Africans
The History of a Continent
Chapter 11
Independent Africa, 1950-1980 Finally, the people of African felt like it was the dawn of a new era. An era of better health care, an era where people were happy, an era when babies where gladly made babies. A lot of things are characterized with this era. There was rapid population growth, growing economy, and independence. The gain of freedom also had its bad side. Debts were incurred, civil wars were fought, and political oppression was dominant.

Rapid Population Growth
Africa, being part of the baby boom had a drastic population increase around 1950. By the 1970’s the growth rate in sub Saharan Africa had increased from approximately 1 to 2.8 percent.

One of the main reasons for the growth of the population was a continuous fall in death rate. The death rate fell from 22 per thousand to 16 per thousand between 1965and 1988. In sub-Saharan Africa, the life expectancy rose drastically from 39 to 51 between 1951 and 1988. Africa did not also experience as much crisis and hence the rate of crisis mortality also declined. The decline in infant mortality in Africa definitely played a big role in lowering the death rate. In the 1950’s 30-40 percent of children in most African countries died before the age of five. However in the mid 1970’s the infant mortality rate dropped to approximately 22-27 percent. The Western part of Africa however had higher mortality than most of the other countries.

Another reason for the increase of population in Africa is high birth rate. In Kenya, an average of eight children were born to a mother who completed the child bearing cycle. The introduction of antibiotic drug contributed to the high birth rate as it reduced the proportion of infertile women in the 1960s. Besides the fact that the antibiotics helped lower the infertility ratio, there was also no effective birth control method. The major means of birth control was breast feeding which often continued for about eighteen to twenty-four months. Since there was a decline in the infant mortality rate during this period, women were more encouraged to have babies and shorten the birth intervals. Also, most people in that era liked large families, not just for social reasons, but also for economical reasons. Subsistence agriculture was very dominant, hence the more children you have, the more work that can be done on the farms. With that being an incentive to have a lot of children, the more children you have, the higher the chance that at least one of the would be very successful and cater to the parent during old age.

Without any doubt, there was population increase due to improved medical care. The was an introduction of cheap synthetic drugs help cure the sick and lowered the mortality rate. The introduction of antibiotic drugs increased the fertility rate. Also the doctors and nurses in the community made the communities a better place for everybody.
Liberation
When it came to the social forces underlying Africa’s liberation in the 1950’s, the nationalist leaders and metropolitan statesmen did not have a broad perception. The nationalist wanted to create modern nation states by seizing power in each colony. The colonial masters however had a different plan. “Britain planned gradual devolution to friendly successor states. France and Portugal planned closer integration between colonies and metropoles. Belgium scarcely thought about the matter” (Page 253, lines 4-8).

In the quest for liberation, the colonial powers tried to incorporate the nationalist with them and create a thing called modern colonialism. Modern colonialism was not economically friendly to the colonial masters. As the population increased, the cost of this modern colonialism also increased. The fact that they also had to curb nationalism also added to the costs. The Europeans started doubting the benefits of having control over these colonies as the financial burden was getting heavier. By 1957, the British officials found out that there was no big difference economically if they ruled the colonies or not. They realized that what mattered was to have a good relationship with whomever was in control. The French officials felt the same way as they saw that the colonies were just burdens they had to carry. Nationalism was very strong by the late 1950’s, and it was not wise to keep resisting them. The French led by General de Gaulle was ready to return power to the Africans in 1958, and the Belgians in 1959. Despite all the problems the Africans had, the Portuguese and South African settlers put up a fight. They saw the only they could survive was having political power, and they were not willing to let that go.

Nationalism was very key in attaining Africa’s liberation. Liberation was not exactly what people thought it was, but freedom is something every human being would like to experience.

Economic Development
At the point of independence of Africa, it was evident that the only way that the continent could move forward was by engaging in economic activities and ensuring economic progress, as the nationalist believed that colonialism had totally caused retardation. All the nations worked towards this, and there was improvement. Between 1965 and
1980, sub-Saharan Africa’s Gross Domestic Product per head grew at an average of 1.5 percent as to 1.3 percent in India. However in the 1980’s there was a turn as the GDP declined in sub-Saharan Africa by 1 percent per year.
Minimal food crops were grown in Africa at this time. There was a cash crop boom which allowed for international trade. kenya and Cote d’Ivoire encouraged peasant farming especially in the Virgin forests. Commodities like groundnuts and cocoa were largely produced and dominated most of the sixties. The improvement of machinery and chemical input also greatly helped the cash crop industry as mass production could take place. There was a minor shift from cash crops to mining, and a whole new stage of growth took place. Mining also helped the African economy. Along side mining in the mid 1970‘s was copper and other products. New resources like uranium, iron, textile, diamonds, oil and gas were also discovered in this era. The final stage of economical growth in Africa is the manufacturing stage. A lot of manufacturing took place especially in the West. Nigeria led in the manufacturing sector.

Things however went sour as Africa assumed a lot of debt mainly due to civil war that was present in most countries. This is still the problem with Africa today; despite all the growth, the debt brought Africa down.

Politics
The politics in Africa during the independence years kept on changing. Initially, the populates were concerned with local interests and national issues. The next stage of politics in independent Africa is how independent regimes faced Africa’s ancient obstacles to state creation. And the final stage is the leaders dealing with the mess the colonial masters made. They had to deal with the boundaries, regional and social rivalries.
All these political stages in independent Africa faced some common challenges like poor communication, illiteracy under populated areas, to mention a few. These problems were not always tackled wisely. Sometimes violence was introduced.
There was a lot of civil war going on in Africa. One of the major ones was the Biafra war. It was a war in Nigeria between the Ibos and the Northern and Western part of Nigeria. Incidences like this hindered the political growth in Nigeria.

My Opinion
Rapid Population Growth
The population growth in Africa that occurred right after independence basically shows that the people had peace of mind. A lot of babies were born which also happened to be fall under the boomer generation. The birth of new babies and the longer life expectancy increased the dependency ratio of the population, hence the economy was negatively affected. The working population was forced to work even harder to provide for both the young and the elderly. The old people were not dying early, and new babies were continuously born.

Liberation
The main reason the colonial masters were wiling to let the people go was cause it had become a financial burden to them. The tried to introduce modern colonialism which was expensive. The increase in nationalist activities also did not help, they had to spend money curbing them. Africa already had a lot of problems and the colonial officers were more than happy to pass them on to someone else. If the colonies were not a financial burden to the colonial masters, they would have kept them. The South Africa settlers put up a fight because it was not a financial burden to them. The cost was way less than the benefit, hence they kept the colonies.

Economic Development
Although there seemed to be an economic growth, Africa suffered a lot of set backs. It was during this time that Africa incurred most of the debt it is still trying to pay off till date. I am however not saying that there was no economic progress. Africa was greatly involved in international trade, especially in cash crops and natural resources.

Politics
The political sector of independent Africa was more or less a game. The colonial masters left power off to those who they put there, or those who they have close relations with. This way, the colonial masters still ruled with having the economic burden hence it was a win-win situation for them.

Conclusion
In a nut shell, African independence was not real. Africans were still under the thumb of the colonial masters. They still practiced ‘indirect rule’ in a way that was not so visible to the Africans. Africa was still exploited and robbed of the natural resources, hence Africa could not grow. African independence however was the start of something good. It layered the foundation of all accomplishments that were made till date.