In March of 1957, Ghana became the first Sub-Saharan African nation to gain its independence from Great Britain and shortly thereafter, their fellow African nations followed suit and implemented democratic governments. Within a decade, however, many of these nations had experienced civil wars and a tremendous amount of violence. They were being ruled by military regimes and the plight of the African people never seemed to improve, as their economies were ineffective at best, due to the continued conflict.
Also, they relied on the systems that had been put in place during colonial times, which served the imperialist nation and not their own interests. Africa is a complex puzzle because it has so many divergent ethnic groups, which is a tremendous problem. Certainly they could have received some more aid from the West to transition from being colonies to experience self-rule, but there still would have been problems along the way due to the ethnic component of so many of these nations. Varying religions can be included in this as well.
Use your promo and get a custom paper on
"African Independence".
When the colonizing nations left, the African countries truly did not possess many educated or learned individuals that could step into the power vacuum to rule their own countries. Also the economic structures of these nations was rudimentary at best. Rather than just withdrawing and leaving the Africans to their own devices, the imperialist powers should have set up systems to place more Africans in power gradually. Education should have been emphasized in addition to these countries supplying economic advisors to transition African economies to a more modern format.
When the Western powers went home, Africa was essentially left on her own without any of the necessary tools to become successful democracies. Therefore, the situation was ripe for the violence and civil wars that have escalated. Also, some of these nation’s boundaries might have been altered to include the ethnic groups in their own areas rather than separating them, but this circumstance is something Africa will always have to contend with. Overall, the colonizing nations should have provided the resources for these colonies before abruptly departing. This is probably partially because these nations had their own problems to contend with after World War II and the world order had altered tremendously. They needed to find their own place within it as well.
