Overview of Modern Africa

Africa is a large, diverse and complex region that is difficult to generalize in a way that is fully correct. Africa is an enormous continent with a population of 900 million people who make up more than 1,200 ethnic groups and who speak about a thousand different languages. In terms of size, Africa is larger than the United States, China, and Europe combined. While human beings originated in Africa about 2.8 million years ago, the current population of Africa is young, about 70% of the population under age 25. Unfortunately, African nations are the poorest countries in the world. The sad reality for many Africans is that they have the lowest life expectancy in the world (in some places it is less than 50 years), the lowest literacy rates and highest level of infant mortality. The poor condition of many African nations is the result of a difficult history of slavery, European imperialism, the Cold War and bad governments. African countries face many difficult problems such as civil war, little economic opportunity and the some of the highest rates of HIV infection in the world. However, this does not mean that Africa is hopeless. In fact, Africa has the natural resources, including oil, gold and diamonds, good farmland, and geographical location to solve its problems. The question that confronts modern African nations is whether they will be able to overcome their problems and become stable, prosperous nations. Geographically, Africa is divided into two regions based on the large Sahara desert that stretches across North Africa. The region covered by the Sahara desert is considered to be part of the Middle East because it shares the religion of Islam and a common Arab culture with the Middle East. The area south of the Sahara desert is called "sub-Saharan" Africa. This history is about the region of sub-Saharan Africa.

Early African Civilizations

There is no single African culture or even a group of cultures that are exclusively African. In fact, early African civilizations were based along trade routes that connected Africa with Europe, Asia and the Middle East. These early African civilizations were complex and sophisticated societies that were located in cities that were located at important points along the trade routes that connected different parts of Africa. For example, Axum was an early Christian society in East Africa that traded with the Romans and the Middle East. In West Africa, the kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhai were built on the gold for salt trade route that ran across the Sahara desert. In South Africa the kingdom of the Great Zimbabwe traded with Arab merchants who built coastal cities like Zanzibar. In all of these places African culture was intermixed with parts of Asian and Middle Eastern culture. For example, the interaction between the Bantu people of the Great Zimbabwe and Arab merchants resulted in the language of Swahili (which means “people of the coast”) that is still today one of the major languages of East Africa. African Slavery

The history of modern Africa is rooted in the insidious slave trade. Unfortunately, both Europe and the Middle East viewed Africa as a source of labor. While slavery was an ancient institution in Africa, this form slavery was not a permanent condition and the children of slaves were not kept as slaves. European and Arab participation in the African slave markets changed the nature of African slavery and did terrible damage to African societies. Typically, both the Europeans and Arabs purchased slaves from coastal African groups that attack and enslave other Africans to sell them into slavery. Some of the worst aspects of slavery were done by Africans to other Africans. It is estimated that 6 million Africans were sold as slave to the Middle East and 10 million Africans were sold to Europeans, who brought them to work as slave in the Americas.

