Why independence isn't enough for some African nations

Back in 1950, Liberia and Ethiopia were the only two African countries that were free from colonial rule. Today, nearly all African countries are independent and sovereign states. Some, like South Sudan, Eritrea and Namibia, even became independent from other African countries.

However, becoming an independent nation has not necessarily translated into economic or regional prosperity in many instances, according to experts like Juste Codjo, an assistant professor and security studies analyst from Benin.

"Independence is rather just something that we can say happened but we cannot confirm that, in reality, African countries are fully independent," Codjo told DW. 

For Ghanaian political analyst Fidel Amakye Owusu, it’s more of a case-by-case issue.
Namibia, for example, seems to have fared significantly better than South Sudan, despite both African countries taking similar paths to independence. 

"The kind of independence that these African countries had depended on the colonial power that was ruling a particular territory," said Owusu. 

South Sudan acts as a cautionary tale 

Africa's youngest nation, South Sudan, celebrated 13 years of independence on July 9. Yet in that short amount of time, the country has had to endure a seven-year civil war. In 2017, the UN declared a famine across the nation. Added to that is years of political infighting. 

South Sudanese international development scholar James Boboya told DW that initially, there was great optimism in the country. However, this changed quickly. 

"We have civil servants and armed forces in this country staying for over eight months without being paid their salaries," he said. "What the government inherited from Sudan was anarchy, lack of services, corruption and mismanagement of resources." 

All these factors have led to further "issues of marginalization, lack of freedoms and lack of development," he added.

However, Owusu thinks many of South Sudan's issues are directly related to the unique nature of the country's independence. "Because of the war and instability, the country is not developing. The lesson is that if you are not united, if there is no internal cohesion, you cannot grow," he said. 

Boboya suggested that a lack of political will and true leadership are at the core of the ongoing nature of South Sudan's failures, adding also that crucial security institutions in the country need to have a centralized, unified mandate.

"The government has to resolve the issue of the civil state reforms so that we have one army, one police, one national security and one intelligence service that are doing their work toward ensuring the security of South Sudan," he said.

Kingsley Sheteh Newuh, a political economist from Cameroon, agrees South Sudan's institutions need to be strengthened from within. "The lack of strong, independent institutions has led to poor governance, inefficiency and corruption," he said. 

Quality leadership crucial for success

But for Newuh, there is also an intangible factor at play: leadership. While inheriting historical problems can challenge the trajectory of any newly independent state, Newuh believes leadership qualities play a significant role in statecraft — especially when a new nation wants to develop its identity.

"Political leadership has been a double-edged sword in post-independence Africa. On the one hand, visionary leaders like Nelson Mandela, Julius Nyerere, and Kwame Nkrumah have played crucial roles in fostering national unity, social development and economic progress," he said.

"On the other hand, poor leadership characterized by corruption, nepotism and authoritarianism has significantly contributed to the failures of many African nations."

Newuh added that leaders who prioritize personal power over national development tend to face exacerbated issues like poverty, conflict and underdevelopment.

South Sudanese scholar Boboya shares the same outlook on leadership in the context of his own country. "There have been a lot of individual warlords and political leaders who took advantage of the situation, and they began to encourage rebellion throughout South Sudan," said Boboya, stressing that this is a main factor in the country's gains towards independence being "eroded."

Lessons to learn — from colonialism to genocide

But historic narratives also play a major role when judging the level of progress of various African nations. In particular, Owusu believes that attention has to be paid to how exactly different countries gained their independence. 

"How Britain, for instance, granted independence to South Africa was different from how it did in West Africa," he said. "And it took a coup d'etat in Portugal before it granted independence to its colonies in Africa," Owusu added, highlighting how the journey to sovereignty for different African states depended very much on the political context of its respective colonizers at the time.

Some, however, believe it's time to step away from the shadow of colonialism and look at actual success stories within Africa.

"When it comes to roads and cleanliness, many people admire Rwanda. For agriculture, Uganda provides the best systems. And the ability to question government, as seen in Kenya, is something the South Sudanese aspire to," said Boboya.

Owusu agrees that the example of Rwanda in particular should inspire other African nations, stressing that the small East African nation had proven that a country can move forward from a calamitous situation like Rwanda's 1994 genocide against Tutsis and moderate Hutus to a sense stability and development.

He added, however, that Rwanda is far from having resolved all of its issues. "It is one of the poorest countries in Africa with high youth unemployment, and the economy is not still stable," he said. 

But not every challenge and development shortfall is rooted in conflict. Malawi, for instance, celebrated 60 years of independence on July 6. Despite there being no active conflict in the country, it is ranked by the World Bank as the fourth poorest nation in the world, with 70% of Malawians living on less than $2.15 (€2) a day. 

Owusu believes Malawi's predicament is directly linked to its colonial past: "[The British colonial rulers] did not give them good education. They used forced labor," he explained, adding that similar patterns had occurred in Mali and Burkina Faso when they both split away from France in 1960.

New challenges ahead

In the 21st century, however, Africa is facing a host of new challenges — without catching up on age-old issues inherited from colonial times.

Newuh said corruption still plagues many African nations, stressing that this "needs to be addressed, as it creates a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, poverty and political instability in many African countries."

Owusu believes that as a priority, "environmental issues due to global warming" need to be addressed, as the African continent is suffering the most globally over the fallout of global warming.

"And youth unemployment is also holding the continent back," he added.

Despite all these challenges, however, Boboya thinks there is reason to feel optimism, as the future lies in the hands of the youth.

"Young people have to mobilize themselves to take leadership, to ensure that they liberate these countries from the current failure of leadership," he said.

Cai Nebe and Chrispin Mwakideu contributed to this article

Edited by: Sertan Sanderson