For Reseacher_D

Sub-Saharan Africa: Post-Independence

Starting in the late 1950s, Sub-Saharan Africans intensified the struggle for independence from their European colonizers, and the white rulers. So came to Sub-Saharan Africa the process known as decolonization. Following World War II, the region’s European rulers came to realization that their control over the colonies could not continue as usual. Two main forces emerged to challenge the European domination of Africans. First, challenges came from African nationalists who wanted something so simple yet so difficult to realize: Africa for Africans. Second, after World War II, which was framed as epic battle against undemocratic tyranny of totalitarianism, Africans began to challenge why the allies could not uphold the same democratic values in Africa. To many African nationalists, it was an example of supreme irony that nations that defeated Nazism and Fascism were doing something Hitler’s Germany wanted to do in Europe, conquest and exploitation. (The above is a picture of the founding members of the anti-apartheid organization later became African National Congress.) They

obviously felt justified in resisting European colonization more aggressively after World War II, which, by the way, destroyed and weakened European societies. This decolonization process was relatively peaceful in countries like Kenya, Tanzania, and Ivory Coast. However, independence did not come easily in southern part of Africa. In Rhodesia, a formal British colony, 250,000 white residents who owned the country’s farmlands refused to let their power and domination pass away

peacefully. Instead of accepting the black majority rule, they declared Rhodesia independent as a white-supremacist state. The blacks in turn declared war against the white rulers and the civil war continued until 1975 when the Rhodesian government capitulated. So came the birth of Zimbabwe, but at a heavy human and material cost. Something similar happened in Angola and Mozambique, both Portuguese colonies. When Lisbon refused to grant independence to these countries, people of Angola and Mozambique turned to guerrilla warfare. The war in Angola

became even more violent, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union turned that civil war into a theater of their own superpower competition. The Marxist groups within guerrilla movement, supported by the Soviet Union and Cuba,

eventually succeeded in forcing Portugal to leave Angola and Mozambique, and setup leftist governments. The U.S. and South Africa perceived the leftist governments in Angola and Mozambique as thereat to their interests and financed guerrilla forces seeking to

topple the Marxist government of Angola and Mozambique. The fighting continued well into the 1980s. The war ended at least in Mozambique due in large part to the Soviet Union and the U.S. losing interest in it following the end of the cold war. In Angola, low intensity war drags on, however. In any event, as one geographer has noted, “the countryside in both states is now so heavily riddled with landmines that it can hardly be used.” Probably the most tragic aspect of Sub-Saharan Africa’s many conflicts is wide use of the so-called “boy soldiers,” as shown in the above pictures.) Another example of turbulent decolonization process took place in the Republic of South Africa. In the 1960s, the black majority launched an organized opposition to apartheid, system of racial segregation and discrimination that relegated the black

majority to the life in the impoverished and miserable ghettoes called townships. (As shown in the picture to your left, even the bridges were segregated.) From there, blacks emerged in the morning to enter white residential areas to work there. They, of course, came back to their shantytowns after work. The South African government met this challenge by throwing anti-Apartheid activists into jail. The most popular among the imprisoned leaders of anti- apartheid struggle was Nelson Mandela who had spent 27 years of his life in incarceration. As it is said, all things come to pass, and apartheid was no exception. This inhumane system of race control and subjugation came under increasing criticism from other countries. Also the angry young blacks who had, literally, nothing to live for therefore, nothing to lose became increasing violent in their struggle against apartheid. In 1994, the white minority rule finally ended when Nelson Mandela, who was first released from his prison term, was elected president of the Republic of South Africa. (Picture here shows president Mandel in his old jail cell.) The presidency of Mandela and his successor, Thabo Mbeki, have not shed all of the legacies of South Africa’s racist past. With whites still dominating economic life of the country, and blacks feeling the improvement in their lives too slow and insignificant, South Africa has a long way to go in bridging the gap that still separates black and white life. One of the legacies of the colonization of Sub-Saharan Africa by Europeans that has been a cause of underdevelopment is social fragmentation. Sub-Saharan Africa, without European colonization, already is a multi-linguistic, ethnic, and cultural society. Just in terms of language there are 1,000 different languages spoken in Africa. Also, in Africa, there has been a strong tradition clanocracy, rule by clan (or tribal) authorities. European colonizer worsened this problem of fragmentation by imposing arbitrary division and union of people. When European drew lines separating their colonies, Africa’s clan/ethnic Pandora’s box was opened. As one geographer writes, “All over Africa, different ethnic groups found themselves forced into the same state with peoples of disparate,

linguistic and religious backgrounds, many of whom had recently been their enemies. At the same time, a number of the larger ethnic groups of the region found their territories split between two or more countries.” The outcome of this particular legacy of western colonization has been an unending series of postcolonial conflicts that generated millions of refugees and displaced persons, not to speak of disruptions to the daily lives of people and economic production. This environment of division and conflict is exacerbated by the tendency on the part off European rulers to pit competing ethnic and religious groups against each other. This particular method of colonial rule is commonly called “divide and conquest (or rule).” One example is Rwanda. In this country, there are two competing ethnic groups, Hutu and Tutsi, which

