Book: Thomas Sankara and Jerry Rawlings: Intellectuals, Populists, Revolutionaries, and Pan-Africanists
Human history began in Africa, and according to all available historical, biological, and anthropological sources and understanding, it is the origin of modern humans. However, things have not gone well for the continent and many of its people. Beginning in the fifteenth century, the continent had been ensnared by a succession of calamities and iniquities, which include the Euro-American slave trade and colonization. And while Africa was not the only continent that suffered such inhumanities, she seems to have suffered more and the negative impacts seem more lasting and troubling. Beginning in 1957, and more rapidly in the 1960s, political independence came in quick succession. Even so, conditions on the continent seem not to have improved significantly. For instance, transiting from agrarianism to modernity, the modernization of the economy, and the issue of governance and leadership seem to be the three main problems faced by the continent. However, the inability to get the question of leadership right have hindered the continent’s progress.
