Colonial legacy and Cold War constrained democratic leaders across independent Africa

Evidence

While Jackson and Rosberg focus on the role of the individual leader in the making of African postcolonial states, the Somali context highlights the interactive dynamic among internal, external, and individual and collective forces that shaped the nature of political authority in the republic. In particular, it underscores the role colonial legacy and the Cold War played in hemming in the latitude of liberty for political action in independent Africa. Further, the Somali case demonstrates that democracy in postcolonial Africa faces both domestic and external forces that severely circumscribe the actions of the most genuinely democratic leaders. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1108