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Africa betrayed
Africans are angry - 30 years of independence have brought nothing but economic misery, famine, senseless civil wars, wanton destruction, flagrant violations of human rights and brutal repression. At independence from colonial rule, Africans had hoped for liberty, prosperity and a new beginning. They have been cruelly disappointed. This study is an attack on the dictators who have ruined an entire continent. Almost all the nationalists who took power after independence have proven worse than the colonialists they replaced. Declaring their countries one-party states and themselves "presidents for life", they have banned the opposition and gagged the press. Any word of dissent is rewarded with jail or death, and under the guise of "socialism", these leaders and a phalanx of kleptocrats have settled down to loot Africa's wealth. Each violent coup has simply replaced the nationalists with military juntas who have then applied a soldierly rigour to the same plundering operation - a 2nd betrayal. The author writes about the horrors of black neocolonialism, arguing that it is just not good enough for commentators always to blame external factors for Africa's misery: African leaders have betrayed both the just aspirations of their countrymen and Africa's indigenous political systems, which in no way endorse tyranny. Dr Ayittey sees a 2nd liberation struggle building up throughout the continent - one that will sweep away the kleptocracy and rediscover the African traditions that have endured throughout the horrors of both white colonialism and black neocolonialism. By the author of "Indigenous African Institutions" and has written articles for "The Wall Street Journal", "The New York Times", "The Washington Post", "The Washington Times", "The Globe and Mail", "International Herald Tribune" and the London "Times". George B.N. Ayittey has also written for African newspapers, including "Ghana Drum", "The Christian Messenger", "The Sowetan" and "The Continent".
368 pages, Hardcover
First published November 15, 1992
About the author
George B.N. Ayittey
8 books24 followersGeorge B. N. Ayittey (13 October 1945 – 28 January 2022) was a Ghanaian economist, author, and president of the Free Africa Foundation in Washington, D.C. He was a professor at American University, and an associate scholar at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.
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May 21, 2026
AN EXPATRIATE AFRICAN ECONOMIST LOOKS AT THE CURRENT SITUATION
George Ayittey (1945-2022) was a Ghanian economist who was president of the Free African Foundation; he also taught at American University, Wayne State College, and Bloomburg University of Pennsylvania.
Makaziwe Mandala (daughter of Nelson Mandela and his first wife) wrote in her Foreword to this 1992 book, “Ayittey captures the essence of his story … [that] after independence, most Africans were denied the very freedoms they struggled so hard for from colonial rule. Tyranny is rampant in Africa… Violations of human rights are committed with impunity… with the worst offenses occurring under military dictatorships… most of Africa’s ‘liberators’ … mismanaged their national economies and looted national treasures for deposit in overseas bank accounts… It is a very sad story indeed… when the African continent is beset with political turmoil, instability, and economic disaster. It takes an extraordinary African to provide this ‘inside view.’” (Pg. xi)
Ayittey wrote in the Prologue, “This book is a continuation of [the] struggle---for the second and true liberation of Africa from both white oppression and black tyranny… To be sure, external factors had been important in supplying the initial shocks to fragile African economies. But… these… were magnified by defective domestic economic mismanagement and poor leadership… I left Ghana for the West in 1975, hoping for a more tolerant intellectual environment. But I discovered… [that my] criticisms of African government were greeted with suspicion in North America and Western Europe. I quickly learned that in the U.S., African leaders … from black Africa, were viewed almost as saints… Western attitudes that shielded African despots from public scrutiny and criticism have helped perpetuate tyranny in Africa.” (Pg. xv-xvii) He continues, “the pertinent theme of this book is … FREEDOM… But where is this freedom today in Africa? Instead, tyranny and intellectual repression reign over much of Africa today.” (Pg. xix)
He states, “The human race and its culture evolved in Africa. Yet after migrating to other continents and perfecting their skills, [humans] returned with a vengeance---to denigrate, enslave, conquer, and colonize. The first to attack were the Arabs… Next to come were the European explorers, Christian missionaries, and slave traders in the 15th century… Since the Bible spoke of slavery without condemning it, Christian missionaries argued sternly that Africans would in fact be better off as slaves than as African savages… Accordingly, over 15 million Africans were shipped… to the Americas in unmitigated misery and appalling conditions… An especially pernicious aspect of the slave trade was the fact that the victims were the strong, active members of the population… The vitality of Africa’s labor force was effectively sapped… It would be impossible to calculate the economic damage of the slave trade to the indigenous economies of West Africa.” (Pg. 4-5)
He continues, “Africa barely recovered from the trauma of slavery before it was hit with …. The European scramble for Africa [which] began in earnest in the 1880s, propelled by three forces that drew their impetus from Europe’s Industrial Revolution. The first was the need for new markets for surplus manufactured goods… Second, increasing industrial competition for … raw materials … The third factor … was the investment of surplus capital… In this way Africa was carved up into colonies and transformed into economic appendages of European colonial powers… Colonial subjugation was a cultural and emotional humiliation suffered on top of the pervasive denigration of Africans as inferior… By 1990 most of Africa had been ‘liberated’ from colonial rule except for Namibia and South Africa. But in most parts of Africa independence from oppressive colonial rule was in name only. All that changed was the color of the guards and the masters.” (Pg. 6-7)