European Imperialism

The Industrial Revolution set in motion the period of European Imperialism in which the Europeans took over large parts of the world and exploited them for their own benefit, and generally to the detriment of the people in these places. The Industrial Revolution gave Europeans both the ability to take over with modern weapons and the economic interest in seizing the resources of Africa to increase European wealth. Europeans had modern rifles and machine guns that made it possible for small numbers of Europeans to defeat the larger armies of African societies. For example, in 1893 fifty British soldiers used machine guns to defeat the 5000 man Matebele army and in 1899 a group of 320 French soldiers defeated a Chadian army of 12,000. The only part of Africa that was fight back against the Europeans to maintain its independence was Ethiopia, which was able to defeat an invading Italian army because the Ethiopian king had built an army with modern weapons he bought from Europe. After conquering these African societies, the Europeans established farms and forced Africans to work growing crops like cotton, rubber and cacao (used for making chocolate) or to build mines to get gold and diamonds – resources that Europeans could not get in Europe. The steam engine drove the ships and trains that that Europeans used move these resources back to Europe. The scars from this period of European Imperialism continue to affect Africa to the modern day.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, European countries worked together to divide up Africa for their own enrichment in a process that was called the “scramble for Africa”. The Europeans worked together to divide Africa in order to prevent a war between European countries over African territory. In 1884, the German leader Otto von Bismarck held a meeting called the Berlin Conference in which European leaders met to draw borders and established their colonies even though they knew little about Africa or Africans. The borders drawn by the Europeans divided 190 African societies and created long-term conflicts among groups in Africa that continue to this day. For example the 1994 Rwandan Genocide that killed 800,000 people was a result of tribal hostilities that are rooted in how the Germans ruled the colony. This division of Africa at the Berlin Conference is how Leopold II, the king of Belgium, took the region of the Congo in the center of Africa – this is a region 80 times larger than Belgium. Leopold was able to take this land because no other European country was interested in it. Leopold called his colony the Congo Free State and described it as a "magnificent cake" because of the fortune he made from the ivory and rubber harvested from the region. The Belgians enslaved the Congolese and forced them to work harvesting the resources of Congo. It is estimated that 10 million Congolese died in the Congo Free State. Other Europeans treated Africans as badly as the Belgians. In Southwest Africa, Germans waged a genocidal war that killed 80% of the Herero people so they could take their cattle and grazing lands. In West Africa and Southern Africa, British colonist tricked African tribal groups into signing away their lands in treaties and then using military force to destroy the tribes. When the Ashanti, Zulu and Matabele people resisted the British efforts to take their lands, the British used military force to destroy the tribes and take their land to mine diamonds and gold. The French governor in West Africa summed up the European view when he said, "That some natives should be killed in the struggle is inevitable, and even desirable." The Europeans were blind to the effect of their brutality on African societies. Strangely, they believed that they had a "civilizing mission" in which European rule of Africa was actually beneficial to the Africans. The Europeans justified their rule of Africa by saying that they had a mission to “civilize” Africa and that the Africans would be better off if they adopted European ways. While Europeans did build schools and medical clinics in their African colonies, they did little to repair the damage they did to African societies. The reality was that idea of the “civilizing mission” was used to justify the destruction African societies and give Europeans a justification for how they ruled African peoples for their own benefit.

World War One and World War Two weakened Europeans' ability to control Africa and encouraged Africans to win their independence from Europe. In both wars, Britain and France drafted Africans and send them to fight in Europe and Asia. The African soldiers sent to fight around the world saw that many Europeans did not enjoy a quality of life that was much better than Africans and that Europeans treated each other savagely. In addition, Africans learned of how people in Asia and the Middle East were also struggling to free themselves of European rule. Many of these African soldiers returned to Africa with the goal of winning independence for Africa. In 1945, at the end of World War Two, African independence leaders had a meeting in England calling for "Africa for the Africans." While European governments largely ignored this meeting, the African leaders at this meeting went on to become the first leaders of African nations when they won their independence in the 1960’s.

Independence & New Nations

After World War Two, the European countries no longer had the economic and military power to rule over their African colonies. In addition, the United States and the Soviet Union, who emerged from World War Two as super powers, opposed colonialism and put pressure on European countries to give their colonies independence. However, they were reluctant to give them independence and the European colonial governments spend a decade trying to suppress African independence movements. For example, the British killed 25,000 people and imprisoned 100,000 more in suppressing the Mau Mau Rebellion in Kenya in the 1950's. Such actions only postponed the inevitable. By the middle of the 1950's, it was clear that Europe would have to give Africa its independence. In 1957, the British gave their colony of the Gold Coast independence and it became the nation of Ghana. After Ghana became independent, most of the rest of Africa quickly won its independence in the decade that followed. The British Prime Minister said that "winds of change" were sweeping across Africa as 28 countries won their independence between 1960 and 1965. By the end of the 1960's, only Portugal held on to its African colonies of Angola and Mozambique, which became independent in the 1970’s. The speed at which African nations won their independence created a sense of optimism that these countries will quickly become modern democratic countries.

