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Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki (C), Eritrean Minister for Agriculture Arefaine Berhe (R), Ethiopia Prime Minister Meles Zenawi (2nd R), Djibouti President Ismail Omar Guelleh (2nd L) and Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir cut a cake to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) in the Kenyan capital Nairobi March 20, 2006. REUTERS |
1960 is often called the year of African independence because of the unprecedented number of countries--seventeen--that achieved their independence. It might more appropriately be termed the year of West and Central African independence as these countries were mostly from the two regions (except for Madagascar and Somalia). They were also predominantly former French colonies (save for Nigeria and Somalia). In the annals of African decolonization, these countries won independence largely through peaceful struggle, unlike much of Southern Africa and countries like Kenya, and Algeria where protracted armed struggles were waged.
Evaluating the last fifty years for such a large and diverse continent is not easy. The task is perhaps best approached from the vantage point of the goals of African nationalism, the expectations of uhuru. Clearly, African nationalist movements were quite complex and diverse in their development, organization, strategies, and ideologies. Nevertheless, it can be argued that, collectively, they sought to achieve five historic and humanistic objectives: decolonization, nation-building, development, democracy, and regional integration.
Decolonization was one of the great historical events of the twentieth century and a remarkable achievement for African peoples. Over the next 34 years, the winds of independence blew across the rest of the continent culminating in the demise of apartheid in South Africa in 1994. The road to independence took much longer than this; it started in 1922 when Egypt got limited self-government, and gathered momentum from 1951 with Libya's independence, followed in 1956 by Sudan, Tunisia, and Morocco, and in 1957 Ghana.
But decolonization did not often translate into self-determination as the former colonial powers continued to exert strong influence over their former colonies. This was especially the case in the former French colonies, which remained firmly tied to French economic, political, and military institutions, interests and interventions. In addition, the newly independent states became pawns in superpower Cold War rivalries, which often turned into deadly proxy wars in the Third World. The end of the Cold War, emergence of new global powers such as China (which is now the world's second largest economy after having overtaken Japan), and transformations within the continent itself seem to offer new opportunities for fulfilling the dreams of decolonization.
The record of performance on the other four agendas of African nationalism is extremely complex and uneven across postcolonial periods, countries and regions, social classes, economic sectors, genders and age groups, which fit neither into the unrelenting gloom of the Afropessimists or the unyielding hopes of the Afroptimists.
Read entire essay @The Zeleza Post
tags: post-colonial
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