Why independence is not enough for some African nations – DW – 07/28/2024

In 1950, Liberia and Ethiopia were the only two African countries that were free from colonial rule. Today, almost all African countries are independent and sovereign states. Some, such as South Sudan, Eritrea and Namibia, even gained independence from other African countries.

However, becoming an independent nation has not necessarily translated 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 more of a thing that we can say has happened, but we cannot confirm that African countries are actually completely independent,” Codjo told DW.

For Ghanaian political analyst Fidel Amakye Owusu, it is more a case-by-case issue.
Namibia, for example, appears to have fared much better than South Sudan, even though both African countries followed similar paths to independence.

“The kind of independence these African countries had depended on the colonial power that ruled a particular territory,” Owusu said.

South Sudan acts as a cautionary tale

On July 9, South Sudan, Africa’s youngest nation, celebrated 13 years of independence. However, in that short period, the country had to endure a seven-year civil war. In 2017, the UN declared a nationwide famine. Added to that are years of internal political strife.

James Boboya, an international development expert from South Sudan, told DW that there was initially a lot of optimism in the country, but that this quickly changed.

“We have civil servants and members of the armed forces in this country who have not received their salaries for more than eight months,” he said. “What the government inherited from Sudan was lawlessness, lack of services, corruption and mismanagement of resources.”

All these factors have led to more “problems of marginalisation, lack of freedom and lack of development,” he added.

However, Owusu believes that many of South Sudan’s problems 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 grow,” he said.

Boboya suggested that a lack of political will and true leadership underlies the persistent nature of South Sudan’s failures, adding that crucial security institutions in the country need to have a centralized and unified mandate.

“The government needs to address the issue of civil status reforms so that we have an army, a police force, a national security service and an intelligence service that can do 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 and independent institutions has led to poor governance, inefficiency and corruption,” he said.

Quality leadership is crucial to success

But for Newuh, there is also an intangible factor at play: leadership. While inheriting historical problems can challenge the trajectory of any newly independent state, Newuh believes leadership qualities play an important role in the art of governance, 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 crucial roles in fostering 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 failure of many African nations.”

Newuh added that leaders who prioritize personal power over national development tend to face aggravated problems such as poverty, conflict and underdevelopment.

South Sudanese academic Boboya shares the same view on leadership in the context of his own country. “There have been many warlords and political leaders who have taken advantage of the situation and have started encouraging rebellion across South Sudan,” Boboya said, stressing that this is a major factor in the “erosion” of the country’s progress towards independence.

Lessons to be learned: from colonialism to genocide

But historical narratives also play an important role in judging the level of progress of different African nations. In particular, Owusu believes that attention needs to be paid to how exactly different countries achieved their independence.

“The way Britain granted independence to South Africa, for example, was different to how it did it in West Africa,” he said. “And it took a coup in Portugal before it granted independence to its colonies in Africa,” Owusu added, stressing that the path to sovereignty of individual African states depended largely on the political context of their respective colonizers at the time.

Some, however, believe it is time to step away from the shadow of colonialism and look at the real success stories in Africa.

“When it comes to roads and cleanliness, many people look up to Rwanda. When it comes to agriculture, Uganda offers the best systems. And the ability to question the government, as seen in Kenya, is something South Sudanese aspire to,” Boboya said.

Owusu agrees that Rwanda’s example in particular should inspire other African nations, noting that the small East African nation has shown that a country can move from a calamitous situation like the 1994 Rwandan genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus to a sense of stability and development.

However, he added that Rwanda is far from having solved all its problems. “It is one of the poorest countries in Africa, with a high rate of youth unemployment and an economy that is not yet stable,” he said.

But not all development problems and shortcomings are rooted in conflict. Malawi, for example, celebrated its 60th anniversary of independence on July 6. Despite the fact that there is no active conflict in the country, the World Bank ranks it as the fourth poorest country in the world, with 70% of its inhabitants living on less than $2.15 (2 euros) a day.

Owusu believes Malawi’s plight is directly linked to its colonial past: “(British colonial rulers) 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 separated from France in 1960.

New challenges ahead

However, in the 21st century, Africa is facing a series of new challenges, without being able to catch up with the old problems inherited from colonial times.

Newuh said corruption still plagues many African nations, stressing that this “needs to be addressed as it creates a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, poverty and political instability in many African countries.”

Owusu believes that addressing “environmental problems due to global warming” is a priority, as the African continent is the one that suffers the most from the consequences of global warming.

“And youth unemployment is also holding back the continent’s progress,” he added.

However, despite all these challenges, Boboya believes there is reason to be optimistic, as the future is in the hands of young people.

“Young people need to be mobilized to take the lead, to ensure that they free these countries from the current failure of leadership,” he said.

Cai Nebe and Chrispin Mwakideu contributed to this article

Edited by: Sertan Sanderson