In nearly every vital statistic – from literacy to infant mortality to life expectancy – Africa trails the world. In some areas, such as AIDS cases, it leads the world. With this in mind, it’s worthwhile to examine Africa’s recent history, for that history is determining the present.

It all started with great promise in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As a result of Gandhi’s largely peaceful success in India, Europe was ready to heed the de-colonization calls coming from Africa. Of course, the European colonial governments did not roll over. They resisted, viciously in some cases, routinely labeling (justifiably or not) all of the liberation movements as Communist. This proved a losing situation, because large segments of their own population, especially the intelligentsia, opposed their governments’ colonialism. Meanwhile, as the new superpower, the United States threw its considerable weight behind the African independence movement.

The first black African country to gain independence from Britain in the post-war era was Ghana in 1957. It was a peaceful transition, first with governors appointed by the queen, and in 1960, the election of a local aristocrat, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. That same year, Nigeria became independent. But it was the emergence of the Belgian Congo’s Patrice Lumumba and his Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1959 that really captured the liberal world’s imagination. The charismatic Lumumba declared, in his now famous statement, “We are not Communists but African nationalists.” Internationally, Lumumba gained almost cult status, which increased in 1961 when he died in a suspicious airplane accident. The Soviet Union attempted to capitalize on Lumumba’s popularity and even named a university in Moscow after him.

De-colonization, aided by the Cold War, produced many new African leaders, who became the darlings of at least one side in the Cold War. There was Julius Nyerere in Tanzania (a composite of British colonies Tanganyika and Zanzibar) in 1961, Milton Obote in Uganda in 1962, and Jomo Kenyatta in Kenya in 1963. Their leadership was not important just for Africa. They also emerged on the world scene, becoming visible leaders in the “non-aligned movement,” rubbing shoulders in every international gathering with world leaders such as India’s Nehru and Yugoslavia’s Tito.

In Lumumba’s Congo, instability ran amok. By 1965, a pattern emerged, to be repeated in practically every newly liberated country. In a military coup, Mobutu, who years later added Sese Seko, an African honorific, to his name, became president for life. He renamed the country Zaire (recently changed again to the Democratic Republic of the Congo). But the really dirty fact, also a pattern throughout Africa, is that by 1984, Mobutu was worth $4 billion, equal to the country’s national debt. He remained President until 1997 when he was forced to resign. From 1994 to the present, the country has been ravaged by civil wars involving multiple warring groups. Congo’s per capita income ranks 225 of 231 countries listed in the CIA World Factbook.

In Tanzania, Nyerere introduced “African Socialism” and one-party rule. After all, if you are an African patriot, how can you have opinions different from the African nationalist par excellence, your liberator from the colonialists? Nyerere remained in power until 1995. His economic system proved disastrous, with rampant famines. Tanzania now ranks 226 in per capita income.

In 1966, Obote declared himself Uganda’s President for life and abolished the constitution. A number of coups and counter-coups eventually brought to power a real gem: Idi Amin, whose measure could be his boasting that he often tasted human flesh. Under Amin, from 1971 to 1979 300,000 Ugandans died. He kicked out all of the Indian expatriates who, for decades, had run the country’s businesses. Amin’s despotism quickly ruined the country’s economy. Obote came back in 1979, only to be deposed by a military coup and eventually replaced by Yoweri Museveni, who has led unopposed since 1986. And Museveni has helped his country’s downward spiral by getting Uganda involved in Congo’s civil war.

Kenya has not fared any better. For 40 years it was governed by a single party, the Kenya African National Union, first by Kenyatta (from 1963-1978) and then by Daniel Arap Moi. Moi won many unopposed elections until 2002 when he was prevented from running again due to his age.

It was not only black Africa that suffered through the growing pains that still torment the continent. While the other de-colonization movements were taking hold, a bloody insurgency was fought in Algeria from 1954 to 1962 against a ruthless French military, aided by even more militant French settlers.

Algeria, with major oil production and so close to Europe, was by definition an important country. Ahmed Ben Bella, another one of the emerging international liberation icons, became president of the newly independent country in 1962. Just three years later he was overthrown by the military and Houari Boumedienne, who ran the country for the next 25 years. In 1991, in a precursor of things to come elsewhere, the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) won the elections. The military refused to recognize the FIS, Boumedienne was forced out, and a civil war ensued. Atrocities became commonplace. That civil war left 100,000 people dead.

One of Africa’s worst malignancies, a clear legacy of insensitive colonialism that has led to immeasurable tragedy, is the holdover of colonial boundaries and the unwritten rule that they are to be respected. Tribal and ethnic divisions and historical animosities, cutting across those boundaries, are often far more powerful and indelible, and at times, insidious.

Rwanda, the Sudan, and Nigeria are the most striking and notorious examples but by no means the only ones.

Rwanda was one of the first sub-Saharan countries to gain independence, from Belgium in 1962. Inhabited by Hutu and Tutsi tribes, it was governed by the Hutu until 1990 when the Tutsi invaded the country from Uganda, where many of them live. War ensued and the Rwandan military government launched a widespread persecution of the Tutsi population. In what has been called the Rwanda massacre, in just three months in 1994 from 500,000 to a million Tutsi perished. There were many horrific firsts in the conflict, such as the forced military recruitment of children as young as eight and the routine maiming of entire villages, whose inhabitants had their limbs severed.

The Sudan, technically the first African country to gain independence in 1956 (Ghana was the first sub-Saharan country), never really saw peace, since a civil war straddled its independence. Inhabited by Muslim Arabs in the north and Christian or animist blacks in the south, Sudan has seen continual conflict, displacing at least four million southerners. Draught has compounded the problems, with famine never far behind. Just three years ago, a new rebellion in Darfur brought the full force of the Muslim-dominated military, which committed atrocities comparable to those in Rwanda. Although various “cease-fires” and presumed peace agreements have been signed over the years, the situation is far from settled. To complicate things, