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Commentary

Colonial powers left newly independent African nations without the infrastructure
necessary for a nation state.

See the following :
“The British ruled us for 43 years. When they left, there were 2 trained engineers

and 12 doctors. This is the country we inherited.”

Julius Nyerere as quoted in "Conflicts in Africa—Introduction."
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On the eve of independence, the Congo, a territory larger than Western Europe,
bordering on nine other African colonies/states, was seriously underdeveloped.

There were no African army officers, only three African managers in the entire civil
service, and only 30 university graduates.

"The Story of Africa"
BBC World Service
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“Those who would judge us merely by the heights we have achieved would do well
to remember the depths from which we started.”

Kwame Nkrumah
The 1 President of Independent Ghana
st
***** ***** *****
Whilst the Europeans distorted the development of pre-independence Africa, the
development of post-independent Africa has been distorted by the self-interest of the
USA.

(Author :The following is not an attack on the USA. If that country had not dominated the world economy
during the first 60 years of African independence then one or more other countries would have done.
There are a lot of good reasons to think that these other countries might have made maters worse for
Africans.)

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It would be very naive to think that the future development of Africa will be ‘more of the

same’. It won’t. The last 60 years was a unique period. For most of that time the USA had

40% of world GDP and so was able to pursue its own self-interest vigorously. And did so.

We need to appreciate the impact of the USA on Africa, African countries and their

leaders during the last 60 years. And how that USA dominance affected African
development.

(Author: The USA was not just the biggest economy in the world, it was the dominant one. All
other countries had to bend to the will of the USA. Or else, like Cuba, suffer the economic
consequences. USA post-WWII was founded on policies internally agreed upon in the early
stage of the war. The USA would combine the use of military power, economic power and