Colonialism is a matter of law. Reversing it should be done legally to avoid Mugabe kind of situations . By unwritting the laws that got us here in the first place. By reverse laws. Fire is fought by fire.

The power of the Western Civilization is in the written laws. Its only a fact if it is written.

The colonisation of Africa was done by writing laws. First,
In summary ... (Details later)

1. First, to give "protection" over African lands whose leaders showed "cooperation" - with the agents (missioneries)

2. To convert the protectorates (refer to 1 above) as exclusive economic zones - the colonies were first run by companies like the British East African Company, German East African Company etc

3. To install foreign administrators in the exclusive zones .... (the good news about this point is that most African countries have since replaced the foreign administrators with African administrators. Its the only point all independent African countries got changed)

4. To declare the African territories as part of British territories, ie, colonies. This had the effect of installing the European kings and Queens the Rulers of their exclusive economic territories (protectorates). Its the reason why Francophone Africans pay France. All member countries have to contribute to the UN - A story for another day. This declaration still stands.

5. Only one thing remained at this point. All the laws went unnoticed by many Africans till this point because the effect was not felt. They continued to live peacefully wordering what so many strange coloured people were showing up at random places on their territory. The rich Africans with hordes of cattle and tracks of land and homesteads remained so. Until ... another law was passed. Declaring all land within the colonies as lands owned by the European Aristocracy. Crown lands.

6. The importation of European general laws. The Order In Council" The final nail on the coffin. The rest was just implementation. Strict implementation. Some people actually take their written laws seriously

Breakdown ...

1. The declaration of Protectorates
Most African kings and other rulers has by this time been deceived into handing over their land rights. The missioneries in most of Africa executed this part of the plan. Befriend the natives, ask for a small piece of land to build a church, convince the African rulers that the foreign monarch wanted to give them protection from their rival tribes, call in protection protection which came in form of armed crown soldiers administrators.

A protectorate, in its inception adopted by modern international law, is a dependent territory that has been granted local autonomy and some independence while still retaining the suzerainty of a greater sovereign state. In exchange for this, the protectorate usually accepts specified obligations, which may vary greatly, depending on the real nature of their relationship. Therefore, a protectorate remains an autonomous part of a sovereign state


Wikipedia.

The question is, how to undo these international covenants of "protection", in modern times. The UK is still the first call when any security matters arise in Nigeria ...

First, the land rights. The return of crown lands (now called government lands/public lands to their owners - the communities that had them.

The following is an excerpt off one such agreement. The Treaty Between Great Britain and Lagos, 1 January 1852 was an agreement between the United Kingdom (represented by Commodore Henry William Bruce, Commander of the British Navy's West Africa Station and John Beecroft, British Consul in the Bights of Benin and Biafra) and Oba Akitoye, the newly installed Oba of Lagos

Its supposed to be an anti - slavery treaty - but is loaded with ideas of "protection" and creation of privilege that missioneries later took full advantage of it.

Article VIII
Complete protection [/b]shall be afforded to Missionaries or Ministers of the Gospel, of whatever nation or country,

...[b]Encouragement shall be given to such Missionaries or Ministers in the pursuits of industry, in building houses for their residence, and schools and chapels. They shall not be hindered or molested in their endeavours to teach the doctrines of Christianity to all persons willing and desirous to be taught; nor shall any subject of the King and Chiefs of Lagos who may embrace the Christian faith be on that account, or on account of the teaching or exercise thereof, molested or troubled in any manner whatsoever.

So an anti slavery law in fact gave land and protection rights to foreigners.

These lands hosted the first colonial administrative offices. Those offices still stand, the officers are now African.

Africa - German map 1892

2. The Exclusive Economic Zones

The African territory has long been known to be rich with precious metal, arable land and conducive climate. Various sections of European nobility and Aristocracy needed to find ways of exploiting the continent without letting their diverse interests break their United front. They stayed off each others territories and marked theirs by mapping and naming them. So you will hear of one European "discovering" a mountain, mapping this and that and naming every physical feature after their respective Kings and Queens.

Imperial Companies were registred for the purpose of exploiting these resources. Old companies with similar experience were used too - like the Imperial British East India Company.

The companies were the forerunners of the incoming monarch rule that did not take long to follow. They were given a specific mandate;

We still live with the same system of exploitation. It is almost impossible for African countries to carry out trade with each other because British companies (for former British colonies take precedence in trade "partnership" We export mineral resources - that is the purpose of our partnership as established by the mandate of the Queen

The Berlin Conference of 1884–85, also known as the Congo Conference (German: Kongokonferenz) or West Africa Conference (Westafrika-Konferenz),[1] regulated European colonization and trade in Africa during the New Imperialism period. It established the rules through which the allied powers ruled the economy of Africa.

During the conference(about 10 western countries), the map of Africa control by the allied powers was redrawn and territorial integrity of the European protectorates re-established.

Excerpt - General Act of the Berlin Conference,

Chap. VI [Regarding new occupations on the coasts of Africa]

XXXIV. Any power which henceforth takes possession of a tract of land on the coasts of the African Continent outside of its present possessions, or which, being hitherto without such possessions, shall acquire them and assume a protectorate. . . shall accompany either act with a notification thereof, addressed to the other Signatory Powers of the present Act, in order to enable them to protest against the same if there exists any grounds for their doing so.

