Everyone has their culture and culture is not stagnant! the white man's religion was previously a Jewish sect and now has become ours as the whiteman heads towards Wicca. Culture like any other thing moves around. Geometry from Egypt, calculus from Greece e.t.c. there is nothing wrong with finding something that works from other cultures and taking it - that's called being wide! read your history, our black brothers in haiti we dehumanized by the French - same thing as congo (Lubumbashi) it takes time for people to recover (look at our black brothers in the US or even the American Indians - right within the greatest nation in the world but still failing to 'click'). The Japanese cannot use Hiroshima as a starting point, since they were a powerful nation way before that its only that Nagasaki and Hiroshima were flattened, they had jets and torpedoes that pelekad the US mbio, they had colonies in south east asia. So unless the bomb had the effect of wiping their culture and education and all their technology - then maybe we could consider that point. The Japanese also for quite sometime had their backs covered by the US and thus did not have to spend on defence. Africa in the 60's as far as western educational systems are concerned was no where near any of those countries you are talking about. We have still not yet reached those levels of education now. A tree must be climbed from the bottom!
Is the African mind 'anti-development' - no!, Why do I say so? Do we as individuals improve our own lives? Yes. Do poor people improve their lives? yes. but somehow we have been lied to that if it doesn't work there its someone else's fault.
Read my signature, during colonialism we were conditioned to produce stuff that we did not drink (tea and coffee), Liberia was conditioned to make rubber for cars they did not drive. we have been conditioned to buy the best of the cars in Europe and the US as status symbols, while the Indians pride themselves with a 1 Lahk Ruppee car! Can Kenyans buy Kenyans ama we have accepted the lie that 'cheap is expensive' lets buy BMWs and remain in the control of the white man. until we believe that its only us who can change our fate and that we have what it takes and that there are no hard and fast rules to development nor a single superior model to copy then...otherwise we will be on this forum 50 years from now blaming people.
What was colonialism? Kenyans have misused that term without knowing the meaning. During colonialism many things happened including the killing of culture by a 'superior' culture. The same thing is happening now (and not only to us but world wide) - our English is more like the US (based on our programming) in the 80s it was more like the British (due to the programming).
What is independence? Independence is simply being able to make your own decisions whether wise or otherwise. We are independent! are some of those decisions forced - yes, but we make them. what happened in 1963 was exactly that - make your own decisions - you have no one else to blame but yourself.
about the Lamu port - wacha ijengwe, wacha pesa iibwe! so that we take a step forward.

@ masukuma

Great Points !!

I have just Googled Barbado's.....wako mbele, lakini pia naona total population is only 284,589, less than Eastlands. Can that success be extrapolated to a country as vast as Congo?

@ Masukuma

"........actually acknowledge that THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH US!..."

Let me mention just one- We are deeply tribal !!

Your point on colonization has got me thinking outside the box kiasi

Hi Berlin Treaty of 1884-1885 ( Berlin Link ) that divided Africa into our so called ''countries''....Do you think it was cast in stone or do you think we as Africans should have another conference and revisit it?

Would it make economic , cultural and geographical sense to consider re-drawing these borders so as to stimulate our 'development' in a more coherent manner?

@mathukuma, I like your thoughts. Very similar to Fmr Zambian President Chilubas arguments. Btw, whats your background?

YOU MONKEY!!!!

Well its true Brits finally gave us Uhuru ..true ..it was given.However,the fact still remains that we fought hard for it..blood was shed for our land...its too sad that this history was/is not taught well in our schools.neither was it recorded well enough...Our weapons and strategies may not have been as sophisticated as the british..but my friend we fought and blood was shed...lots of it..many poor,innocent kenyans died in concentration camps in tana river and the likes...My father was a little boy those days and whenever he tells the stories during the fight for independence ,his eyes are filled with tears.They died so you can be free...and now you claim that Uhuru was given on a silver plate....damn you for even suggesting that.If you cant understand that then you have no business calling yourself a Kenyan.

uhuru was fought for but als running colonies was not a very profitable venture anymore, there was tremendous pressure at home (UK) by the liberals to let the colonies govern themselves... so both of you are right to an extent, taking one side is missing the point