Post Colonial Period in Africa
The postcolonial period dates from 1957 to today. Many African countries achieved formal independence during the 1960’s In this post-colonial period, the majority of African states operate under some form of Presidential rule. Only a few of the states were able to maintain democratic governments permanently. As a result, many states produced military dictatorships during the 1970’s and early 1980’s. The military was seen as being the only group that could maintain order in an effective way.
From the early 1960’s to the late 1980’s, Africa had 13 Presidential assassinations and more than 70 coups. There were many border and territorial conflicts, which were contested through armed battles as a result of European imposed borders. The Second Congo War has been the most devastating military conflict that modern independent Africa has ever seen. This conflict and its aftermath killed 5. 4 million people by 2008. The ongoing conflict in Darfur since 2003 has become a humanitarian disaster. AIDS has also been a serious problem in post-colonial Africa.
The amount and source of humanitarian aide and support has varied from Soviet military aid, United States, and France. A major famine took place in Ethiopia where hundreds of thousands of people starved to death. Many people believe that Marxist/Soviet policies made the situation worse. . Since gaining independence many West African nations have undergone political instability. There have been many wars in Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Cote d’Ivoire. Since the end of colonialism, West African states have often been affected by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism.
The region has seen the most brutal and serious conflicts that have ever taken place, such as the Nigerian Civil War, First Liberian Civil War, Second Liberian Civil War, Guinea-Bissau Civil War, Ivorian Civil War, and the Sierra Leone Civil War. Cultural life is important in West Africa with strong tradition of literature, architecture that influences the complicated roles of religion and gender relation. Family life is a solid foundation that is of upmost importance to people of West Africa. In traditional society, there are villages and the homes are arranged in compounds.
Because government welfare does not exist, family remains the source of support. Although slavery officially does not exist, many relatives of former slaves still work as tenant farmers for the descendents of their former masters. Children rate low on the social scale and are expected to consult adults in all situations. For half of the region in West Africa, women’s status is only slightly higher than children’s. Village festivals are common to honor dead relatives, celebrate the end of the harvest, and to celebrate local traditions.
The average income is less than it was in the 1960’s, at the approximate equality of two U. S. dollars per day. There is much corruption in the region alongside civil conflict and environmental damage in oil- rich Nigeria, but desperately poor Niger Delta. In 1963, the Nigerian city of Lagos had only 665,000 residents. This number grew to 8. 7 million in 2000 and is expected to be the worlds 11th largest city by 2015 with an estimated 16 million inhabitants. In 1975 the Economic Community of West African States was founded by Treaty of Lagos.
This is an organization of West African states whose goal is to promote the region’s economy. Women have been trying to rebuild war torn Africa since the adoption of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 in year 2000. This started with the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace and Women in Peacebuilding Network. This peace movement has expanded to include women across West Africa. A women focused, women led Pan-African non-governmental organization based in Ghana called “Women Peace and Security Network-Africa” was established on May 8, 2006.
This group has presence in Ghana, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Author Anthonia C. Kalu is a professor of African American and African studies at the Ohio State University. She has also served as professor of Black studies at the University of Northern Colorado. She earned her doctoral degree in African Languages and Literature with a minor in Afro-American Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1984. She has received many awards such as Distinguished Scholar awards from the University of Notre Dame, Indiana and Spelman College in Atlanta Georgia.
She is a member of several academic organizations including the African Studies Association and the African Literature Association. She has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. Her works include author of “Women, Literature, and Development in Africa”, and “Broken Lives and Other Stories. ” She has published in “Research in African Literature”, “Africa Today”, “Literary Griot”, and “African Studies Review. ” Dr. Kalu is editor of the Rienner “Anthology of African Literature,” our class text, which includes her short story “Independence. ”
Her book “Broken Lives and Other Stories” portrays the lives of women, men, and children whose lives have been torn by war. Military presence, self- rule, rape, and women’s struggle to survive in contemporary Africa are factors that influenced Dr. Kalu’s writings. She writes about the excitement of Independence yet the struggle to hold communities together in a place that is at war with itself. Women were robbed from their families and taken to be used as sex slaves in military camps, and husbands had to watch in silent pain as their wives were taken by other men.
Much of her writing has to do with human loss and suffering. The wars in Africa had a great influence on this writer and her works. The living arrangements in the villages, consulting elders, tradition, dancing, and the importance of family are also factors that influenced this writer on a more personal level. I could identify this writer’s works very thoroughly with what I have learned in our African Literature course. This Author does a great job of painting a mental picture of what it was like to grow up in post colonial Africa.
