people, cursed with the mistaken notion that all other races are equally non-threatening. Our African ancestors allowed foreigners to set up outposts mainly along the African coast. These outposts may have started as trading centres but eventually evolved into fortresses that were used as launching pads for further military incursions into the heart of the African continent.

Sub-Saharan Africans, according to professor of Africana studies Ivan Van Sertima, ventured across the Atlantic and may have done the discovery thing long before Christopher Columbus got monumentally lost. However, unlike the Europeans and others, Africans generally were not into sailing the ocean blue and stealing everything they could find. Ship building, a prerequisite for deep water navigation, maritime military power, and international trading, never really took off in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Africans were more likely to fight among themselves than to form confederations to fight against invading nations. Disunity combined with Stone Age military weapons and tactics made the conquest of most of Africa inevitable.

Ethiopia with its Jewish and Christian heritage was the only African country that was not significantly colonised. The intended takeway from the Ethiopian experience must have been that preferential treatment would be extended to any African country embracing Christianity or Judaism.

Let’s fast-forward to 2022, a year in which Europe is facing a winter season minus Russian gas and oil. It is quite possible that the flow of gas from Russia to Europe may never return to the pre-Ukraine military operations era. Russia has played the oil and gas card on Europeans, forcing them to look for alternative sources of energy. The continent of Africa has about seven per cent of the global reserves of gas and oil and Europe is already tapping into the African reserves of fuel.

When the fuel shortage becomes an existential threat to Europeans, the temptation to reboot the age of empires will present itself. African countries may have gained the right to compose a national anthem and sew a flag, but European influence is pervasive on the continent. Sub-Saharan Africa is still divided into Anglophone, Francophone, and Lusophone regions. The French still exert significant influence in the Sahel region in Africa, notwithstanding their expulsion from Mali.

History does have a way of repeating itself and the post-globalisation world will see many historical repeats. One such repeat could be the return of the colonial powers to the continent of Africa to secure oil, gas, and other needed raw materials. The weaponry and military capabilities of African nations may well be from the Stone Age when compared to those of the Europeans. You don’t have to be a master of String Theory to know what will be the outcome of conflict between Europeans and Africans.

Fuel shortage, runaway inflation, and persistent recessions may very well force Europe into empire-building mode once again. The mirage of African independence could quickly unravel and African people could once again find themselves living under foreign occupation. Africans could also find themselves living as second- or even third-class citizens on the continent they call their own.