ECONOMIC PROBLEMS FACING AFRICAN COUNTRIES AFTER INDEPENDENCE.
1. Poverty
Many African countries’ economies are poor and dependent.
2. Poor industrial base
Technologically Africans has no strong industrial base still depend from manufactured goods from developed countries hence create poor economy of the countries.
3. Poor agricultural development
Agricultural sector in Africa was still poor depended from low technology and nature which fail to sustain people‘s life.
4. Food storage
5.
Low value of currencies
Many African countries’ currencies e.g. shilling etc their values were low compared to dollars or pounds.
6.
Poor infrastructures
Infrastructures in Africa such as Road, Railway, and Airport etc. which are remains of transport are not well linked or accessed.
FACTORS (REASONS) THAT HINDERED POLITICAL UNITY IN AFRICA
Since independence nationalistic leaders (heads of states) of post independent African countries such as late JK. Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah, Nandi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta etc tried their best to bring political unity but there were factors which hindered political unity in Africa to date as follows.
1. The effects of colonial legacy and influence of capitalist. Africa countries failed to build political unity because since before and after independence capitalist countries disunited and divided Africans so as to rule them easily; or capitalist countries divided African countries so as to rule them easily during colonial period and after independence.
2. Different political ideologies. Ideologies of African countries are not the same due to the effect of colonial rule for example some countries in Africa apply capitalist ideology including Kenya while others socialist ideology hence hinder political unity.
3. Different political priorities; African countries after independence to date do not have the same social, political or economic priorities because each country faced different challenges, for example Tanganyika priority were fighting against poverty, ignorance , disease, bring development etc.
4. Timing of attainment of independence. African countries attained their independence differently. Most government achieved their independence in 1960’s, 1980’s, as result fail to share one agenda of building political unity.
Poverty; Many African countries still experienced poor economy depended from external donors as result fail to unite.
6. Political instability; politically many Africans countries are not stable due to poor political systems, leaderships etc hence hinder after political unity.
Civil wars. There were no peace and harmony to many African countries since government and civilians act one another hence failure of political unity.
8. Tribalism; tribalism in most of Africans countries was still a problem because Africans separated themselves basing on tribal differences.
9. Religious conflict. In some of African countries there were religious conflicts between Muslims against Christians hence hindered political unity example Nigeria Boko haram, in Somalia sasa weed, Somalia.
10.Dictatorship of leaders in government. Since African leaders and government do not exercise democracy, do corrupt, and do not observe rule of law and good governance hence hinder political unity for e.g. Liberia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, and Somalia etc.
11. Poor communication and infrastructure. Many Africans countries had no good link and interaction of communication due to poor infrastructures such food road, railways, ports harbors etc. hence hinder political unity.
12. Borders conflicts.
MEASURES/ CHANGES AND PRIORITY OF POST (NEO) INDEPENDENCE AFRICAN STATES.
Post independent African states (countries) inherited (forced) different social, political and economic problems/ challenges from colonial government.
Therefore after independence African countries focused on solving social problems which African had, due to colonial legacy by setup new priorities and changes in their social, political and economic systems which suit Africans. There were the changes;
1. Changes of political legacy of colonial rule. After independence post independent African states changed brutal military political systems which adopted by colonialist by emphasized (advocated) on Portia monetary democracy.
2. Maintaining Sovereignty and security; post independent African states after independence they created a new system of sovereignty to avoid disintegration of people and maintain peace and security of the state.
3. Building national unity; post independence African countries priorities was to build national unity among its people who were divided by colonialists based on ethnicity (tribes) language and religion difference
4. Fight against Tribalism; post independence African countries put also a pressure of eradicating any forms of tribalism which was created by colonialist who favored one tribe and made it superior than the other.
5. Fight against regionalization; Post independent African countries also focused on removing uneven development in the same region in the countries because colonialist left some part of the country more developed and having good social service and infrastructure than the other e.g. in northern was much developed than southern.
6. Eradication (removal) of poverty; these was most priority of most independent African countries because after independence many African countries were poor as a result all were focused on improving their economies e.g. improving Agriculture, industries etc.
7. To improve peoples’ and national economy; post independent African countries ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couraged their people to involve and improve agriculture production so as to improve their economies and national economies, for e.g. in Tanzania agriculture become a backbone of national economy.
Changes in Economic Development policies and strategies
The economic development policies and strategies adopted in Africa after independence.
After independence many African countries were already tired of colonialism because of injustices experienced by Africans under colonial rule especially in the economic sector.
