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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Introduction: Continuities, Dislocations and Transformations: 50 Years of Independence in Africa

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Many sub-Saharan African countries celebrated 50 years of political independence in 2010. This presented an opportunity for scholars, politicians and journalists, both within and outside of Africa, to take stock. The situation on the African continent has changed fundamentally since 1960. Brief general analyses and reviews can scarcely do justice to the complexity of this development process. The processes of consolidation, differentiation and transformation that have caused African societies today to become significantly more complex than they were at the time of independence are simply too multifaceted. Most of the journalistic attempts to take stock of these developments in recent years were limited to the two topics in terms of which we have learned to "view" Africa: democracy and development, or the lack thereof, i.e. dictatorship, state decline, civil war, poverty and hunger. These negative assessments lose sight of just how comprehensively the continent has changed in the past 50 years not only politically and economically but also, perhaps primarily, in societal and cultural terms. Furthermore, 1960 does not necessarily mark the most significant turning point in recent African history. Indeed, 1960 competes in its significance with other epochal events such as the happenings of the late 1940s, the oil price crisis of 1973, and the democratic upsurge and end of Apartheid in the early 1990s (Cooper 2002; Nugent 2004). Moreover, a few African countries gained independence before 1960, and still others had to wait until the 1970s to attain it.