alternatehistory.com

After France, Belgium, Britain, Portugal and Spain gave their colonies in Sub Saharan Africa independence, the new states usually descended into civil war, ethnic/tribal conflicts, came under the control of brutal/inept/corrupt dictators or remained under the control of a white minority (in the case of Rhodesia & South Africa). Minorities of educated professionals (Indians in Uganda, whites in Zimbabwe) fled. Oil & resource rich states ironically became even poorer as corrupt elites monopolized the wealth or else armed gangs fought for it. There were a few exceptions (Botswana has been a liberal democracy for 50 years, never suffered a civil war or coup and has become relatively prosperous) but they only serve to prove the rule.

I've seen threads addressing how certain African countries could have been better off, but what about the continent in general?

The best idea I can come up with would be a completely different generation of more educated, liberal and responsible African leaders, groomed during the 1940s and 1950s for the explicit purpose of taking the reigns of power. This, combined with more planning, foresight, gradual reforms and state-building (to create non-corrupt civil services & capable but civilian-controlled militaries) in the years leading up to independence could have made a difference. Greater liberalization of domestic food markets in the developed world could also have contributed to the creation of agricultural export-economies in post-colonial African states, allowing them to develop more. This all would have required colonial powers to take greater interest in the welfare of their colonial subjects, the populist African socialists to lose out, the white minorities to voluntarily hand over power with less resistance and for the colonial powers to take less interest in securing Cold War allies & supplies of natural resources (see Belgium's intervention in the Congo).
This is allot that would have right, is pretty unrealistic in my assessment and is imposed from the top-down. Any other ideas that would be broadly applicable to the entire continent?

With a POD no earlier than 1945, create a scenario in which African decolonization occurs with significantly fewer civil wars, coups, strongmen, more economic progress, and less overall instability & authoritarianism. I'm not expecting any economic miracles, but allot better than OTL.
Top