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Old 07-20-2013, 11:31 AM
 
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What happened in post colonial Africa that caused the continent to end up with so many corrupt governments?

Last edited by Motion; 07-20-2013 at 11:40 AM..
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Old 07-20-2013, 12:05 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
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Originally Posted by Motion View Post
What happened in post colonial Africa that caused the continent to end up with so many corrupt governments?
In some cases, it was power vacuums. Take the case of the former Belgian Congo; when they granted independence, Belgium simply walked away.
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Old 07-20-2013, 12:51 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
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Bad colonial leadership, too. Corruption, sucking the countries dry of resources. So anyone local with a good shot at leadership got the idea that there was money to be made and siphoned off from selling resources. The colonial gov'ts typically didn't bother to do much to raise the standard of living of the Native folk, so their successors just followed suit. They hadn't had any other model to follow.

Zimbabwe had good potential leadership, but Mugabe blocked election success for them systematically. Congo/Zaire had Patrice Lumumba, but the US took care of him, and installed Mobutu. Many a country in Africa, Asia and Latin America was sacrificed to Cold War objectives, and to oil interests. You can't blame all of Africa's problems on Africa. The US and vested interests in Europe have thrown their wrenches into the works.
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Old 07-20-2013, 01:00 PM
 
Location: San Diego, California Republic
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Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post
Bad colonial leadership, too. Corruption, sucking the countries dry of resources. So anyone local with a good shot at leadership got the idea that there was money to be made and siphoned off from selling resources. The colonial gov'ts typically didn't bother to do much to raise the standard of living of the Native folk, so their successors just followed suit. They hadn't had any other model to follow.

Zimbabwe had good potential leadership, but Mugabe blocked election success for them systematically. Congo/Zaire had Patrice Lumumba, but the US took care of him, and installed Mobutu. Many a country in Africa, Asia and Latin America was sacrificed to Cold War objectives, and to oil interests. You can't blame all of Africa's problems on Africa. The US and vested interests in Europe have thrown their wrenches into the works.
I can't rep you again but yes! I agree with you completely.
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Old 07-20-2013, 01:38 PM
 
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Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth View Post

Congo/Zaire had Patrice Lumumba, but the US took care of him, and installed Mobutu.
My question is more about how and why Africa ended up with so many Mobutu's? Even the "good" African leaders were oppressive. Kwame Nkrumah did things like banning unions,allowed for only one political party and appointed himself president for life. You saw this pattern over much of post colonial Africa whether the leaders were western backed or eastern backed.
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Old 07-20-2013, 02:37 PM
 
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Certainly is interesting. even countries that never had colonialism. These countries all have the lowest IQ too, which could correlate with long term management skills.
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Old 07-20-2013, 02:48 PM
 
Location: State of Transition
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Originally Posted by partypajamas View Post
Certainly is interesting. even countries that never had colonialism. These countries all have the lowest IQ too, which could correlate with long term management skills.
Not sure which countries you're referring to. Zimbabwe had a generation of students, many of whom were studying abroad, preparing to return after the end of the war, to run the country and its businesses. These were perfectly capable students, competitive with US and British students. Those who went to university in the country were better prepared than the White students. The university entrance exams given the Whites were much easier than the exams given Black students, in order to keep Black students out. So those students studied harder. All of this came to light after the regime changed, and the new government was going to administer the "Black" exams across the board. Suddenly the Whites raised a hue and cry, and in the ensuing confusion they revealed that there had been a separate exam system, and that they'd never be able to pass the more difficult exams.

So much for your theory on who has the higher IQ's.
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Old 07-20-2013, 08:55 PM
 
Location: Macao
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Originally Posted by Motion View Post
What happened in post colonial Africa that caused the continent to end up with so many corrupt governments?
For Europe to dominate and colonize Africa, they needed to create boundaries that included warring fractions. If a collection of enemies were carved into the same boundry lines, than a foreign European entity could keep control of it. Each separate party would prefer the European colonizer than the worse situation of 'the enemy' controlling the nation-state.

Now that that colonization is history, that's become even more messed up.

Many people believe that the nation-state lines need to be drawn again in a different way. I would agree with that. It's like 'Sudan' and 'South Sudan', typical example of how certain peoples really should never had been in the same nation-state to begin with.
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Old 07-20-2013, 09:03 PM
 
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I think some of this is related to how many of these new leaders thought a multi-ethnic country should be governed. Several African leaders seem to believe that a diverse country needed one strongman leader to unite all the people.
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Old 07-20-2013, 09:36 PM
 
Location: NE Mississippi
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Originally Posted by Motion View Post
What happened in post colonial Africa that caused the continent to end up with so many corrupt governments?
I can offer some anecdotal information. Actually, I think it will ring true in many countries.

The subjugation of Africans by Belgium in the Congo is well documented. Roughly 10 - 15 million Africans disappeared during the 30 year period from 1890 to 1920. It is well documented that slavery was to blame and many, many Africans were simply worked to death or murdered. Read, King Leopold's Ghost. The story is told there, although the facts did not fully come out until 1980, largely because the Africans, who had no written language, did not know it and the Belgians wouldn't tell if they even knew!

OK. In 1960, the Congo won its independence from Belgium. Belgians left; here one day, gone the next.

In 1960 there were less than 100 African men in the Congo with a college degree. Out of 5000 civil service jobs, FIVE of them were held by Africans. There was not one single - not one - black army officer in the Congo army in 1960.

Talk about a country ripe for the taking! What will happen - and did - is that the power vacuum will be filled by the strongest man. And he will use force to do it.

That's how it happened. I do not believe they will ever recover. Or, if they do, it will take another 100 years.
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