Why Socialism failed in AFRICA | George Ayitteh

Considering capitalism to be equal to colonialism, Africa’s founding fathers rejected it and adopted marxist-socialism in the 1960s. Foreign companies were nationalised, state-owned enterprises were created and all sorts of controls on rents, prices, imports and foreign exchange. According to Ghanaian economist George Ayitteh, the socialist experiment failed woefully all across the board.

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[TrquoiseCath]

I just want to say that as an American these videos give me a lot of insight into African history and politics. The media here tends to ignore Africa a lot so this channel helps educate me a lot. Keep up the good work!

[jjrod]

Africa: rejected European imperialism
Also Africa: European imperialism with Chinese characteristics

[Taprman]

Any other Americans here who finally found a channel that can show us African history?

[faithwafula]

As a high school history teacher in Kenya this channel has provided me with more insight on African history to teach my students

[ion]

hard to seize the means of production when there is no means of production to seize

[CSLucasEpic]

I don't know, Tomas Sankara seemed to be doing fine until he was assasinated.

[michaelruatfelaralte]

I am indian, i am glad i found this channel. Africa is so interesting, to add to it, the narrator with african accent makes it so authentic...subbed!!

[littlered]

I’m from the west and we are not made aware of these facts at all. I’m now on a mission to learn more. Thanks for the video!

[Boiblu]

I remember reading that Mansa Musa was asked in Egypt why he doesn't control the gold mines directly. He responded that if he did they wouldn't have any gold; that it was best to let the locals command this, an ultimate sign of trust. Pre-colonial West Africa (can't speak for the whole) engaged in structured ethno-corporatism and interethnic cooperation, something lacking in today's Africa. Food for thought.

[devdixit]

Great work on this video.
One point though, it's interesting to note the fact that African rebel armies would often declare themselves Marxist - Leninist/Socialist to gain support (often in the forms of arms, and military supplies/training) from the Soviet Union. Because the USSR, post-1953 (death of Stalin) continued to try to export its world revolution of the proletariat. And it saw Africa as the perfect ground for the creation of Socialist allies for the Soviet Union.

Many of the rebel groups who called themselves 'Marxists', actually had little interest in the creation of a Marxist state and just used the USSR as a depot for free weapons. I understand even some Islamic radical groups/separatists declared themselves Marxists for this purpose, which is quite ironic. The Soviet Union usually turned a blind eye to the crimes that these rebel groups committed, and just threw guns at the African continent. Fuelling the cycle of violence gripping many parts of the continent.

[loladify]

As a person who grew up in Ghana, I think you got it right with them having more corrupt officials than those who want to serve the people of Ghana. Every political leader in Ghana, tends to get elected promising to change the system but in the end, there are just too many corrupt officials in positions of power

[yonathanmengistu]

Kinda neoliberalish with its assessment but it does point out some important points. I would say that the juxtaposition between Rodney and that other author named isn’t a fair one as Walter Rodney is an intellectual giant within this field in comparison.

Thomas Sankara was successful because he wasn’t highly dogmatic towards Marxism-Socialism so much as he wanted real solutions for his people. He was one of the few genuine revolutionaries, perhaps Cabral being the other. The over reliance on slavish clinging to ideology is an issue many other leaders had which gave their policies a lack of flexibility with regards to growth and development. My family’s country Ethiopia is a great example of this and how development was arrested and eventually the state owned structure made it easy for a political mafia to enrich itself. Marxism in theory shouldn’t have even been that big seeing as how Africans themselves have a long tradition of such communal modes of production/societal composition far older than Marx and those would’ve been genuine attempts at rejecting all things colonial which should’ve included the East as much as the West. Anyways I digress, would say that Sankara is a good example of how left leaning policies can be successfully applied only for outside interests to interfere and end such progress. To brush aside the reality of Africa’s precarious lopsided relations with the outside world and how leaders have been cut down young over it gives off a very dense and naive vibe with relation to this portion of our history.

[sandernista]

Leopold Senghor, what an ironic name for an African Nationalist.

[emmanuelokebugwu]

I had not watched more than 3 minutes of this piece to see that this was the genesis of our terrifyingly tyrannic government style in Africa. The class of 1950-60 PanAfrica Leaders may have had good intentions....but they were wrong.

It created governments that were too power-drunk, too much control...too little restraint.

The class of 1950-60 all died...and in their place, men with little or no moral compass took over a system that was setup to amass the sweat of the people into a gigantic government purse.

They were wrong.

Now Africans suffer for it.

[ekananda]

Expectation :
Governments serve its citizens
Reality :
Citizens serve governments

[miketacos]

We need to cut down on these ministries! Let's set up the Ministry of Ministry Management!

[dominikfor]

Why West-backed coups, unjust loans and IMF's structural adjustment programs were not mentioned?

[positive_man_jb]

Cameroon under Paul Biya has even a ministry of special duties to the president 😂😂😂.

[letrat]

I wish a million African politicians could watch this

[NemanjaVuj]

Being from Eastern Europe, to me this tale of great but failed promises, corruption and autocratic leaders is like looking in the mirror. Same ideologies, same timeline, different places, but same (disappointing) results.