Imperialism and colonization brought new rules to Africa, codifying life in a society that was organized around unwritten, oral rules. As Abdoulaye WADE said, "African populations saw independence as the key to a new era, during which they would take charge of their own destiny, on the one hand wiping out the after-effects of colonization, and on the other building an Africa on a par with other nations". Faced with the current practice of imported religions, freedom remains inherent to the African man, which sometimes gives him the advantage of acting according to his own free will.