Based on an interdisciplinary approach, which includes a collection of archival materials from many archival departments and libraries across Africa and America, oral histories (interviews), as well as a broad array of secondary sources, Emmanuel Akyeampong's Independent Africa offers a nuanced, comparative history and thought-provoking analysis of ‘Africa's political economy in its first two full decades of independence (ca. 1957 to 1980) through the joint projects of nation-building, economic development, and international relations’ (p. 3). Rather than providing a unilateral political history and/or biographical history of the first generation of African leaders, such as Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Ahmed Sekou Toure (Guinea), Leopold Sedar Senghor (Senegal) and Julius Kambarage Nyerere (Tanzania), Akyeampong approached this history with a broader socio-political, economic and intellectual perspective, positioning the ideologies and struggles of these leaders, within the global economic and geopolitical debates.
Central to Akyeampong's argument is that these first generation of African leaders were not just dreamers and/or ideologists. Instead, they were nation-builders who attempted to navigate the complex legacies of colonialism and global geopolitics, such as the Cold War and the Second World War, to rebuild their nations through economic reforms. Although their attempts to decolonise Africa's economies had proved futile by the late twentieth century, ‘…to dismiss the vision [of these leaders] and mission of creating economically viable, politically vibrant nation-states in these early decades of independence is to sideline perhaps the most fascinating era in post-independence Africa's political economy’ (p. 8). This early period should, therefore, be understood as a formative time when African leaders pursued various economic and political reforms while (re)defining their national identities, all in an attempt to rebuild their nation-states. This challenges the often-oversimplified narrative that portrays the first generation of African leaders as corrupt and incompetent in managing the continent's affairs.
Akyeampong engages with multiple historiographical traditions, centring his analysis on economic history, political history and theories of decolonisation. He argues that these leaders pursued rigorous political and economic ideologies that aimed at reducing the new nation-states’ ‘…dependence on the West, industrialize, and increase the role of the state’ (p. 116). However, they were faced with both internal and external obstacles, such as the politics of the Cold War, structural adjustment programmes, as well as internal disintegrations and rivalries. Therefore, rather than viewing the rapid decline of Africa's economic growth and industrialisation in the early period after independence as solely internal and local mismanagement, Akyeampong contends that international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank played crucial roles in dismantling Africa's economic initiatives (p. 255).
Another strength of the book is Akyeampong's insightful comparison of various African nation-states, which allows him to demonstrate how the various African independent leaders pursued diverse approaches to governance and economic development. Although all these leaders aimed at achieving economic prosperity for their respective nation-states, their approaches to this goal, Akyeampong contends, differed significantly. For instance, while President Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana embarked on state-led industrialisation, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania adopted the Ujamaa socialism. Leopold Senghor of Senegal, on the other hand, maintained a close economic association with France. This helps Akyeampong to move his narrative and analysis beyond the common tendency to generalise African history, offering a detailed discussion of Africa's nuanced postcolonial experiences.
Independent Africa is well-written and organised around clear thematic divisions, allowing readers to trace important issues such as international relations, economic planning and the failures of regional and local integration. While Akyeampong writes in clear, simple language, he also does not oversimplify complex historical debates, making the book accessible for both specialists and non-specialists of African history, especially those interested in the postcolonial histories of the continent. However, Akyeampong could have provided detailed explanations of some of the key concepts around which he foregrounded his narrative. For instance, in the introductory chapter, he devotes several pages to engaging with different scholars and their interpretations of the nation-state concept without offering his own working definition. Overall, the book is a thought-provoking work that offers a new perspective on the first two decades of Africa's independence. Akyeampong's interdisciplinary methodology makes the book a crucial resource for economists, historians and political scientists. It is a must-read for students of Africa, especially those interested in the post-independence histories of the continent.