Unfortunately, many of the new African nations were not prepared to meet the challenges of being independent nations. The borders the Europeans drew at the Berlin Conference in 1884 became the borders of the new African nations. This was a problem because these new countries did not have national identities because their populations were divided by their tribal identities. This was made worse because the Europeans had ruled their African colonies by pitting tribes against each other which created feeling of deep resentments and mistrust between tribal groups. In many countries, different tribal groups viewed independence as a chance to take power and rule over the other groups. In addition, European colonization had lasted long enough to destroy traditional African societies but had not been long enough to build up new national identities and administrative experience. This meant that few Africans had the skills or experience needed to run a country. In the 1950's there were only 8,000 Africans, out of population of 200 million, who had completed high school. At the time it became independent, the country of Congo, which was the size of Western Europe, had only 30 college graduates. In many countries, the army was the most organized and powerful institution in the country. In many countries, military leaders used the army to take over and make themselves dictators. Finally, most African economies were economically dependent on exporting agricultural or natural resources to Europe, which meant that Europeans still had a lot of economic control over African countries. Many African nations found themselves trapped because they were too poor to fund the development of their own economies and their only source of income was to continue with the economic system they had as colonies, which had kept the average African poor.

The combination of tribal loyalties, little experience in governments and economic dependence resulted in African nations developing a form of dictatorship known as the “Big Man” model. In the Big Man model, the country is led by a dictator, the “Big Man”, who rules the country for the benefit of his family and tribal group. The dictator places his family members in positions of power and fills in the ranks of the military and government with people from his tribe. The resources and wealth of the country are spent on improving the tribal lands and enriching members of the government at the expense of the rest of the society. The reality is that Africa has a very small population of very wealthy people, who are connected to government, and much larger population of very poor people. For example, in East Africa, many government officials are called the “Wabenzi” or “People of the Benz” because they drive around in Mercedes-Benz cars.

A terrible reality of Africa is that many African countries have the natural resources to raise themselves out of poverty, but stay as poor countries due to corruption. For example, Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, is one of the largest oil producers in the world. However, it is estimated that a quarter of the money made from oil has been stolen by government officials. This oil wealth has not improved the lives of most Nigerians who live on less than a dollar a day. Countries that have been able to reduce corruption have be able to raise themselves out of poverty. Botswana was a very poor country when it became independent. However, its government was not corrupt and was able to use the money it earned from mining diamonds to pave roads, build water systems and provide health care to the population. The result has been that the Botswanan economy grew at a rate of 10% and it population had an average income of $16,000 (which is equivalent with Brazil).

Beyond the problem with corruption, many African nations have problems with development because the process for solving one problem is blocked by the existence of other problems. For example, a cause of health problems in Africa is a contaminated or polluted water. Only about 40% of Africa's population has access to clear water. Simply getting Africans clean water would help prevent a lot of illness and death. The way to do this would be to drill wells. However, Africans are too poor to pay for wells to be drilled because they little access to education - the average literacy rate is 60%. Poor education limits the jobs and income they can earn. Education tends to be poor because teachers are paid badly and educated Africans can earn more money doing other types of work or working in other countries. All this means is that solving one problem in a country involves solving many problems. The difficulty of raising the standard of living for Africans can be shown by the range of development projects tried in Africa. The World Bank has supported large scale development projects that have tried to modernize African economies by funding project to build industry. Unfortunately, these projects have failed because they were poorly planned or could not be supported by the country’s economy. For example, the World Bank supported a projected to build a hydroelectric dam in Ghana to power a factory to make aluminum. Problems with the project resulted in the dam not generating enough electricity and poor road system meant that the aluminum factory was never profitable. The project bankrupted Ghana and left it with large debts. Development projects and corrupt governments are the main reason more than 30 African nations are now listed as Highly Indebted Countries. The problem with these debt burdens is that the money used repay debts cannot be used for other purposes, such as roads, schools or health care. In contrast, the World Health Organization has been focused on programs aimed at helping Africa at the individual level, such as providing people with mosquito netting to protect against Malaria – roughly 500,000 Africans a year die of malaria. While this program has been successful (malaria deaths in Africa are going down), they do little to make the countries wealthier.

