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Does African Society Need To Look To Its Past In Order To Secure Its ...

Does African society need to look to its past in order to secure its developmental future?
Introduction
The international press tends to portray the African picture as a fairly hopeless one, rife with problems and almost void of successes. Severe fraud in Nigeria's recent presidential elections, ongoing conflict in Darfur, multiple problems in Mugabe's Zimbabwe, and the list goes on. Many of these problems can be attributed to colonial (mis)management of political, economic and social institutions. In the late nineteenth century, there was a ‘scramble for Africa' by the European powers who sought to occupy and colonise most of the continent. They left only two independent nations Liberia and Ethiopia (Abyssinia), and colonial rule continued until after the end of the Second World War, with Tunisia being the first country to gain independence (in 1956). Colonialism created ethnic tensions which are still felt in much of Africa today. The Eruopean colonisers also brought with them the European notion of a nation state and introduced national boundaries which had previously been of little concern in Africa. These unnatural borders, imposed by the Europeans, separated groups of people with shared interests and, conversely, drew together traditional enemies. Europeans affected the local balance of power, affording themselves more political power than their numbers would ordinarily dictate, and often creating ethnic divides that had not previously existed.
Since gaining independence in the 1950s and 1960s, many African states have been hampered by various interlinked political, social and economic problems including instability, corruption, conflict and authoritarianism. Most African states are presidential republics but sustaining democracy has been difficult in almost every African country and many have been subject to a series of coups and military dictatorships. Under the leadership of military generals, many African countries have seen great instability and the marginalisation of various ethnic groups. Ethnic conflicts that were created or exacerbated under colonial rule have very often been further exacerbated in the post-independence era. Instability in post-independence Africa can be largely attributed to colonial policies and the way in which the newly independent states were organised, but Cold War conflicts also contributed to that instability and to certain patterns of economic development.
In addition, since independence from the colonial powers, African countries have been subject to various interventions from Western governments and Western NGO's in the name of ‘development'. Development programming in Africa has met with varying degrees of success, but overall Africa remains a very underdeveloped continent. As such, the development initiatives of the past forty years have been called into question, and various critiques have been developed.

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