In many cases colonialism involved making the colony dependent while extracting its resources or also as part of extracting its resources. Replacing food crops

In many cases colonialism involved making the colony dependent while extracting its resources or also as part of extracting its resources. Replacing food crops with cash crops and then importing food because it can be produced cheaper elsewhere, for example. Arguably this is even more so the case in post-colonial Africa given that regional development programmes and IMF loans usually emphasize exports (for supposedly high ROI) rather than self-sustainability.