Insensitive or not, both statements can be true at the same time. I.e. Africa is plagued by bad leadership and corruption, and the west is more than happy to take advantage of the situation.
In a lot of cases Africa's bad leadership is a direct result of the west's former colonial efforts there. Congo in particular suffered at the hands of Belgium. So this sentiment is incomplete.
Yes Belgium did horrible things in the Congo. But what's the solution now? Belgium no longer has much influence. Most of the perpetrators are dead and can no longer be held accountable.
20 years after to completely own its institutions.
40 years after to completely own its politics.
60 years after to completely own its crime and corruption.
So yeah, about now is when Belgium is entirely off the hook. If they still feel involved from colonialist guilt-trips, that's their own problem. It's time for homegrown domestic scapegoats.
It would be absurd to write-off Belgium's responsibility so quickly. The current Prime Minister was a teenager when Belgium left. His upbringing and primary schooling were all under Belgian rule. The same is true of most people involved in governing the country.
Africa is still colonized, so this idea that they picked "bad leaders" is comical. I would expect the owner of Glencore have more say in the next leader in some of these countries than the actual population.
Time to stop blaming the victims of crimes Europeans have been committing for 2-3+ centuries? now...
exactly!
colonial powers only pulled out of africa once they figured out how to continue extracting and exploiting without the overheads of having to also administer their former colonies