He goes on, “A third and far more insidious invasion began under black neocolonialism. Educated abroad and having assumed the trappings of foreign cultures… a new wave of invaders struck Africa… they came back with a vengeance to denigrate, to enslave, to destroy, and to colonize by imposing ideological systems upon the African people.” (Pg. 7)
He reports, “For most Africans, independence did not bring a better life or even greater political and civil liberties… Colonial governments in Africa were generally authoritarian and paternalistic… As oppressive as colonial rule was, almost all of the nationalists who struggled against it for independence emerged ALIVE to lead their countries to independence. But few Africans would be lucky to survive even two years in the jails of independent Africa. Since independence in the 1960s there has been a systematic curtailment and virtual banishment across African of freedom and civil liberties. Africans asked for MORE, not less, freedom after colonial rule. But today, this freedom remains a fantasy… Africa has been betrayed. Freedom from colonial rule has evolved into ghastly tyranny, arbitrary rule, denial of civil liberties, brutal suppression of dissent, and the wanton slaughter of peasants.” (Pg. 9-10)
He observes, “slavery … also existed in Africa before the advent of Europeans. Slavery in indigenous Africa was not completely iniquitous, however… The West did not invent any of these institutions, bu it developed them to their ugly extremes. Slavery was pushed to its horrifying limits in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” (Pg. 19)
He asserts, “Black reactions to white imputation of inferiority have been tripolar: separatism, militancy, and imitation… All are equally self-destructive… The drift toward separatism and militancy at the scholarly level is exemplified by ‘Afrocentrism,’ which is based on the belief that Africa was the cradle of civilization and ancient Egypt was a black African society. Africa’s glorious past, according to Afrocentrists, was ‘stolen’ or denigrated by racist white historians. A group of militant black scholars are therefore determined to ‘reclaim’ Africa’s true contributions to the world and ‘correct’ school curriculums accordingly… Professor Leonard Jeffries Jr. … at the City University of New York, added a new dimension of Afrocentrism with claims of genetic superiority. He dismissed ‘whites as “ice people” whose endless savagery is due to a lack of melanin, the all-important chemical that turns blacks into benign "sun people" and gives them intellectual advantages over whites as well.’” (Pg. 28-29) He adds, “Claims of Western superiority and black counterclaims are BOTH unhelpful for the development of African scholarship. But it is probably the reactions of blacks, rather than the denigration or lack of recognition, that have impeded black scholarship and the search for effective solutions to black problems.” (Pg. 31)
He notes, “Islam provided a more cohesive force and a stronger basis for empire-building. It was no accident that the Islamic empires … lasted the longest in Africa’s history.” (Pg. 72)
He states, “After independence, two classes emerged from African society: the elites and the peasants. There were five subgroups within the elite, or educated, class. The first included professional politicians… The second was the intelligentsia… The third as the military. The fourth included bureaucrats---civil servants and chairmen of public corporations. The final subgroup, the lowest level of elites, included urban workers and secondary school and university students.” (Pg. 117)
He points out, “For a long time in the postcolonial era, black Africans regarded Arabs as brothers and expressed solidarity with Arab causes and campaigns against Zionism. But of late, institutionalized racism by Arabs against black Africans has become a growing problem in Africa, especially in Mauritania, Sudan, and Tanzania. In Mauritania blacks have no political power and cannot vote… they are persecuted and discriminated against by the Arabs… There is still slavery in Mauritania in this day and age. Africa Watch estimates that ‘there are between 100,000 total slaves and 300,000 part slaves and former black slaves in the service of Arab masters.’” (Pg. 124)
He argues, “what the West gained in Africa was not commensurate with the resources it spent there… The West was often seduced by the charisma and the euphonious verbiage of Third World despots, providing them with substantial aid… in Africa the West often obliged and supported pro-capitalist African dictators, despite their hideously repressive and neocommunist regimes.” (Pg. 276-277)
He explains that “Black Americans tended to see the campaign against apartheid as an extension of their own civil rights struggle… But many Africans saw apartheid as merely a special case of the oppression that was rampant across the continent… In black Africa color was not the issue… Although in the past their oppressors were white colonialists, today they are black.” (Pg. 284)
He concludes, “Africa’s postcolonial experience … is a grisly picture of one betrayal after another: economic disintegration, political chaos, inane civil wars, and … institutional decay. These were not what Africans hoped for when they asked for their independence from colonial rule… It is difficult to convey their outrage … at the leaders who have failed them… African socialism has been a dismal failure, one-party rule has been a disaster, and international blindedness to the nearly universal corruption of the continent’s leaders has made matters immeasurably worse.” (Pg. 335)
This strongly-worded book will be of great interest to those studying modern Africa.