Cold War in Africa

The Cold War conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union had a terrible effect on Africa because both superpowers used African civil wars a way to expand their spheres of influence around the world. Both the United and the Soviet Union were interested in Africa because of the natural resources available in Africa and the strategic location African nations had on the world’s oceans. In order to get the natural resources or strategic locations, both super powers tried to control Africa nations by using military and economic assistance to firmly control a country. The decision of the superpowers to support African nations was based on strategic interest and they had little concern for the interest of the countries they supported or the well-being of the people living in the countries. The clearest example of this is the 1977 war between Ethiopia and Somalia where, in the middle of the war the Soviet Union stopped supporting Somalia and put its support behind Ethiopia while the United States pulled its support for Ethiopia and started supporting Somalia. Both superpowers preferred to support dictatorships and did little to promote democracy. In fact, they often supported some of the most brutal dictators in Africa. For example, the United States helped the dictator Mubuto Sese Seko take over and rule Congo for 35 years. The word “kleptocracy”, meaning “government by theft”, was first used to describe his rule because he stole more than $5 billion from his impoverished country. The Soviet Union supported governments like Ethiopia’s Haile Mengistu, which conducted a reign of terror that killed over 10,000 and perpetrated a famine by using food a weapon that killed more than a million people who belonged to groups who opposed him.

In addition, both superpowers contributed to civil wars in Africa by supporting rebel groups that fought against dictators supported by the other superpower. Many African civil wars became proxy wars between the superpowers as African militaries were equipped with weapons and firepower beyond what they could have otherwise afforded. This made African wars longer and bloodier and further divided African nations. Ghana’s first president, Nkrumah explained this when he said, “A great deal of the energy and resources funneled into the Third World was directed to military aid and arms instead of development assistance”. When the Cold War ended, both the United States and the Soviet Union suddenly withdrew their support for these wars. For example, the civil wars in Namibia, Mozambique and Ethiopia, all ended because of the end of the Cold War. While this did end the fighting, it also left the countries devastated with landmines scattered across farming fields, large populations of child soldiers and leaders who had no experience actually governing societies.

Since the end of the Cold War, many African countries have been struggling to become democracies. The number of African countries that hold open elections and are classified as "free" has increased. However, in many countries people vote based on tribal loyalty with the larger tribes dominating the governments. The result is that the tribe uses government power to benefit itself (similar to the “Big Man” model). Many groups in Africa have come to view democracy as a “winner take all” system. In Kenya, tribal political parties campaign with the slogan “Time to Eat”. South African president Jacob Zuma reflected this view of democracy when he said, “You have more rights because you are in the majority; you have less rights because you’re a minority. That’s how democracy works." Building successful democracy in Africa is dependent on developing a middle class population that have the skills and wealth to support a democratic process. The 10 countries in Africa with well-established democracies, like Botswana, have a significant middle class population.

South Africa

The country of South Africa has followed a different path than the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa over the past fifty years. South Africa is the richest African nation with good farmland and even more valuable gold and diamond mines. In the 1960’s when the rest of Africa was winning its independence from Europe, the white population of South Africa tried to hold on to power by enacting a policy of racial separation called Apartheid. Under Apartheid the white population of South Africa took all political power and control of the best lands in the country. The much larger black population was forced to live in tribal “homelands” that were located on land which had no economic value. Under Apartheid, the white population prospered from owning these lands and forcing the black population to work for them. The black population tried to fight back against the Apartheid system, but the white controlled government had more military and police power and the black population was divided by tribal loyalties. The anti-Apartheid movement was led by