Factor that led to changes in economic development policies and strategies
PROBLEMS HINDERING DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA AFTER INDEPENDENCE.
THE AFRICAN CONTINENT HAS FACED A NUMBER OF PROBLEMS SINCE INDEPENDENCE.
The following were the factors that led to changes in economic development policies and strategies
i. Economically, Africans were exploited during colonialism and the independent governments wanted to address this situation by giving equal job opportunities to their people.
ii. Some cash crops were prohibited to grow by the Europeans. For example cash crops like coffee and tobacco. Africans were not allowed to grow some cash crops which were reserved for Europeans only.
iii. African countries mainly depended on the export of mineral resources and cash crops for their foreign exchange
iv. Most of African countries were economically dependent on the former colonial masters especially in the area of trade with few exceptions such as Republic of Guinea
v. Colonialism contributed to massive regional disparities, with European areas enjoying the best developments which the African governments also wanted to reduce. Infrastructure was well developed in European areas but not in African regions.
Strengths of the economic policies and strategies adopted since independence
The following are some of the strengths of the economic policies and strategies adopted since independence
i. The African public were trained so that they could take part in development. Some Africans public servants in various fields.
ii.The economic strategies and policies led to the expansion of industrialization in the continent, as careful economic planning was done with a view to improving the economies
iii.There were improved infrastructures such as roads, railways and ports which were established in many African countries
iv. Many socialist countries achieved some measures of economic independence in particular Tanzania under Julius K. Nyerere and Ghana under Nkrumah advocates self sufficiency in food production
v. Many African people were mobilized to participate in development for example The Ujamaa villages policies were useful in enhancing mobilization.
Weaknesses of economic strategies adopted in Africa since independence
i. Africanization of Public positions was accompanied by corruption. This led to in efficiency as the new public officers were not well acquainted with administrative responsibilities.
ii. The civil servants fighted against the interference with their work by politicians. For example there were many instances where unauthorized use of fund was done for purposes of building political constituencies
iii. The implementation of agricultural strategies was hampered by the fact that some of the settlement schemes were established in marginal land while other were created away from infrastructure such as roads, railways
iv. The bureaucratic administrative machinery was mainly modeled on the institutions of the metropolis tan countries, and it was expensive to run and difficult to staff without the assistance of expatriate staff.
Contributions of the economic strategies and policies adopted since independence
The following are some of the contributions of the economic strategies and policies adopted since independence
i. Development in infrastructure was experienced, for example in Tanzania, a new railway line was established that connected the country to Zambia.
ii. Fast economic growth was realized in some countries. Agricultural production increased due to the need to produce more cash crops for export, industrial raw materials and food self-sufficiency
iii. New industries were established, the new industries were established and also dams were opened for supplying hydro electric power.
iv. Employment opportunities the foreign investment created more employment opportunities for the people. Especially in capitalist economies such as Kenya and Ivory coast
v. It was easy for individuals to work hard and accumulate wealth in African countries.
SOCIAL CHANGES
Education after independence
Objectives of Education in Africa after Independence
i. To promote self-reliance, social justice, national unity, economic development, equity and scientific literacy
ii. To promote African cultural values that the colonial education had neglected
iii. African countries wanted to eradicate racialism in the education sector
iv. Colonial education was tailored to create a structure that would perpetuate African dependency upon well- trained non- Africans thus the objectives were to eradicate dependency on the colonial masters on the all spheres of life.
Features of Education in Africa after independence
i. Religious organizations and communities continued to sponsor and run the schools even after independence.
ii. Local staff as most and post- secondary teaching staff were trained. Therefore much effort was made to infuse the African values and local patterns of life to the education system.
iii. Many Africans emphasize great effort to acquire academic education as during colonialism, Africans were usually provided with vocal training due to the prevailing racial discrimination.
iv. University education was emphasized, given that there were fewer than one hundred Tanzanians with University degrees by 1960. After independence in 1961 University of Dar es salaam was started with a view to achieving self- sufficiency in line with the policy of socialism. In 1963, the University of Dar es salaam, Makerere University College of Nairobi were merged to form university of East Africa.
v. After independence, African countries had to continue using colonial structure of education since they had to study how to structure their education system due to the shortage of local skilled personnel, Africans government concentrated resources on the expansion of Secondary and higher education. Enrolment in higher education in East Africa increased
Objective of Health services after Independence in Africa
i. To expand modern health facilities for Africans citizens
ii. To increase living standard of people
iii. To reduce and remove the high infant morality rate and high material death rate during child labour
iv. To remove racial discrimination in the provision of health services through promoting health to citizens.