once constituted separate kingdoms. During Rwanda’s colonial rule under first Germans and later Belgians, Tutsis were favored against Hutu. After independence, Hutus secured upper hand in Rwandan society and repressed Tutsi. In 1994, ethnic violence broke out between the two groups, leading to waves of mass slaughter. The conflict also caused million of refugees (above) to flee to

neighboring countries that were destabilized by infusion of the refugees. Unity is a precious commodity in Africa. By late 1990s, there were estimated 4 million refugees in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa’s poverty is also a product of mismanagement and corruption. After their independence, Sub-Saharan African countries sought to build their economy by exporting mineral and agricultural products. The price of these products in international markets remained relatively high back then, therefore, enabling African countries to earn foreign exchange and attract foreign investment. The trouble came when “the relatively buoyant economies of 1960s and early 1970s were to disappear in the 1980s as most commodity prices began to decline.” Thereafter, “sizable foreign debt began to weigh down many Sub-Saharan countries. By the end of the 1980s most of

the region entered a virtual economic tailspin.” Economic failures were also engendered by the misguided developmental policy of focusing on heavy industries, which made the country look industrially powerful and advanced, but whose products were not competitive in the global market. In addition, many countries that survived on agricultural export focused on cash crops that could be sold in the international market while neglecting food production. When natural calamities such as draught hit, people did not have enough to eat. (Here you are looking at two faces of underdevelopment in Sub-Saharan Africa.) Then there is the infamous problem of corruption, which is another deadly blow to Sub-Saharan Africa’s developmental potential. One particularly harsh critic notes,

“In many cases inefficient and often corrupt government ministries took over large segments of the economy….With millions of dollars in loans and aid pouring into the region, officials at various levels were tempted to skim from the top. African states…were dubbed kleptocracies. A kleptocracy is a state where corruption is so institutionalized that politicians and government bureaucrats siphon off a huge percentage of the country’s wealth.” (Les Rowntree, et al, Diversity Amid Globalization)

Corruption and mismanagement in African countries is in many cases a product of what geographers call “Big Man” politics. In other words, in many Sub-Saharan countries, “presidents, both military and civilian, grabbed onto the reigns of power and refused to let go. Military governments, one-party states, and presidents-for-life became the norm” Some of these Big Man leaders, literally and figuratively, are know for their use of violence, and pilfering of national coffers. (One of the most well known “Big Man” of Africa is Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe whose legacies are caricatured here to the right.) Nigeria is a typical example of how a resource-rich country suffers from underdevelopment because of mismanagement, corruption,

dictatorship, and colonial imprints. (Nigeria by the way produces about three percent of the worldwide petroleum production.) Yet Nigeria’s GNP per capita is $300. When has gone wrong? This is what our textbook argues. “But before long Nigeria’s oil wealth brought more bust than boom. Misguided development plans now focused on grand, ill-founded industrial schemes and costly luxuries such as a national airline;…the agriculture fell into neglect. Worse, poor management, corruption, outright theft of oil revenues during military misrule, and excessive borrowing against future oil income led to economic disaster. The country’s infrastructure collapsed….Basic [public] services broke down.” As if these problems are not enough, Sub-Saharan Africa suffers from diseases that afflict and claim the lives of a large number of people. (There are three types of disease, endemic, epidemic, and pandemic, in the order of how large a population is afflicted.) Africa’s natural environment characterized by high temperatures and humidity provides breeding grounds for organisms that

carry disease. Diseases that afflict a large number of Africans include trypanosomiasis, better known as African sleeping sickness and malaria. Sub-Saharan Africa’s disease problem is exacerbated by wide use of untreated water for drinking and cooking. (Orphans of Africa to your left.) Recently, however, AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome) has become the main epidemic of Sub-Saharan Africa. According to a U.N. report, of the 32 million people worldwide who are known to be infected by HIV that causes AIDS, 27 million live in 34 tropical African countries. In several tropical African countries, between 20 to 25 percent of the entire population is inflicted with HIV. There have been nearly 12 million AIDS deaths in Africa, quarter which are children. There are 11 million children in Sub Saharan Africa orphaned by AIDS. Experts believe that the reasons for such a rapid spread of the disease is due to lack of funding for education for safe sex and medical treatment, as well as cultural resistance to using contraceptives among the male

population. (Mother and child victims of AIDS is shown to the right.) In conclusion, Sub-Saharan Africa is still suffering from overwhelming array of problems: environmental challenges, historical exploitation by Europeans including slave trade, postcolonial conflicts exacerbated by superpower rivalry in Africa, and mismanagement of natural resources by corrupt and dictatorial leaders, just to mention the big ones. However, that does not mean that it is hopeless. It still is the largest reservoir of natural resources. Could you suggest ways in which Sub-Saharan African countries could expedite their economic and social developments? In

other words, how could Africa smile as brightly as these children here? That question truly is the challenge of our time.