Neoliberalism Offers Nothing But Subordination. Already on our list? Post-Independence Africa Had Dreams of Freedom. Time For Wealthy Taxpayers To Look Offshore? The Constitution also provided that all Ministers should be appointed from among Members of Parliament. Three widespread mis-readings of the post-independence period were wielded to push structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and continue to underpin the neoliberal hegemony in Africa. Whatever their ideological inclinations, governments saw the key task of their time as securing their political and economic agency by breaking out of their subordinate place in the global economic order and imagining a new one. While flawed, African governments in the early post-independence years projected a vision beyond neocolonialism and subordination to the Global North. This often translated to the creation of state-owned enterprises and heavy investment in human capital; interventionist fiscal and monetary policies; and a uniform (if ultimately inconsistent) commitment to import substitution industrialization. In 1965, Kwame Nkrumah described the paradox of neocolonialism in Africa, in which “the soil continue[s] to enrich, not Africans predominantly, but groups and individuals who operate to Africa’s impoverishment.” He captured what continues to be an essential feature of Africa’s political economy. African governments in the immediate post-independence period challenged the neocolonial exploitation of the continent. European imperialists prided themselves on bringing civilization and developing Africa, but they left their former colonies with little in the way of infrastructure. At the end of the independence decade it was clear to African writers and intellectuals that national liberation had been a selective affair, mainly consolidating the power of indigenous professional elites with whom the colonial regimes, in former administrative colonies like those of British and French West Africa, had maintained a long-established political dialogue. Thandika Mkandawire and Charles Soludo outlined the hypocrisy of this narrative, noting that the post-independence project was not outside the dominant policy orientation globally. In reality, all post-independence economies were largely market-oriented with key sectors dominated by foreign capital, serving as a continuation of colonial patterns. Spaces of progressive thought and learning have been fragmented, knowledge production has been monopolized by the free market logic, and tendentious mis-readings of the post-independence period as ideological, statist, and inefficient abound, facilitating a sense best summed up by the Thatcherite pronouncement that “there is no alternative.”. As such, when they were dismantled and replaced with standardized, monotasked institutions during structural adjustment, it ripped the social fabric that was integral to the post-independence agenda. Independence and decolonization in Southern Africa After the war the imperial powers were under strong international pressure to decolonize. After World War II, the people of Africa fought to end the effects of European imperialism to achieve political independence and reclaim African culture. The post-independence period had a range of limitations, critically related to the failure to adequately address gender imbalances, enable independent workers and peasants movements, or build strong decentralized systems of local governance. Conference Report: Archives of Post-Independence Africa, June 2012 by Jos Damen & Benjamin Soares The ASC along with CODESRIA and the University of California African Studies Multicampus Research Group (MRG) organized an international conference, Archives of Post-Independence Africa and its Diaspora, which was held at the Gorée Institute on Gorée Island in Senegal, on June 20-23, 2012. Add to my list. In contrast with the contemporary externalization of policymaking, they responded creatively to the material interests of the majority of ordinary people. Post-independence Kenya, like many other countries in Africa, is faced with another rift: a horizontal rift dividing the elite from the mass of the people. Firstly, the WB/IMF and North governments cast post-independence leaders as excessively ideological in order to discredit the entire experience. Post-independence African countries inherited deeply corrupt institutions, laws and values from colonial and apartheid governments. Whatever their ideological inclinations, governments saw the key task of their time as securing their political and economic agency by breaking out of their subordinate place in the global economic order and imagining a new one. For example, after the state-run Cocoa Marketing Board was dismantled, universities were forced to raise funds privately, and those donors over time reshaped and de-politicized the curriculum. Contemporary Kenya has not only witnessed the frustration of the peasants who had hoped for a better life after independence, but their deepening impoverishment and exploitation. INTRODUCTION It is widely believed that, by comparison with other developing regions, Africa's post- Independence development record has been one of failure. Working Remotely Due To Coronavirus? Part 1 below examines the evidence on this and the remainder of the paper is taken up with examining explanations of this record. However, many African writers and Achebe and Armah in particular have an enduring tendency to the social and political commitment. Independence brought radical new opportunities. Mkandawire and Soludo suggest neoliberal actors like the WB and IMF simply failed to