Features of Health Services After independence
i. Through Ujamaa villages, health services were improved a large group of people were able to receive services from one centre.
ii. The 5- years development plan, ( 1964- 1969) Tanzania‘s ambitions to improve health services in rural areas which benefited many people and support for preventive rather than curative aspects of health services
iii. The government recognized the values of medical auxiliaries after Arusha Declaration. Health services were provided free of charge due to the introduction of socialism until 1980’s other agencies charged a small amount for health services.
iv. During 1970’s and the 1980’s Tanzania received a lot of aid towards promotion of health services. After economic crisis, progress in health care was undermined by lack of enough financial allocation. As the result, user charges were introduced in government hospitals.
Strenghts of provision of health services in Africa after independence
i. Provision of free health services, enable many Africans to get health services they really needed
ii. None Africans have now been trained to take charge of health sector in their particular countries medical doctors, nurses and other care givers were trained. This enable individual countries to have their own expert therefore reduced dependency on expatriate personnel
iii. Provision of vaccines has enabled countries to eradicate many epidemic diseases existed in Africa for a long time such as polio and measles
iv. Establishment of health practitioners training institutions including medical training centres and universities.
v. Infant morality has reduced dramatically in most African count
vi. Alternative medicine has now been adopted in a number of African countries to tackle health
Objectives of provision of water services after independence
i. To improve provision of clean water and reliable to all citizens
ii. To provide clean and reliable water supplies to the citizens so as to improve the standard of living
iii. To improve sanitation level in the countries
iv. To provide more equitable nglish-swahili/distribution” target=”_blank”>distribution of infrastructures in the countries
v. To ensure good health of citizens due to the availability of clean water
Success of provision of water services after independence
Some of the achievements in the provision of water services in Africa after independence are
i. Establishment of boreholes and dams so as to preserve water
ii. Private companies has been given licenses to provide clean bottled water so as to avoid it’s citizens to drink unsafe water.
iii. Water treatments plans have been established.
iv. Infrastructures have been established many countries so as to ensure supply of water to citizens this includes provision of piped water
Weakness in the provision of health services in after independence
i. Enough financial resources to provide health services was a problem to most countries
ii. Poor planning and lack of resources has affected provision of infrastructure including clean water and transport
iii. Due to failure to research on local traditional medicines has led African governments to spend a lot of resources in buying medicines from other part of the world.
iv. Medical services are also undermined by number of incurable diseases such as HIV and AID, Diabetes and Cancer. Heart ailment have increased in Africa and have also contributed to the rising costs of providing health and medical services in the continent.
v. Lack of enough well- trained personel as many Africans as man Africans were neglected to be trained during the colonial period. In some African countries a high level of corruption has led to the sale of government funded medicines at a throw away to unscrupulosis business people. This caused great suffering among the population.
vi. International drug manufacturers promoted the Western Approach to medicines due to their self- interests. Africans were ennglish-swahili/courage” target=”_blank”>couraged to use powdered milk for infants, although they can not guaranteed access to safe water.
Changes in provision of water services in Africa after independence
Availability of clean water in Africa can not ignored due to it’s importance. In order to improve health care in the world clean water is very important. Good sanitation cannot be available in the absence of clean and reliable water supply
The objectives of the provision of housing services after independence
The following are some of the objectives of provision of housing services in Africa after independence.
i. To establish modern housing for Africans. The establishment of modern housing was due to the promises made by politicians during the struggle for independence thus helped to promote standards of living.
ii. To promote sanitation for the benefit of the citizens. Majority of African citizen were ensured sanitation
iii. To eradicate racial discrimination, after independence the people of African were supposed to eradicate racial discrimination
iv. To promote better planning in urban centres in order to enhance development
v. To provide enough accommodation spaces for the and do away with slums especially in urban centres.
The pattern of housing nglish-swahili/distribution” target=”_blank”>distribution after independence
The most of the patterns of housing nglish-swahili/distribution” target=”_blank”>distribution after independence were;
i. The best houses have been located in urban centres, urban centres such as Dar es salaam, Harare, Mombasa as well as Nairobi
ii. The best houses are owned by European and Asian communities. Although we got the political independence in the 1960’s but most of the African communities occupy the poorly constructed houses,
iii. There were increased of population in the urban centres, after independence the population were increased in the cities such as Dar es salaam, Nairobi
iv. They used local materials to construct houses in the village ( rural areas)
v. The tall buildings mark the main urban centres such as the cities of skys carpers