George Ayittey (1945-2022) was a Ghanian economist who was president of the Free African Foundation; he also taught at American University, Wayne State College, and Bloomburg University of Pennsylvania.
Makaziwe Mandala (daughter of Nelson Mandela and his first wife) wrote in her Foreword to this 1992 book, “Ayittey captures the essence of his story … [that] after independence, most Africans were denied the very freedoms they struggled so hard for from colonial rule. Tyranny is rampant in Africa… Violations of human rights are committed with impunity… with the worst offenses occurring under military dictatorships… most of Africa’s ‘liberators’ … mismanaged their national economies and looted national treasures for deposit in overseas bank accounts… It is a very sad story indeed… when the African continent is beset with political turmoil, instability, and economic disaster. It takes an extraordinary African to provide this ‘inside view.’” (Pg. xi)
Ayittey wrote in the Prologue, “This book is a continuation of [the] struggle---for the second and true liberation of Africa from both white oppression and black tyranny… To be sure, external factors had been important in supplying the initial shocks to fragile African economies. But… these… were magnified by defective domestic economic mismanagement and poor leadership… I left Ghana for the West in 1975, hoping for a more tolerant intellectual environment. But I discovered… [that my] criticisms of African government were greeted with suspicion in North America and Western Europe. I quickly learned that in the U.S., African leaders … from black Africa, were viewed almost as saints… Western attitudes that shielded African despots from public scrutiny and criticism have helped perpetuate tyranny in Africa.” (Pg. xv-xvii) He continues, “the pertinent theme of this book is … FREEDOM… But where is this freedom today in Africa? Instead, tyranny and intellectual repression reign over much of Africa today.” (Pg. xix)
He states, “The human race and its culture evolved in Africa. Yet after migrating to other continents and perfecting their skills, [humans] returned with a vengeance---to denigrate, enslave, conquer, and colonize. The first to attack were the Arabs… Next to come were the European explorers, Christian missionaries, and slave traders in the 15th century… Since the Bible spoke of slavery without condemning it, Christian missionaries argued sternly that Africans would in fact be better off as slaves than as African savages… Accordingly, over 15 million Africans were shipped… to the Americas in unmitigated misery and appalling conditions… An especially pernicious aspect of the slave trade was the fact that the victims were the strong, active members of the population… The vitality of Africa’s labor force was effectively sapped… It would be impossible to calculate the economic damage of the slave trade to the indigenous economies of West Africa.” (Pg. 4-5)
He continues, “Africa barely recovered from the trauma of slavery before it was hit with …. The European scramble for Africa [which] began in earnest in the 1880s, propelled by three forces that drew their impetus from Europe’s Industrial Revolution. The first was the need for new markets for surplus manufactured goods… Second, increasing industrial competition for … raw materials … The third factor … was the investment of surplus capital… In this way Africa was carved up into colonies and transformed into economic appendages of European colonial powers… Colonial subjugation was a cultural and emotional humiliation suffered on top of the pervasive denigration of Africans as inferior… By 1990 most of Africa had been ‘liberated’ from colonial rule except for Namibia and South Africa. But in most parts of Africa independence from oppressive colonial rule was in name only. All that changed was the color of the guards and the masters.” (Pg. 6-7)
He goes on, “A third and far more insidious invasion began under black neocolonialism. Educated abroad and having assumed the trappings of foreign cultures… a new wave of invaders struck Africa… they came back with a vengeance to denigrate, to enslave, to destroy, and to colonize by imposing ideological systems upon the African people.” (Pg. 7)
He reports, “For most Africans, independence did not bring a better life or even greater political and civil liberties… Colonial governments in Africa were generally authoritarian and paternalistic… As oppressive as colonial rule was, almost all of the nationalists who struggled against it for independence emerged ALIVE to lead their countries to independence. But few Africans would be lucky to survive even two years in the jails of independent Africa. Since independence in the 1960s there has been a systematic curtailment and virtual banishment across African of freedom and civil liberties. Africans asked for MORE, not less, freedom after colonial rule. But today, this freedom remains a fantasy… Africa has been betrayed. Freedom from colonial rule has evolved into ghastly tyranny, arbitrary rule, denial of civil liberties, brutal suppression of dissent, and the wanton slaughter of peasants.” (Pg. 9-10)
