Today,
Africa contains 54 sovereign countries, most of which have borders that were drawn during the era of
European colonialism. Since colonialism, African states have frequently been hampered by instability, corruption, violence, and authoritarianism. The vast majority of African states are republics that operate under some form of the presidential system of rule. However, few of them have been able to sustain democratic governments on a permanent basis, and many have instead cycled through a series of coups, producing military dictatorships.
Great instability was mainly the result of marginalization of ethnic groups, and graft under these leaders. For political gain, many leaders fanned ethnic conflicts, some of which had been exacerbated, or even created, by colonial rule. In many countries, the military was perceived as being the only group that could effectively maintain order, and it ruled many nations in Africa during the
1970s and early
1980s. During the period from the early
1960s to the late 1980s, Africa had more than 70 coups and 13 presidential assassinations.
Border and territorial disputes were also common, with the European-imposed borders of many nations being widely contested through armed conflicts.
Cold War conflicts between the
United States and the
Soviet Union, as well as the policies of the
International Monetary Fund, also played a role in instability. When a country became independent for the first time, it was often expected to align with one of the two superpowers. Many countries in
Northern Africa received
Soviet military aid, while many in
Central and
Southern Africa were supported by the United States,
France or both. The 1970s saw an escalation, as newly independent
Angola and
Mozambique aligned themselves with the Soviet Union, and the
West and
South Africa sought to contain
Soviet influence by funding insurgency movements. There was a major famine in
Ethiopia, when hundreds of thousands of people starved. Some claimed that Marxist/Soviet policies made the situation worse. The most devastating military conflict in modern independent Africa has been the
Second Congo War; this conflict and its aftermath has killed an estimated
5.5 million people. Since
2003 there has been an ongoing conflict in
Darfur which has become a humanitarian disaster. Another notable tragic event is the
1994 Rwandan Genocide in which an estimated 800
000 people were murdered.
AIDS in post-colonial Africa has also been a prevalent issue
.
In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined. For instance, the civil war in Angola came to an end in
2002 after nearly 30 years. This has coincided with many countries abandoning communist style command economies and opening up for market reforms. The improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment into many
African nations, mainly from
China, which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline. Several African economies are among the world's fasted growing as of
2011. A significant part of this growth can also be attributed to the facilitated diffusion of information technologies and specifically the mobile telephone.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Africa
- published: 05 Feb 2014
- views: 27950