In 1990, only 4 African countries – Botswana, Gambia, Mauritius and Senegal – were democratic. In January 2017, only 17 out of 54 countries are democratic – Benin, Botswana, Cape Verde Islands, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Sao Tome & Principe, Senegal, Seychelles Islands, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. At this rate – 12 democracies in 27 years – it will take Africa exactly 94.5 years to become fully democratic, other things being equal.
The truth about postcolonial Africa is ugly, embarrassing and not politically correct, which is why some people in the West do not want to hear it. But we can’t sweep it under the rug.
“Free at last!” was the euphoric freedom chant that rang across Africa in the 1960s. Africa had won its independence from white colonial rule. New national flags were unfurled to the sounds of new national anthems. Leaders who fought gallantly and won independence were hailed as heroes and deified. Their pictures were hung in every government building. Currencies bore their portraits. Statues were erected for them. Then they settled down to develop Africa in its own image, not to satisfy the dictates of European metropolitan centers. But with what model? The challenge was daunting.
After independence, the first generation of African leaders launched a frontal assault on what they perceive to be Western institutions. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, for example, rejected democracy as an “imperialist dogma” while others dismissed it as “luxury Africa could not afford.” Capitalism was rejected as a Western colonial ideology in one monumental syllogistic error. Colonialism was evil and since the colonialists were capitalists, it too was evil. Socialism, the antithesis of capitalism, was adopted by nearly every African leader and was advocated as the only road to Africa’s prosperity. Nkrumah surmised that “socialist transformation would eradicate completely the colonial structure of our economy” (Nkrumah 1973; p.189). Additionally, Nkrumah believed “Capitalism is too complicated for a newly independent state; hence, the need for a socialist society” (Nkrumah,1957; p.9).
A wave of socialist ideologies swept across the continent as almost all the new African leaders succumbed to the contagious ideology, copied from the East. The proliferation of socialist ideologies that emerged in Africa, ranged from the “Ujamaa” (familyhood or socialism in Swahili) of Julius Nyerere of Tanzania; the vague amalgam of Marxism, Christian socialism, humanitarianism and “Negritude” of Leopold Senghor of Senegal; humanism of Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia; scientific socialism of Marien N'Gouabi of Congo (Brazzaville); Arab Islamic socialism of Ghaddafi of Libya; “Nkrumaism” (consciencism) of Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana; and “Mobutuism” of Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire. Only a few African countries such as Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Kenya were pragmatic enough to eschew doctrinaire socialism.
Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, generally regarded as the “father of African socialism,” was convinced that “only the socialist form of society can assure Ghana of a rapid rate of economic progress without destroying that social justice, that freedom and equality, which are a central feature of our traditional way of life” (Seven Year Development Plan. Accra: Government of Ghana, 1963; p.1).
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http://ayittey1.tumblr.com/post/183424556226/how-socialism-destroyed-africa
