Decolonization of Development in Early Post-independence Africa

This chapter examines Africa’s socioeconomic development with a focus on the first two decades of political independence, i.e., 1960–1980. The chapter is a broad assessment of the colonially disrupted socioeconomic social reality in Africa to highlight the development status of the continent. Utilizing secondary empirical and qualitative evidence obtainable in both academic and gray literature, the chapter shows that given the slow rate with which the Human Development Index often grows, the performance of early post-independence African countries (combined) was not as dismal as is often claimed. Africa’s economic growth performed well above the global average just like Asia and the Americas during the 1970–1980 period despite the oil price shock as well as the structural adjustment programs of the 1970s. While Africa produced mixed development results, the chapter avers that the success of post-independence Africa can be attributed to the impressive groundwork of first-generation African leaders who experimented with different kinds of developmental systems, both home-grown and adapted.