Liberation Of Africa Essay

The liberation of Africa was a slow, often violent, process. The continent, having been torn apart by colonial powers was fraught with ethnic and tribal divides. This made liberation movements complicated because of the necessity for non-existent nationalization. In most countries this caused the movement towards liberation to be a violent struggle, often resulting in war, mass murder, and in one instance, genocide. Even in some of the semi-successful transitions, warlords or autocratic dictatorships. The liberation of the Congo is one such example. Few countries were able to transition fully without violence or major issues. The country of Ghana was the first to gain independence in Africa, also being one of the only successful liberation

Some were successful while others were downright failures. Each colony took on different amounts of responsibility in the integrational process, though this was sometimes limited because of the specific countries feelings towards the colonizing power. The Congo ended in an autocratic dictatorship, unable to grow economically or structurally, while Ghana ended in the successful transition to a mostly democratic African state. Since Ghana was the first African country to gain its independence, it is baffling why other liberation movements failed. The issue is that each country took its own approach in the fight rather than following the example set by Ghana and Britain. Decolonization in Africa is unstructured, unstable, and often it results in/ is the result of violence. Many countries have fallen into times of war and dictatorship in which their needs are not being met. Humanitarian aid is difficult to come by in the country and the stability of each country is always changing. The stability is dependent upon the nationalism felt by those within the country itself; the more they work together, the more successful the outcome tends to be. African liberation has yet to result in one fully democratic state, which was the ultimate western goal of the countries. Liberation has been a struggle for every country, from issues of representation to the larger issue of establishing a government at all. It seems that decolonization tends to parallel the horrors that came with the original