Africa decolonisation image courtesy

Let’s start with a contradiction!

African nations gained independence over sixty years ago. Flags changed. Anthems replaced. Power transferred — on paper. And yet, decades later, many African leaders govern through inherited constitutions, imported ideologies, and borrowed dreams.

We call it post-colonial Africa. But what if the real truth is simpler, and more troubling?

What if decolonization was never completed?

The Illusion of Sovereignty

Drive through Nairobi, Accra, Lagos — the skylines shimmer with symbols of progress. Yet dig beneath the glass and steel, and what you find is startling: legal systems crafted in Westminster; economic policies designed in Geneva; schoolbooks that start with Henry VIII and never reach Wangari Maathai.

It’s not just nostalgia or inertia. It’s a system that never left. The structures, values, and hierarchies that colonialism embedded were designed for one thing: control. We inherited them — but never reimagined them.

We swapped colonizers for compatriots in office. But the script remained the same.

Mind Games: The Psychological Inheritance

Colonialism didn’t just take land. It took self-worth.

Africans were taught — explicitly and subtly — that value came from whiteness, from Europe, from “civilization.” Generations later, we still chase that ghost: foreign degrees, foreign brands, foreign languages.

English, French, and Portuguese aren’t just tools of communication; they are symbols of class — passports to legitimacy. A president speaking flawless French at the UN gets more applause than a chief speaking Wolof with wisdom.

We say we want African solutions to African problems — but we measure success by Western metrics.

That’s not independence. That’s a mental lease.

I know this system well. I was educated in it — from King Henry VIII textbooks to a British university campus. But familiarity should not be mistaken for endorsement. In fact, it is from within the architecture that the cracks are most clearly seen.

Blueprints Without Roots: Imported Political Systems

Many African nations were handed constitutions at independence that had no bearing on indigenous governance traditions. They were copies of Westminster, the Élysée, or in Liberia’s case, Washington D.C. But none were tailored to the sociopolitical realities on the ground.

Kenya’s hyper-centralized presidency echoes the colonial Governor’s role — not an African consensus-builder. Nigeria’s federal structure, for instance, was intended to manage diversity — but instead entrenched ethnic blocs. Zambia and Malawi have inherited legal codes still criminalizing indigenous practices. Zimbabwe’s Parliament operates with colonial-era decorum, while failing to serve its poorest citizens. Burkina Faso gained independence in 1960 with fewer than 20 university graduates — and a GDP per capita under $100.

What we call “failed leadership” is often the logical result of governing with tools designed to serve someone else.

Economies Built to Extract — Still Do

The railroad tracks colonialists built didn’t connect communities. They connected mines to ports. Today, African countries still export raw materials and import finished goods. Still price takers. Still caught in the trap of comparative disadvantage.

Take Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana: together, they produce over 60% of the world’s cocoa — but barely 5% of the global chocolate revenue. In Guinea, bauxite is mined by foreign multinationals while local communities remain stuck in poverty. In Angola, oil wealth has translated to offshore accounts more than local infrastructure.

In Niger, uranium extracted by French multinationals powers homes across Europe, while over 80% of Nigeriens live without electricity. And in Mozambique, billions in liquefied natural gas investments have flowed to global energy giants, while insurgency and underdevelopment fester around the extraction zones.

Decolonization that doesn’t touch the supply chain is cosmetic at best.

The Empire in Our Algorithms: Soft Power from West and East

Colonial flags may be gone, but colonial influence has simply taken subtler shapes. Today, it speaks through newsrooms, movie scripts, hashtags, and scholarship grants.

From the West:

Hollywood still defines “cool” — influencing language, fashion, even humor.
The BBC, France24, and CNN remain trusted authorities on African affairs — often more than local media.
Western NGOs shape development narratives, funding priorities, and academic research.
Ivy League and Oxbridge scholarships funnel Africa’s brightest minds into institutions that often subtly reinforce Western worldviews.
From the East:

Chinese soft power has surged — via Confucius Institutes, state-sponsored media like CGTN Africa, and debt-funded infrastructure with cultural strings attached.

Chinese language is now taught in over 30 African countries.
Beijing’s Belt and Road isn’t just physical — it’s ideological: showcasing a non-Western development model that attracts autocratic leaders.
This is not a competition of empires — it’s a reminder that Africa’s cultural operating system is still coded offshore.

Whether it’s Western media or Eastern tech giants, Africa’s public imagination is still largely shaped offshore.

This is soft power in action. It doesn’t dictate. It seduces.

Until we own our narratives — from textbooks to streamable drama — we will remain storytellers without scripts.

What About Ethiopia and Liberia? Weren’t They “Never Colonized”?

Ethiopia is often cited as Africa’s lone uncolonized state. But its leadership trajectory — from imperial monarchy to Marxist junta to ethno-federal governance — reflects the same struggles of legitimacy, repression, and post-imperial identity.

Liberia, founded by freed American slaves, replicated the plantation elite model, marginalizing indigenous groups for decades.

Even without direct colonization, these nations inherited structures of exclusion, elite capture, and external dependency. Independence alone is not immunity.

So, What Would Finished Decolonization Look Like?

It would mean redesigning African systems — from the ground up.

Politically, it means blending modern governance with traditional accountability structures — not dismissing them as archaic.
Economically, it means investing in value addition, not just extraction.

Trading with each other, not just with the Global North or East.
Culturally, it means elevating local languages, storytelling, and knowledge systems.

Psychologically, it means defining development on our own terms — not through borrowed dashboards. It means exporting chocolate, not just cocoa. Launching African curricula, not just receiving scholarships. Funding storytelling from within, not waiting for global gatekeepers.

We see sparks already:

• Rwanda’s homegrown Imihigo performance contracts
• Senegal’s cultural export of francophone rap and cinema
• South Africa’s attempts to indigenize education through #RhodesMustFall
• Botswana’s diamond revenue reinvestment strategy
• Pan-African fintech startups like Flutterwave and Chipper Cash redefining value exchange

Decolonization is not nostalgia for the past. It’s a radical act of design for the future.We cannot rethink African leadership without finishing the very process that was only ever half-done.

Final Word: The Africa That Might Be

If Africa’s greatest challenge is leadership, then maybe the root of that challenge is this: we have been trying to lead in institutions that weren’t built for us — or by us.

The question is no longer when independence came. The question is whether freedom ever did.

Until we finish the work of decolonization — in mind, in systems, in symbols — we will remain trapped in someone else’s story.

And as any writer will tell you: the only way to own the narrative is to write your own ending.