WHEN European countries converged in Germany under the auspices of the Berlin Conference from November 1884 to February 1885, the major outcome of that infamous meeting, apart from providing the basis for partitioning, invading and colonising Africa was the perpetual segregation of Africa as a partner in global affairs. Armed with a treaty known as the Berlin Act which was produced at this conference, European countries went on looting sprees that built their respective nations. It was an act that would return to haunt them through the current Mediterranean ‘crisis’ that has seen thousands of Africans and Arabs flocking to Europe in search of the ‘glitter’ that was pilfered from their continent by the colonialists. The Mediterranean refugee crisis, an offspring of colonialism will certainly put to rest all misplaced talk of ‘unsound macroeconomic policies’ by President Robert Mugabe which are alleged to have driven ‘millions’ of Zimbabweans to other nations, especially South Africa. Colonialism, the bane of African development created the conditions that are now manifesting menacingly at the doorstep of the authors this policy through the Mediterranean refugee crisis. Similarly, when members of the G7 met in Germany early this week, they again made the flagrant mistake of regarding Africa as a perennial recipient of aid than a key player in global political economics. In Germany, this week, the so-called global superpowers could not master the courage to confront the fact that the causes of the Mediterranean fiasco trace their roots to that ill-fated Berlin gathering which wrought the current political and social problems to Africa. No one in Europe would want that truth to become a matter of constant public discussion and debate. But when it comes to Zimbabwe, the spin from the Western media and their local cronies is always to portray President Mugabe and his leadership as the creators of the problems in the country. Yet there are not many differences between the current Mediterranean ‘crisis’ and the Zimbabwe situation where locals have crossed borders and seas in bids to escape from the Western induced tragedies of colonialism and illegal economic sanctions chaos respectively. But perhaps the deficiency of this whole situation emanates from twisting of figures of the numbers involved in these treks. Whilst the figure of three million is touted by NGOs and political activists as the number of Zimbabweans in neighbouring South Africa, the latest report by the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs put the figures at 1,7 million for all non- South African citizens living in that country. In the Mediterranean crisis, the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), claims that more than 200 000 refugees and migrants arrived to Europe by sea in 2014, compared to 60 000 in 2013, the United Nations refugee agency said in a December report. Of these refugees, 160 000 arrived in Italy, which saw an ‘astonishing’ 14 700 arrivals per month. The issue returned to international headlines in April this year.  The IOM estimates suggest that between the start of 2015 and the middle of April, 21 000 migrants had reached the Italian coast and 900 migrants had died in the Mediterranean. There is a strong possibility that these figures are being downplayed to mask the ‘Scramble for Europe’ by Africans. Our recent history in Zimbabwe shows how twisting figures is crucial in shaping public opinion. Some non-governmental organisations (NGOs), working in cahoots with the MDC, went to town with the fallacious lie that there were well over one million Zimbabweans in the United Kingdom. But the BBC reported in 2007 that an estimated 4,6 million African migrants live in the whole of Europe. These statistics alone disarm the warped notion that one and three million Zimbabweans are said to be living in the UK and South Africa respectively. More crucially, no one will shed tears for Europe as Africans are simply doing the logical thing of following their jobs and looted wealth. The fundamental point to note is how the Mediterranean crisis is a replica of the influx of colonialists to Africa. The European imperialist push into Africa was motivated by three main factors, economic, political and social. The social factor played an important role in the colonisation of Africa. As a result of Industrialisation, major social problems like unemployment, poverty, homelessness among others developed because not all Europeans could be absorbed by new capitalist industries. It is important to keep in mind that these new industries had been built by the sweat and blood of the slaves they had taken from Africa. One way to resolve these problems was to acquire colonies and export this so-called ‘surplus population’. This led to settler colonies in countries such as Zimbabwe. What is happening in Europe is without a result of social, political and economic afflicting Africa. These are the very factors that drove Europeans to come and invade mother Africa. Africans using the Mediterranean route are simply inheriting a policy created by their erstwhile colonisers. Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa clearly illustrates this point. “The development of Europe is part of the same dialectical process in which Africa was underdeveloped,” says Rodney. “What was called ‘profits’ in one year came back as ‘capital’ the next.” The day Europe and America stop treating Africa as some sorry case, is the day, perhaps with a bit of luck for the Europeans that Africans will stop going to that part of the world in search of better fortunes. After all, it is always said home is best.