Moving beyond Africa’s predatory elite — a call for a new liberation

January 1, 1956 was a glorious day in the annals of African history as Sudan became the first African nation to gain full independence from colonial rule. Thirty-eight years later, South Africa closed the curtain on colonialism and apartheid after several centuries of subjugation.

Three countries fall outside this colonial spectrum: Liberia, Egypt and Ethiopia. Liberia was established in 1847 by African Americans who immigrated from the United States under the sponsorship of the American Colonization Society. Its independence came at the cost of the indigenous population who suffered colonial-like treatment under the new lords for more than a century.

Second, Egypt was nominally independent since 1922; however, the liberation of the Suez Canal in 1956 marked the nation’s full autonomy. Finally, Ethiopia is often considered as the only country in the continent that was not formally colonised except for the brief period, 1936-1941, when fascist Italy savagely occupied it.

But there is another interpretation of Ethiopian history which suggests that a small feudal ethnic regime located in the northern part of the territory colonised the regions that would later become Ethiopia. In fact, Emperor Menelik collaborated with the imperialists to seize territories that were not part of his fiefdom. This minority dynasty dispossessed the vast majority of the population in the captured territories and imposed degrading conditions on them, comparable to what the Europeans did in their colonies.

As dreadful as colonialism was, it has been 70 years since that beautiful day in Khartoum dawned, but tragically, the vast majority of Africans wallow in abject poverty and their future appears grim. What accounts for this dreadful predicament?

During the early years of independence, three scholars warned against the traps of the post colony. René Dumont, a French scholar, published his aptly titled book, False Start in Africa, in 1962. He cautioned that Africa was marching towards a developmental cul-de-sac due to inappropriate policies.

The Ghanaian writer, Ayi Kwei Armah, picked up the debate where Dumont left off by describing the ineptness of postcolonial leaders in his searing novel titled The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born (1968). He castigated the postcolonial leadership and pithily portrayed them as if they “were senile before they were born”.

Finally, pioneering Egyptian political economist Samir Amin, who worked in Dakar, Senegal, for most of his life, provided a model that explained the futility of expecting economies producing primary commodities to generate the necessary volumes of jobs and wealth that would uplift the most youthful continent in the world (1974). The alternative implicit in Amin’s model would have required progressive agrarian restructuring that gave primacy to feeding the population and producing the necessary material for industrialisation.

The warnings of these sage scholars failed to convince the ruling elite to be wiser.

Marching towards a cul de sac

Two forms of political economic “strategies” have dominated the continent since the late 1960s: cruel dictatorships and perverted forms of democracy; and an economic model that reinforced Africa’s vulnerability.

In the political arena, African countries for the most part were dominated by the military or other forms of authoritarian regimes during the first two decades after independence. Distorted forms of electoral, but not substantive, democracy have reigned supreme since then.

Similarly on the economic front, after the end of the commodity boom years of the 1960s, African economies were first dominated by the heavy hand of the state and rentier elite projects. The state-dominated agenda of the 1970s drove African economies into the ground, unlike the developmental states of East Asia that transformed their economies.

Consequently, African governments had little negotiating power when they sought loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank after the 1973 oil crisis.

These global financial institutions demanded neo-liberal policy changes in the form of structural adjustment programmes (SAPs). SAPs gutted whatever strategic role the state played and exposed countries to the brutal discipline of the global markets. SAPs brought about little of the productive transformation of the economy that could absorb Africa’s booming youth cohort.

The outcome of the African elite’s incapacity to play a transformative role in the last seven decades is that nearly half a billion people live in extreme poverty. The disconnect between the lived experiences of ordinary people and illusions of the elite is manifested by the political convulsions and civil wars in several regions of our continent, and the anguish of the majority that is visible to any conscientious observer.

Reparations: abuse of a legitimate claim 

Since the Donald Trump administration declared a pause on American foreign aid, the howl from African capitals has been deafening. From Kenya to Senegal and from the Sahel to South Africa, the complaint has been that this would leave people who depend on American aid utterly destitute.

But despite the cruelty of the new American agenda, the onus is on the African elite who have failed to create sustainable livelihoods for our people, 70 years on.

While African elites live very comfortably, even lavishly in many cases, the rest of our people languish on the margins. Southern Africa has the continent’s highest income inequality, but the rest of Africa is not far behind.

According to Oxfam, the top 1% of income earners in West Africa take 90% of all income, while the gulf between elite livelihoods and those of the majority of Africans across the continent is stark. This dichotomy has been in the making for decades and it appears that the elite’s conscience is undisturbed.

In contrast to the African elite, the differences that a committed and purposeful leadership can make in the lives of people are best reflected by the massive transformations of many Asian societies in the past seven decades, and most particularly in the People’s Republic of China. In 1972, the late Premier of the People’s Republic of China, Zhou Enlai, announced China’s intention to overtake Britain economically in 2000 – and it did so on time.   

Seventy years after liberation, the African Union recently pleaded for reparation from former colonial regimes. The demand for reparation is legitimately long overdue, but one wonders if this is not yet another ploy of the elite to deflect their dereliction.

Moreover, in the absence of the elite’s demonstrated commitment to productively and justly use Africa’s bountiful resources for the advancement of the people, one wonders what difference such reparations would make under the continent’s current leadership, even if the former colonizers honor this plea?   

The need for a new liberation

Three nightmares haunt our continent. First, there is the enduring poverty, deepening inequality and the marginalization of Africa in the global political economy.

Second, the killing fields of Sudan, DRC, Ethiopia, Somalia, Libya and so on are a stain on human dignity and betray the promise of African liberation.

Third, the persistent dearth of quality political leadership in the continent, with few exceptions, has been an albatross around the necks of our future.

These obstacles are blocking the incredible energy of our youthful and exceptionally energetic population. Rewiring the state and removing the deadweight of the elite is tantamount to a new liberation, and without it, no reparations would alter African fortunes. 

• This article was originally published on the Daily Maverick website