He observes, “slavery … also existed in Africa before the advent of Europeans. Slavery in indigenous Africa was not completely iniquitous, however… The West did not invent any of these institutions, bu it developed them to their ugly extremes. Slavery was pushed to its horrifying limits in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.” (Pg. 19)
He asserts, “Black reactions to white imputation of inferiority have been tripolar: separatism, militancy, and imitation… All are equally self-destructive… The drift toward separatism and militancy at the scholarly level is exemplified by ‘Afrocentrism,’ which is based on the belief that Africa was the cradle of civilization and ancient Egypt was a black African society. Africa’s glorious past, according to Afrocentrists, was ‘stolen’ or denigrated by racist white historians. A group of militant black scholars are therefore determined to ‘reclaim’ Africa’s true contributions to the world and ‘correct’ school curriculums accordingly… Professor Leonard Jeffries Jr. … at the City University of New York, added a new dimension of Afrocentrism with claims of genetic superiority. He dismissed ‘whites as “ice people” whose endless savagery is due to a lack of melanin, the all-important chemical that turns blacks into benign "sun people" and gives them intellectual advantages over whites as well.’” (Pg. 28-29) He adds, “Claims of Western superiority and black counterclaims are BOTH unhelpful for the development of African scholarship. But it is probably the reactions of blacks, rather than the denigration or lack of recognition, that have impeded black scholarship and the search for effective solutions to black problems.” (Pg. 31)
He notes, “Islam provided a more cohesive force and a stronger basis for empire-building. It was no accident that the Islamic empires … lasted the longest in Africa’s history.” (Pg. 72)
He states, “After independence, two classes emerged from African society: the elites and the peasants. There were five subgroups within the elite, or educated, class. The first included professional politicians… The second was the intelligentsia… The third as the military. The fourth included bureaucrats---civil servants and chairmen of public corporations. The final subgroup, the lowest level of elites, included urban workers and secondary school and university students.” (Pg. 117)
He points out, “For a long time in the postcolonial era, black Africans regarded Arabs as brothers and expressed solidarity with Arab causes and campaigns against Zionism. But of late, institutionalized racism by Arabs against black Africans has become a growing problem in Africa, especially in Mauritania, Sudan, and Tanzania. In Mauritania blacks have no political power and cannot vote… they are persecuted and discriminated against by the Arabs… There is still slavery in Mauritania in this day and age. Africa Watch estimates that ‘there are between 100,000 total slaves and 300,000 part slaves and former black slaves in the service of Arab masters.’” (Pg. 124)
He argues, “what the West gained in Africa was not commensurate with the resources it spent there… The West was often seduced by the charisma and the euphonious verbiage of Third World despots, providing them with substantial aid… in Africa the West often obliged and supported pro-capitalist African dictators, despite their hideously repressive and neocommunist regimes.” (Pg. 276-277)
He explains that “Black Americans tended to see the campaign against apartheid as an extension of their own civil rights struggle… But many Africans saw apartheid as merely a special case of the oppression that was rampant across the continent… In black Africa color was not the issue… Although in the past their oppressors were white colonialists, today they are black.” (Pg. 284)
He concludes, “Africa’s postcolonial experience … is a grisly picture of one betrayal after another: economic disintegration, political chaos, inane civil wars, and … institutional decay. These were not what Africans hoped for when they asked for their independence from colonial rule… It is difficult to convey their outrage … at the leaders who have failed them… African socialism has been a dismal failure, one-party rule has been a disaster, and international blindedness to the nearly universal corruption of the continent’s leaders has made matters immeasurably worse.” (Pg. 335)
This strongly-worded book will be of great interest to those studying modern Africa.
June 19, 2013
I had the pleasure of being slightly acquainted with Dr. Ayittey; as this book proves, he writes cogently and powerfully. The tale is, in many ways, depressing in the dashing of hopes of post-colonial Sub-Saharan Africa by so many brutal, thuggish "Big Man" dictators. Sadly, two decades after it was written, the story is little changed. A must read for those who want to understand Africa's predicament.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews