Cooperation and Barriers to People and Goods: Examples from Africa

The relationship between Africa and the developed North has consistently been an imbalanced African dependency on the North. The African continent continues to be exploited. It all started with the European and Arab exploits that ushered in the inhuman slave trade. More than 20 million Africans were trafficked to the New World and Europe as well as the Arab world. At the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, Africa was parcelled into power possessions which Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain and Portugal ruled for several decades before the possessions became independent. Still, important links are being maintained with these powers.