Have living condition in these African countries really improved over the years? Would we have been better off with our colonial masters still in control? A quick glance at the different statistics from both World Bank and United Nations' Human Development Report will provide a clue to these questions. But first let’s look at independence movements in Africa.
The late nineteenth century, saw many of the African countries being colonized by the European imperial powers, creating many colonial territories, and leaving only two fully independent states, Ethiopia (known to Europeans as "Abyssinia") and Liberia. Egypt and Sudan were never formally incorporated into any European colonial empire; however, after the British occupation of 1882, Egypt was effectively under British administration until 1922. Imperial rule by Europeans would continue until after the conclusion of World War II, when almost all remaining colonial territories gradually obtained formal independence.
Independence movements in Africa gained momentum following World War II, which left the major European powers weakened. In 1951, Libya former Italian colony, gained independence. In 1956, Tunisia and Morocco won their independence from France. Ghana followed suit the next year, becoming the first of the sub-Saharan colonies to be freed. Cameroon, Togo, Madagascar, Democratic republic of Congo, Somalia, Benin, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Senegal, Mali, Nigeria, and Mauritania all gained their independence in 1960.Most of the rest of the continent became independent over the next decade, most often through relatively peaceful means, though in some countries, notably Algeria, it came only after a violent struggle. Zimbabwe won its independence from the United Kingdom in 1980 after a bitter guerrilla war between black nationalists and the white minority Rhodesian government of Ian Smith. Although South Africa was one of the first African countries to gain independence, the state remained under the control of the country's white minority through a system of racial segregation known as apartheid until 1994.
After independence, all didn’t go well with many African countries. During the period from the early 1960s to the late 1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations. There was a major famine in Ethiopia, with hundreds of thousands of people starved. The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the Second Congo War. By 2008, this conflict and its aftermath had killed 5.4 million people. Since 2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. Aids have also been a prevalent issue in post-colonial Africa.
Although it has abundant natural resources, (The continent has 90% of the world’s cobalt, 90% of its platinum, 50% of its gold, 98% of its chromium, 70% of its tantalite, 64% of its manganese and one-third of its uranium. The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has 70% of the world’s coltan, and most mobile phones in the world have coltan in them. The DRC also has more than 30% of the world’s diamond reserves. Guinea is the world’s largest exporter of bauxite.) Africa remains the world's poorest and most underdeveloped continent, due to a variety of causes that may include the spread of deadly diseases and viruses (notably HIV/AIDS and malaria), corrupt governments that have often committed serious human rights violations, failed central planning, high levels of illiteracy, lack of access to foreign capital, and frequent tribal and military conflict (ranging from guerrilla warfare to genocide).
According to the United Nations' Human Development Report in 2003, the bottom 25 ranked nations (151st to 175th) were all African. Poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate water supply and sanitation, as well as poor health, affect a large proportion of the people who reside in the African continent. In August 2008, the World Bank announced revised global poverty estimates based on a new international poverty line of $1.25 per day (versus the previous measure of $1.00). 80.5% of the Sub-Saharan Africa population was living on less than $2.50 (PPP) a day in 2005, compared with 85.7% for India.
Though our continent continues to face difficult challenges, there is need to set one day to celebrate the effort of our patriots that fought for our independence. Celebrating does not in any way mean we are celebrating 50 years of success as Abdallah Diagne puts it;
Perhaps, seeing as the vast majority of countries have inordinate percentages of citizens living in poverty that die in hordes from diseases which in the Western world are very avoidable, and who are increasingly wary of governments that seem destined to oppress them. It is arguable that coup d’états would never take place in the Western world, while in Africa they are unfortunately commonplace. The pessimistic citizens have thus ample reasons to want to forgo any mass-scale celebrations of independence because there is very little success to celebrate…it is wrong to say that Africa has done nothing right since the decolonization movement, but those supporting this view will be hard-pressed to find evidence that would completely satisfy their critics. I thus concede that celebrating 50 years of independence by no means denotes celebrating 50 years of success, nor does it mean we are well on our way to traveling along an asphalt-covered road that the leaders of the decolonization movement probably foresaw in their dreams would exist. For now we must be content with journeying on a dirt road that someday will resemble its European or American brothers, but we should celebrate the fact that it has been 50 years and Africa is still independent – at least on paper. It would not hurt to remain optimistic that someday our day will come, but for the most part patience is running out.
Post a Comment