understand the multiple roles of institutions in the post-independence period: rural post offices were also savings banks and meeting places for the community, the Cocoa Marketing Board in Ghana also raised money to fund education. For example, after the state-run Cocoa Marketing Board was dismantled, universities were forced to raise funds privately, and those donors over time reshaped and depoliticized the curriculum. Aishu Balaji is a Coordinator at Regions Refocus and part of the Post-Colonialisms Today secretariat. Wole Soyinka in Myth, Literature and the African World, 1976) sharply criticized Negritude concepts, which they felt reinforced racial stereotypes and were largely irrelevant to the new problems facing post-colonial Africa. The 1960s was generally regarded as the decade of African independence or liberation. The questions post-independence governments asked, to which the policies were formulated as answers, were all but ignored by neoliberalism. Kenyatta's trial showcases the drama of settler administration and prefigures his equivocal position as a national leader. By Sebastiane Ebatamehi. As such, when they were dismantled and replaced with standardized, mono-tasked institutions during structural adjustment, it ripped the social fabric that was integral to the post-independence agenda. In contrast with the contemporary externalization of policymaking, they responded creatively to the material interests of the majority of ordinary peoples. European imperialists prided themselves on bringing civilization and developing Africa, but they left their former colonies with little in the way of infrastructure. The resulting sense of dislocation, alienation, and commodification has undermined the deep efforts of post-independence governments to foster socio-economic inclusion. Adebayo Olukoshi is director for Africa and West Asia at International IDEA and on the advisory committee for Post-Colonialisms Today. Enforced through neoliberalism in the contemporary period, many African states remain dependent on exporting primary commodities to enrich the Global North, with their domestic policy constrained by unequal aid, trade, and investment regimes, and what is now, after almost four decades of structural adjustment, an almost permanent state of austerity. Four decades later, the ideological dominance of neoliberalism is profound. Neoliberalism Offers Nothing But Subordination. While flawed, African governments in the early post-independence years projected a vision beyond neocolonialism and subordination to the Global North. This reality has been obscured to scapegoat state intervention, justifying the further encroachment of foreign capital and continued integration into an unequal global economic order. By Adebayo Olukoshi, Tetteh Hormeku-Ajei, Aishu Balaji and Anita Nayar. After many years of being controlled by Europeans, Africa gradually gained independence following World War II. Post-independence governments did, however, set out to regulate foreign capital through, for example, nationalizing strategic industries and capital controls. Under the Independence Constitution, Nkrumah as leader of the majority party in parliament, became the Prime Minister of Independent Ghana. As Ha-Joon Chang has noted, the delegitimization of the state as a development actor in Africa denied the continent the very policy instruments used by the North to develop. Capitalist oriented Kenya, socialist humanist Zambia, scientific socialist Ghana, Negritudist Senegal, and Houphouet-Boigny’s Côte d’Ivoire (then the Ivory Coast) constructed a central role for the state in post-colonial social and economic transformation, often driven by the collective ethos of meeting society’s needs in the absence of any significant local private capitalist class and the levels of investment necessary for transformation. Enforced through neoliberalism in the contemporary period, many African states remain dependent on exporting primary commodities to enrich the global North, with their domestic policy constrained by unequal aid, trade, and investment regimes, and what is now, after almost four decades of structural adjustment, an almost permanent state of austerity. The false homogenization of the post-independence development project as a failure of ideology has allowed neoliberalism to be positioned as an “objective” and “rational” remedy to this period rather than an ideology itself, liable to contestation. This often translated to the creation of state-owned enterprises and heavy investment in human capital; interventionist fiscal and monetary policies; and a uniform (if ultimately inconsistent) commitment to import substitution industrialization (building up domestic industries instead of relying on imports). They disrupted African governments through assassination attempts and coups, and opportunistically seized on the 1980s commodity crash that devastated African economies, compelling them to accept World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans conditional on liberalization, austerity, and privatization. Thanks for reading and for your interest in Africa. African- Post independent Africa March 19 2012 at 11:55am Okango Simon Most well-intentioned corruption-busting remedies in Africa fail because the root causes are often poorly understood. The 1960s was generally regarded as the decade of African independence or liberation. It is quite clear from Chapter 4 that, although African nationalists gave ‘seeking the political kingdom’ top priority, they also knew that political independence was a first and necessary step towards meeting other aspirations of the people.