Some fifty years ago, in the sixties; the great era of African liberation arrived. Most African countries were granted autonomy from their colonial masters and became sovereign nations. There was great rejoicing and much hope for the future. Africa was now ready to take her place in the League of Nations. There was much optimism that the new African nations, having digested the heritage of their European colonialists, would develop at an even rate and at least be able to stand up to developed economies in the nearest future. A country like Nigeria was seen as a beacon of hope for the third world; a world that would become a respite from growing tensions in the tired economies of Europe in the future.
The people braced themselves for the task ahead, numerous projects were embarked upon by the pioneer governments, and various political reforms were carried out. At first, everything looked good, the African economies managed to sustain stable economic development for a decade. Suddenly, there came a period of political crises, right from the late sixties to the later part of the century.
For some countries, the crises started in the early seventies and escalated at the middle of the decade. There were civil uprisings, political reforms were overturned, and economies suffered huge depression. Inflation soared at an alarming rate and sub-Saharan Africa was thrown into a serious economic crisis that she has never recovered from. Since then, it had been a story of economic recession or redundancy, except for South Africa. It was as if the retreating colonialists had set a time bomb that was detonated in the seventies, and it’s chain reactions still manifesting in the 21st century. By then, the once tired economies of Europe and North America’s easy going economy were light years ahead, while that of the East Asian nations, whom the Africans thought were no better, were already far ahead.
It became a sad reality to the world that Africa has been automatically left out in the scheme of things on the globe and it was going to take a frantic effort for her to recover and become a player, that’s if the world is not playing a different game entirely by that time. Of course, the rest of the world tried in their best capacity to rescue Africa. There have been several attempts at salvaging the struggling economies of sub Saharan Africa, with the developed nations, always playing their big brother roles. It seems that by the end of the last century, it was clear to them that there was little or nothing they could do, except to benefit more from Africa’s predicament.
By this time, the Africans themselves had awakened to the reality that if they don’t help themselves, no one will. Several questions have been asked about why the much promising African states failed despite the efforts of their pioneer leaders. Though, we have examples of struggling economies all around the world, Africa’s case is quite unique, in that it is a crises that has engulfed an entire subcontinent.
In the 21st century we have continuously seen African nations engulfed in crisis, either from ethnic and religious problems as is the case with the Boko Haram insurgency and herdsmen clashes with farmers in Nigeria, or a stubborn dictatorship that refuses to accede to the demands of the people as in Zimbabwe and Gambia, or even a complete breakdown of state institutions leading to anarchy as is the case in Somalia. There have been several suggestions regarding what can be done to save Africa from this mess. Many attempts have been made and they have either failed, or resulted into another crisis.
The question remains; why are African states unable to stabilize themselves and achieve meaningful development?
For us to satisfactorily answer this question we must look into the history of our identity as a people and do a proper analysis of our colonial legacy. To understand our problems we have to see Africa as a people and not as a geographical milieu.
According to the ancient Greek philosopher, Plato, ‘man is a political animal and the state is the highest unit of humanity’
Wole Soyinka defines a Nation as a group of people bound together by a common ideology.
Therefore, we can fuse the two definitions above to explain the concept of a nation state. The state is artificial, created by political power whereas the nation is the people governed by the state. The state is political, the nation is ideological. For a state to function appropriately and not be seen as tyrannical, it must take its powers from the nation which is the people. In a situation whereby the state does not reflect anything that connotes a nation, then we have no Nation state and that is what is happening in Africa.
Before colonization, there were institutions; political national entities with a long history of existence and association among themselves. These entities were nation states in the realistic sense of it. When the colonialists came, they destroyed these institutions and set up new, artificial ones. As usual with any occupational force, the Europeans were not really concerned with leaving behind an enduring political legacy; they were more concerned with getting access to the much needed resources.
Besides, the idea the colonialists had of Africa was of a backward, primitive race, not naturally disposed to change. Yet our ancient history has proved this idea wrong. It has been confirmed from archaeology that Africans have built some of the grandest civilizations of ancient times. From Egypt to Timbuktu in Mali, from Zimbabwe to Meroe in Ethiopia, the relics of ancient African civilizations still stand today, yet oblivious to the ignorant minds of many Africans.
Basil Davidson, in his book, ‘The black man’s burden, ’expresses the opinion of the colonialists in captain Burton’s words: ‘Not only had Africans failed to develop from primitive to less primitive, they have also reached a point of helplessness in which they would not do better if left to themselves.” This was in the early days of colonialism and I believe as time went on, the colonialists began to discover things that proved them wrong. In Sudan and Ethiopia, they discovered the ruins of ancient Cush. In Nigeria they discovered bronze and terracotta artifacts from the Ife, Benin and Nok cultures.
Yet most of these glaring evidences of our past heritage were plundered and carried to European museums. The Europeans decided to further hide the truth of the heritage of the Africans from them by systematically weakening their political structures, which could have served as alternatives to the imperialism they perpetuated in Africa. Today, none of the ancient African nations still exists as a state with the exception of Ethiopia. What we have are artificial political entities, formed by weaving together of various human groups and lands based on some resource sharing agreement among European countries.
In the Berlin conference of the 19th century, the geographical boundaries were set for all African countries based on their European administrators without regards for the people occupying these lands. Today, we have people of the same ethnic nationality on either sides of the border in many African countries. The group in one country may be English-speaking, while the group in the other country may be French-speaking, denying them of uniting with their brethren on the other side of the border. That is why it is easier for a young man to be loyal to his tribe than to be loyal to his country in most African countries. This is because the tribe is a natural entity, whereas people see their country as an artificial entity. That is why there is so much distrust between different ethnic groups in African countries.
To be continued—–