"The State of Africa" by Martin Merideth
Above: The State of Africa - A History of the Continent Since Independence. Martin Merideth. 715 pages.
No hope... any place. No good story in Africa.
I completed reading this comprehensive, well written, important, but, depressing book today. I picked it up - serendipitously, I wasn't looking for it - in the Johannesburg airport on Christmas Day, 2018. Thumbing through the book in the bookstore, I thought it might help me fill in some of the blanks I became aware of during our December 2018 trip to various destinations along the Portuguese discovery route of West Africa (Cape Verde, Senegal, The Gambia, Cote D'Ivoire, Ghana, Sao Tome and Principe, Namibia, and South Africa).
Reading the book did help to fill in a lot of blanks...but not without leaving me with a sense of foreboding about Africa's future.
Fast Reading Narratives
To be sure, there are some compelling, fast reading narratives within:
Algerian independence movement. DeGaulle finally giving up what 300K pied noirs desperately didn't want to lose... 500K deaths later.
Mandela saga. Mandela offered hope. But, he was too old. He didn't have enough time to hardwire democratic values in to South Africa. His successors have resorted to time worn, African, one party, destructive Big Man rule.
Blood Diamonds and violence in Liberia and Sierra Leone. "Lord of the Flies" redux.
Otherwise virtuous Julius Nyerere's failed experiment with Socialism in Tanzania.
The Portuguese (Angola, Mozambique) were the best colonialists… Belge, (Congo) the worst.
Lots more. Some easy to skip over... the details and personalities of Chad's travails, for one, are easily forgettable. that is, if you are not an old French colonial bureaucrat...quand meme.
Timeline Generalization:
So, you don't have time to read in this book the details of each African country's post colonial history?
Here's a timeline generalization on the African post colonial era that is not far off for ANY country in Africa since independence:
1960's. Quest for independence from colonial rule... we Africans need to be independent of the oppressive colonialist/white man.
Independence advocates and leaders promise the African way will be better for the people than living under the yoke of a colonial power.
Tired post war West gives in, sometimes after conflict (Algeria, Angola) and sometimes peacefully (Senegal, Ghana) and allows independence for its colonial possessions in Africa. Most, circa 1960... Portuguese (Angola, Mozambique) 15 years later. South Africa's "colonialists" are a white minority.
Post independence revolutionaries turn into venal, ruthless, one party, "Big Man," dictators, distributing patronage to family and tribal members for protection, as they amass great personal wealth.
"Little people" get screwed. Without exception, country post colonial growth rates slip... people worse off economically than under colonial government... new revolutions ensue. "We were screwed!"
New, "virtuous," replacement, 2nd wave, revolutionary leaders behave in the same ruthless, self serving, venal way as their predecessors.
World Bank et al tries to help... imposes triggers... reaponsible economic management benchmarks...in return for loans. World Bank "imposed" guidelines not followed by venal African leaders. Notwithstanding, non compliance with economic management requirements, World Bank lends more "down the rat hole" money ($3 trillion and counting).
Changes in government are usually violent. Ritualistic cannibalism and mutilation of the defeated not uncommon.
Population growth rates increase at twice the pace of economic growth rates.
Africa population 1960... circa 400 million; population today... 1.2 billion. 50% of Africa population under 20.
Christian and non profit charities help (and this is good!) ... but, only at the margins.
Debt traps poised to strengthen China's interventionist hand, over time.
No hope... any place. No good story in Africa.
African Time Bomb
For whatever reason, some cultures are superior to others, in terms of delivering prosperity, individual freedom and protection from outside threat.
The ticking time bomb that is Africa today begs the question of what obligation successful cultures have to inculcate their "successful" values on to failed/failing cultures.
The West can't just look away. Africa's failure adversely affects the entire world. Looking at Africa today, the putative evils of colonialism don't look so bad compared to the miserable failure that is post colonial Africa.
Hearing the Siren Song of Socialism
Want to change your type of government?
Modern Africa's failure is the story of gullible people persuaded by evil people to shed effective, if not perfect, colonial government for the false promise of a better world ahead through self governance.
Though they weren't under colonial management, today's Venezuelans made a similar choice to that of the gullible Africans...they traded a thriving democracy for the misery of a Socialist tyranny.
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
Be careful what you wish for. There is no Communist/Socialist success story...none.