How do Africans look back on 50 years of independence? Not too positively, we discovered over the past two months. A wrap-up.

“Somalia would definitely be a safer place if it were under colonial rule again. I sometimes wish foreigners would come and kill everybody in Somalia so the country can start all over again.”

25-year-old Anab Abdi Ahmed’s verdict on Somalia’s independence isn’t exactly what you would call mild. And she isn’t the only one.

Celebrating corruption
Former politician Isaac Shaahu, 75, is “downcast” about Nigeria’s current political situation and can’t see what it is he should be celebrating. “50 years of corruption and rigged elections perhaps?”

And 78-year old Carlos Mpela from the Democratic Republic of Congo would invite the former Belgian colonial force back any time to give a new impulse to the country, which, as he puts it, “is going down to hell.”

Isn’t this just about the worst feedback African leaders can get? Wouldn’t you expect people to be proud of their regained freedom? Historian Stephen Ellis agrees that the sovereignty of African states hasn’t been an overall success.

Misleading
“50 years ago, the concept of independence was presented to both Africans and the rest of the world in a very misleading fashion. True independence doesn’t exist. All countries are somehow linked to each other, be it financially or in terms of climate change. The Netherlands isn’t an independent country either.”

“Yet back then,” Ellis continues, “sovereignty was presented as though African countries could make decisions concerning themselves without anybody else interfering. That was completely unrealistic. What’s wrong, really, is the terms of the debate. Independence and sovereignty are two very different things.”

That could explain why Fatou Thiam (29) from Senegal still doesn’t feel “100% independent”.

Decolonisation of the mind
One thing that is often overlooked, according to Stephen Ellis, is what he calls the ‘decolonisation of the mind’: people should not reject their past, but assume responsibility for it.

Easier said than done, with generation after generation pointing at others to improve things in their country. “Our leaders have slept”, accused Bachir Mbengue, 51, from Senegal. “Our sons are not listening to us”, came Isaac Shaahu’s Nigerian answer.

Regaining control
Ellis admits that it isn’t easy to break this vicious circle. “It’s a long-term feeling in Africa that when African countries were colonised, people lost control of the forces that shaped their lives. They never really succeeded in regaining that control. What you see now is that there are all sorts of movements emerging in Africa, particularly in the field of religion, that are an attempt by people to get control of the forces that they think are shaping their lives.”

Or, as 22-year old Edouard Takadji from Chad put it: “God is great. I hope that things will change one day.”