What is the problem with African leadership?

If the mods think that this is too much of a political question , I'd be happy to have it moved.
In Martin Meredith's excellent book The State of Africa , he argues that the biggest problem with Africa after independence has been poor leadership. I would say that there is a certain amount of truth in this, although it is not the only issue. Ever since independence the majority of African countries have been saddled with a variety of dictatorial , corrupt and incompetent government who have pursued ruinous policies which have permanently crippled their nations. Those few countries such as Botswana and Senegal which have avoided this have gone on to be the most successful African countries.

So what is the problem with African leadership and was there any way to solve? Obviously any racist explanation about the unsuitability of Africans to governance can be dismissed out of hand. It would be tempting to blame colonialism but the problem manifests itself even in Ethiopia and Liberia. Is the issue simply that the lack of popular democracy in pre-independence Africa didn't create institutions which produced good leaders?
 
State borders have been drawn off the top of European leaders' heads, with no regard for existing tribal divisions. Therefore most countries are very unstable, e.g. two tribes which hate each other's guts being lumped in one country is what happened in Rwanda.

If that was butterflied away, the leadership would immediately get better (I mean more effective). As it stands right now, the only way for a leader to be effective right now is to put his tribesmen in all the power positions, which inevitably leads to other tribes resenting him. If s/he doesn't put tribesmen in power, he ends up with a country where the other tribes are likely to disregard his ideas/plans/power.
 
A good argument here

Why Foreign Aid Is Hurting Africa
Money from rich countries has trapped many African nations in a cycle of corruption, slower economic growth and poverty. Cutting off the flow would be far more beneficial, says Dambisa Moyo.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB123758895999200083

If the West would encourage trade of finished goods from Africa as opposed to actively using tariffs to prevent them, that would be a start.
 
State borders have been drawn off the top of European leaders' heads, with no regard for existing tribal divisions. Therefore most countries are very unstable, e.g. two tribes which hate each other's guts being lumped in one country is what happened in Rwanda.

If that was butterflied away, the leadership would immediately get better (I mean more effective). As it stands right now, the only way for a leader to be effective right now is to put his tribesmen in all the power positions, which inevitably leads to other tribes resenting him. If s/he doesn't put tribesmen in power, he ends up with a country where the other tribes are likely to disregard his ideas/plans/power.

I'm all for better borders in Africa, but how do you propose separating Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda?
 

Minty_Fresh

Banned
Corruption is definitely one of the biggest problems. It undermines democratic institutions from operating with the trust of the people, it stops economic growth from reaching all corners of society, it makes clan and ethnic rivalries become more pronounced, and it deters foreign investment.
 
I'm all for better borders in Africa, but how do you propose separating Hutu and Tutsi in Rwanda?
You can't, not really. Those areas were already united before the Europeans arived, with one group symbolically being on top. The two tribes in questions, Hutu and Tutsi, were by then involved in several intermarriages and were becoming less and less distinct. It was the Europeans who actually instilled an official racial difference between the two.
 
Because all the uncorrupt leaders made some absolute wacko demands like 'the resources of our country should belong to the people of our country' and that 'the nations who subjugated us, tortured, raped and abused our people should pay for their crimes' and the clear, logical, response of the western powers was to overthrow them by finding corrupt politicians and generals who would have been willing to replace them. Issa Shivji writes: "Between January 1956 and the end of 1985 there were sixty successful coups in Africa, that is, an average of two every year (Hutchful 1991, 183). In 1966 alone there were eight military coup d'etat and by 1986, out of some 50 African states, only 18 were under civilian rule (Nyong'o 1998, 78). Behind virtually every coup was the hand of one or the other imperial power, and, more often than not, the US. Overthrowing nationalist regimes and installing tyrannical dictatorships was, then, a “fair game” for today’s champions of democracy and “good governance"!"

There were, honestly, a multitude of reasons for the chaotic aftermath of decolonisation and the subsequent political traditions of many of these post-colonial regimes. In my mind the chaos of the post-colonial period cannot be put on tribal or religious divisions alone, although they might have proved a factor in some cases.
 
What Alan Toffler called "Future Shock" probably has something to do with it as well. Africa was largely a thousand year or more behind a century ago, people can only adjust so fast.
 
I would add also failed Socialist experiences.

So what is the problem with African leadership and was there any way to solve? Obviously any racist explanation about the unsuitability of Africans to governance can be dismissed out of hand. It would be tempting to blame colonialism but the problem manifests itself even in Ethiopia and Liberia. Is the issue simply that the lack of popular democracy in pre-independence Africa didn't create institutions which produced good leaders?

The lack of democratic institutions for natives, especially in the Portuguese and Belgian Africa, didn't produce leaders with any training on how to well run a nation; Senegal, which was quoted by you, sent MPs to the French National Assembly, along with the rest of the French Colonial Empire.
 
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