XXXV. The Signatory Powers of the present Act recognize the obligation to insure the establishment of authority in the regions occupied by them on the coasts of the African Continent sufficient to protect existing rights, and, as the case may be, freedom of trade and of transit under the conditions aggreed upon.
......................................

Done at Berlin, the 26th day of February, 1885.

Note that, rules and laws once made do not expire. They only get repealed/replaced or revised. The more recent (1995) WTO agreement (created as a product of the GATT of 1947) is a more recent instrument of trade creating more terms of trade from the colonies ...

Without repeal of or deviation from the earlier ones ... the new trade agreements are still more of colonial power clubs that they always have been, restricting the ability of former colonies to transit from export of mainly raw materials to them while they continue to protect their conquered source territories, by establishment of rules of trade that recognize preexisting unfair trade partnerships. For example, the EPAs(product of WTO) which are European friendly Economic Parnership Agreements being forced on African and Caribbean countries.

EPAs are trade partnership "agreements" that encourage free trade. African government will be forced to treat European goods as their own. No taxes that differentiate them. This all sounds great until you realize how the European governments help their farmers, producers and business men with subsidies, insurance, low interest loans, machinery and infrastructure etc (note that all these "trade tarrifs & barriers" are restricited now so African governments that did not give them early enough because they were still colonies are punished if they introduce them - but the agreements only refer to increamement of tarrifs thus favour developed countries ), making their goods cheaper than African produced goods.

African companies, producers and their retailers will be killed by these privileged European industrial entrants. These laws are designed to keep Africa in its place - a supplier of raw materials for European companies, which then import their finished goods at a higher price, negating the whole point of exporting any raw products in the first place. Many countries resisted EPAs- until their "Grace period" came to an end and they were punished by increased taxation of their raw product exports into Europe, in effect shutting them off the European Market . They obliged. Sadly.

International agreements are negated by withdrawal.With an Africa whose trade with fellow African countries is stuck at around 3%, it is well divided, and conquered in international economics.

3. COLONIAL ADMINISTRATORS

Direct rule is when an imperial or central power takes direct control over the legislature, executive and civil administration of an otherwise largely self-governing territory.

Direct colonial rule was a form of colonialism that involves the establishment of a centralized foreign authority within a territory, which is run by colonial officials. The native population may be excluded from all but the lowest level of the colonial government

Indirect rule is a system of government used by the British and French to control parts of their colonial empires, particularly in Africa and Asia, through pre-existing local power structures. These dependencies were often called "protectorates" or "trucial states". By this system, the day-to-day government and administration of areas both small and large was left in the hands of traditional rulers
Source

The colonial rule was first indirect, and shifted to direct rule, and now indirect rule. That is all our independence fathers got.

The colonial British government held various meetings called constitutional conferences. The Nigerian constitutional conferences were held in 1957 and 1958. They laid out the terms of "self governance" statuses of the colonies.

From the memorandum of the constitutional conference as presented by the Secretary of the colonies, Lennox Boyd, you can see that not much was discussed beyond self governance (replacement of colonial staff with African staff.) That is why independenice and self governance are used interchangeably by Lennox Boyd, the Colonial secretary.

it is proposed that some time about January 1960 the new Nigerian Parliament will debate a resolution asking Her Majesty's Government to agree to full self-government ... we would do our utmost to meet the resolution in a reasonable and practicable manner

MEMORANDUM BY THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE COLONIES, Lennox Boyd

In 1960, before an excited crowd, Jaja Wachukwu, Nigeria’s first indigenous speaker, received Nigeria’s instrument of freedom (also called ‘Freedom Charter’) from Princess Alexandra of Kent, a member of the British royal family who represented Queen Elizabeth at the ceremony.

These were the (ONLY) concessions of the British Rulers...

- Inclusion - Africans said, "hey, we want to be included in YOUR system"
- Change of staff - "we can do WHAT YOUR STAFF WERE DOING, I mean, we are just LIKE you"
- "Give us a new title - INDEPENDENT"

This applies the the rest of Africa. The social, economic and political systems, structures built for the European remain under the stewardship of African staff.

4.AFRICAN COUNTRIES PART OF EUROPEAN TERRITORY
First, by declaring a territory's people as yours, it's a declaration of an occupation.

The French Assimilation concept was based on the idea of spreading French culture to the colonies outside France in the 19th and 20th century. Natives of these colonies were considered French citizens as long as the culture and customs were adopted. This also meant they would have the rights and duties of French citizens.

Arthur Girault published "Principes de colonisation et de Legislation coloniale" in 1885 which defined assimilation as "eclectic". Its ideal he considers "the constantly more intimate union between the colonial territory and the metropolitan territory"

[quote]The raison d’etre of the French colonies was to benefit France. Royal ordinances of the eighteenth century defined the systeme de I’Exclusif whereby overseas territories were under the authority of metropolitan France.

