Why does the non-commemoration of the 60th anniversary of independence bother Africans so little?

Audio 4:12

By: Jean-Baptiste Placca

This year was supposed to mark the 60th anniversary of the independence of most African states. Because of the pandemic, this commemoration is reduced to its simplest form, but few people are moved. 

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Nathanaël Vittrant : would these commemorations be less important than imagined for the African peoples ?

What if there was simply nothing to celebrate?

Basically, what the peoples concerned have best to do is to question the meaning of what they have experienced throughout these six decades. And to wonder what there is to do, so that the next generations will not be wondering, in forty years, what could have served them a century of independence.

On this continent where we like to try to read in the soul of time, these non-commemorations call out, like a warning. Given the theoretically insignificant rate of reported cases, life should calmly follow its course in Africa. Except with a few exceptions, the health systems on the continent are among the weakest on the planet. And it seems obvious that Africa will recover even worse than the others from this pandemic. Which brings us to the repressed question: what have we done with our independence?

Would this question be taboo?

Perhaps not, but it pushes to determine responsibilities, beyond the hectic life of an overcrowded capital, with arteries congested from the first rays of the sun, and which can give an impression of progress. Like these beautiful buildings and sumptuous villas that hide the shacks and other unhealthy slums in the shallows, to give an illusion of development. We can then hear such a government pretend magnanimity, by announcing a punctual free electricity, in a country where more than half of the population does not even know what electricity is.

This propensity to believe that because they live well, their people can only be happy betrays an exclusive and possessive relationship with political power, which has varied, but little changed, for sixty years.

And what does this exclusive and possessive relationship consist of ?

In many countries of the continent, from 1960, political adversaries were quickly thrown into prison, forced into exile or eliminated. But those who were in power drew some benefits, regardless of their origins. Over time, these privileges passed to the president's ethnic group, leading today to the privatization of the manger by the presidential family and a very small clan.

This report to power explains why the temptation to the coup has remained alive for sixty years on this continent. Out of the 30 or so countries that gained independence in 1960, barely five survived the coups of the first decade.

Who are these 5 model students?

Be sure to include enough quotes for "  model students  ." Because four of them (Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon and Senegal) had comprehensive insurance: the protection of France. The fifth, the Guinea of ​​Sékou Touré, was rather pushed to its last entrenchments, by France, and owed its survival only to a certain paranoia, which was explained, a lot of political violence, and even an assumed dictatorship . Meanwhile, in Abidjan, Dakar, Libreville and Yaoundé, France watched over the peace of friendly powers.

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