December 3rd 1900

The British have taken control of our economy. They have implemented their economic system on us, however, all the economic gains went to them instead of us, the producers. My friend, Bala, was forced to grow poppy in his fields instead of growing rice to feed his family. According to the British, the poppy can be sold off at a higher price and would have maximum yield per hectare of land. The short growing season also increases the number of yields per year and allows up to triple cropping which boosts the economy. Despite Bala's hard work in the fields, he receives minimal wages of only 50 pounds for his menial labour. The high amount of profit goes to the British's pockets and the gains are not evenly shared with us, even though we provided them the land and the labour for them. With farmers being forced to grow cash crops, there is of course a decrease in the output of staple food such as rice which has to be imported now.Then, 6 years after the British have arrived in our state, no improvements on the transport system has been made. The transport system is still the outdated type which depends on horses as the main mode of transport. It was then i realised that routes for communication was not laid down to facilitate internal trade in African commodities but rather for European businessmen to do trade by the sea.I observed that all roads and railways led down to the sea. I heard from the village head that they were built to make business possible for the timber companies, trading companies and agricultural concession firms, and for white settlers. I felt outraged at such obvious exploitation of African labour. I am strongly against such discrimination of Africans and the making use of Africans for their own gains. Neither have they helped improve the state of Africa, as all they did was to build roads so as to facilitate external trade with other European businessmen, and not for African businessmen to do trade with. I am truly infuriated with their selfish actions and at the same time, disappointed with the lack of progress in Africa.