Causes of Africans Challenges During the Decolonization Period to Enhance Development
The colonialists encroached African countries to pursue their economic interests. The major reason to colonize Africa was to extract the idle natural resources to manufacture finished products that are ready for consumption in their countries. Also, Africans were colonized and subjected to slavery as they were used as cheap labour. Enlightenment of African people motivated them to demand democracy and freedom of expression (Strayer and Nelson 1109). The desire for economic empowerment and legitimate governments triggered Africans to scramble for independence. Although the Africans attained their independence, they encountered inevitable challenges in realizing their economic development dream.
African people faced sufficient challenges in implementing development agendas in their countries. First, most African production groups were illiterate (Strayer and Nelson 1109). All white-collar jobs were reserved for the elite class who had formal education. Insufficient education to people resulted in poor leadership and misallocation of public resources. The major cause of the problem was that there were inadequate schools where African children could learn. African leaders are required to build more schools to eradicate illiteracy and ignorance.
Secondly, the African people were disunited. They failed to enact their independence philosophies of improving the per capita income of people (Strayer and Nelson 1109). The African dream was to achieve equitable distribution of resources to all regions within a country. In contrast, Africans were divided in terms of colour, religion, political and economic class, and gender. The major cause of the problem was greed for power and lack of leadership experience. Africans are supposed to embrace economic and political structural changes to enhance the production and creation of products.
In conclusion, Africans leaders have struggled to confirm to citizens’ expectations. The desire for Africans was to have legitimate political governments and functional systems that are independent. Africans continues to demand economic and political freedoms in their own countries.
References
Strayer, Robert W., and Eric W. Nelson. 1200 Update Ways of the World with Sources for the AP® Modern Course. Macmillan Higher Education, 2019.