In 1950, Liberia and Ethiopia were the only two African countries free from colonial rule. Today, almost all African countries are independent and sovereign states. Some like South SudanEritrea and Namibia even gained independence from other African countries.
However, becoming an independent nation does not necessarily translate into economic or regional prosperity in many cases, according to experts such as Juste Codjo, an assistant professor and security studies analyst from Benin.
“Independence is probably something that we can say has happened, but we cannot confirm that, in fact, African countries are fully independent,” Codjo told DW.
For Ghanaian political analyst Fidel Amakye Owusu, it’s more of a case-by-case issue.
NamibiaFor example, it appears to have fared much better than South Sudan, despite both African countries following similar paths to independence.
“The kind of independence these African countries had depended on the colonial power that ruled a particular region,” Owusu said.
South Sudan serves as a cautionary tale
Africa’s youngest nation, South Sudan, celebrated 13 years of independence on July 9. However, in that short time, the country had to endure a seven-year civil war. In 2017, the UN declared a nationwide famine. Added to this are years of political strife.
South Sudanese international development scholar James Boboya told DW that initially there was a lot of optimism in the country. However, that quickly changed.
“We have civil servants and armed forces in this country who have gone for more than eight months without being paid their salaries,” he said. “What the government inherited from Sudan was anarchy, lack of services, corruption and mismanagement of resources.”
All these factors led to further “issues of marginalization, lack of freedoms and lack of development,” he added.
However, Owusu believes that many of South Sudan’s issues are directly related to the unique nature of the country’s independence. “Because of war and instability the country is not developing. The lesson is that if you are not united, if there is no internal cohesion, you cannot develop,” he said.
Boboya suggested that the lack of political will and true leadership is at the core of the ongoing nature of South Sudan’s failures, also adding that critical security institutions in the country must have a central, unified mandate.
“The government must resolve the issue of political state reforms so that we have an army, a police, a national security and an intelligence agency that are doing their job to ensure the security of South Sudan,” he said.
Kingsley Sheteh Newuh, a political economist from Cameroon, agrees that South Sudan’s institutions need to be strengthened from within. “The lack of strong, independent institutions has led to poor governance, inefficiency and corruption,” he said.
Quality leadership is critical to success
But for Newuh, there’s also an intangible factor: leadership. While the legacy of historical problems can challenge the trajectory of any newly independent state, Newuh believes that leadership qualities play an important role in statecraft – especially when a new nation wants to develop its identity.
“Political leadership has been a double-edged sword in post-independence Africa. On the one hand, visionary leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere and Kwame Nkrumah have played critical roles in promoting national unity, social development and economic progress “, he said.
“On the other hand, poor leadership characterized by corruption, nepotism and authoritarianism has contributed significantly to the failures of many African nations.”
Newuh added that leaders who prioritize personal power over national development tend to face acute issues such as poverty, conflict and underdevelopment.
South Sudanese scholar Boboya shares the same view of leadership in his country’s context. “There have been many individual warlords and political leaders who have taken advantage of the situation and started encouraging insurgency across South Sudan,” Boboya said, stressing that this is a major factor “eroding” the country’s gains towards independence. “
Lessons to learn — from colonialism to genocide
But historical narratives also play an important role when judging the level of progress of various African nations. In particular, Owusu believes that attention should be paid to exactly how different countries gained their independence.
“How Britain, for example, granted independence South Africa it was different from what he did in West Africa,” he said. “And it took a coup in Portugal before it granted independence to its colonies in Africa,” Owusu added, stressing how the journey to sovereignty for different African states is very relevant. with the political context of the respective colonizers of that time.
Some, however, believe it is time to move away from the shadow of colonialism and see real success stories in Africa.
“When it comes to roads and cleanliness, many people admire Rwanda. For agriculture, Uganda provides the best systems. And the ability to challenge the government, as seen in Kenya, is something South Sudanese aspire to,” he said. Boboya.
Owusu agrees that the example of Rwanda in particular should inspire other African nations, stressing that the small East African nation had proven that a country can move forward from a catastrophic situation such as 1994 Rwandan Genocide against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus in a sense of stability and development.
He added, however, that Rwanda is far from having resolved all its issues. “It is one of the poorest countries in Africa with high youth unemployment and the economy is still not stable,” he said.
But not every challenge and development deficit is rooted in conflict. Malawi, for example, celebrated 60 years of independence on July 6. Despite the fact that there is no active conflict in the country, it is ranked by the World Bank as the fourth poorest nation in the world, with 70% of Malawians living on less than $2.15 (€2) a day.
Owusu believes that Malawi’s predicament is directly linked to its colonial past: “[The British colonial rulers] he did not give them a good education. They used forced labour,” he explained, adding that similar patterns had occurred in Mali and Burkina Faso when both withdrew from France in 1960.
New challenges ahead
In the 21st century, however, Africa faces a number of new challenges — without making up for old issues inherited from the colonial era.
Newuh said corruption still plagues many African nations, stressing that this “must be tackled as it creates a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, poverty and political instability in many African countries.”
Owusu believes that as a priority, “environmental issues due to global warming” must be addressed as the African continent suffers the most globally from the effects of global warming.
“And youth unemployment is also holding the continent back,” he added.
Despite all these challenges, however, Boboya believes there is reason to feel optimistic as the future lies in the hands of the youth.
“The youth must be mobilized to take leadership, to ensure that they liberate these countries from the current failure of leadership,” he said.
Cai Nebe and Chrispin Mwakideu contributed to this article
Editor: Sertan Sanderson