Any trade between France and its colonies was to be to the advantage of France. (Those are the so called Africa's development partners.)

To maintain the appearance of autonomy, the French left indigenous sovereigns with symbolic legislative power and kept local legal institutions intact. After the conquest of Morocco in 1911, for instance, the sultan was retained as part of the state apparatus. He signed dahirs (decrees) drafted by his viziers—and approved by the French administration. But for all intents and purposes it was the French, through the resident general, who ruled the country.

As far as possible the French tried not to interfere in civil matters, as long as their authority was not challenged. They were particularly careful where religion was concerned. Courts were usually under the jurisdiction of indigenous judges but were invariably controlled by the French administration. All over the empire, when written law did not exist before their arrival, the French recorded traditional law, as was the case for the Berber and Kabyle populations in Algeria and Morocco.
http://what-when-how.com/western-colonialism/law-colonial-systems-of-french-empire/
[/quote

After a referendum on territorial autonomy (September 28, 1958), French Equatorial Africa was dissolved, and its four constituent states – Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), the Central African Republic, and Chad became autonomous members of the French Community (November 28, 1958). On August 11, 1960, Chad became an independent natioNote

But the question remains the terms of this independence?

What did France concede to?

5. THE GREAT LAND GRAB

First, all Nigerian land has recently been declared leasehold in a modern day version of land grabbed using the law. Making lands leaseholders effectively makes the government (note, whoever is in charge is a big question!) the Landlord of the entire Nigerian territory. No different from the declaration of crown lands by the Queen Victoria of England ....

In 1978 the Land Use Act – which governs land use and administration in Nigeria, and is included in the Constitution – abolished all existing freehold systems, and provided for a nationwide leasehold system. The leases are typically granted for 99 years, the maximum period stipulated by the Act.

But I like this Act for one reason. Just like the Kenyan 2010 constitution, this declaration could be easily interpreted to bring any colonial settler leases to an abrupt end. On the other hand it explsinseems how the government could wake up and declare patches of territories all over the place as grazing reserves


LAND OWNERSHIP BY COLONIAL "SETTLERS"
Land ownership by European settlers while citizens remain landless is a problem that many African countries have to be tactical about.

At the 2015 State of the Nation Address, delivered on 12 February 2015, President Zuma announced the introduction of the Regulation of Land Holdings Bill. The bill in my opinion, though a good start does little to correct historical injustices. For this reason ...

... the Bill will not operate retrospectively. This means that foreign nationals who already own land in South Africa will be unaffected. This is largely due to the Constitutional barriers which such a proposition would face.

How convenient that someone secured the land rights of the settlers upon the ceremonial independence which was characteristic of the African colonisers concessions.

The Kenyan constitution is the best example of a reverse law: Refers to offending legal provision, creates solution.

(2) If a provision of any agreement, deed, conveyance or document of whatever nature purports to confer on a person who is not a citizen an interest in land greater than a ninety-nine year lease, the provision shall be regarded as conferring on the person a ninety-nine year leasehold interest, and no more.

The good news is that due to Africa being a very bad place to be associated with, most settlers remained citizens of their mother country. That provision is responsible for a resettlement of scores of Kenyan settlers who were squatters in their ancestral land before then.

You are right. I don't know why most African leaders don't think like you are thinking. BTW, sometimes Europeans used false treaty to in colonizing areas. Neo-colonialism exist and it's our duty to at least minimize it. Being on the bottom of the food-chine isn't good. But I'm sure that we will not be in this mess for millions of years.

Hati13:
You are right. I don't know why most African leaders don't think like you are thinking. BTW, sometimes Europeans used false treaty to in colonizing areas. Neo-colonialism exist and it's our duty to at least minimize it. Being on the bottom of the food-chine isn't good. But I'm sure that we will not be in this mess for millions of years.

That is the whole point of a conquest. To subdue and dominate. Freedom is something you work for. And not pass opportunities that come by to get back what you have lost. But the problem Hati is the deception of recent Western concepts like human rights, democracy and civility which are designed to make people satisfied with their oppressed status and accept the privilege of the oppressor.

True, everything with a beginning has an end. Especially if the beginning was fashioned by a human hand.

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace-- but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

Patrick Henry (1775)

6. THE ORDER IN COUNCIL

An Order in Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the Queen by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council

This was the cement that brought all the efforts of the colonial government together and allowed them a smooth sailing all the way into the bright future they has secured themselves. It also established England as the point of reference on any matters unsettled. Example;

1897 East Africa Order in Council

* Applied certain Indian and British Acts of Parliament to the East African Protectorate. Actually, ALL statutes of GENERAL APPLICATION that prevailed in England at the time. African Courts and legal practitioners still refer to these as part of their national laws.

* Applied the common law of England which was in force at the time.

* Insofar as the natives were concerned the Order in Council had , it provided that cases against natives would be brought in native courts and a Commissioner was given the power to establish and abolish those Native Courts and to regulate their procedure as well as give directions as to the application of native law and custom.

The result of this importation of laws was that English culture - from which laws arise in any society - is now the first point of rederence in case of any cultural conflict.

It effectively and conclusively replaced African social, political - and economic systems.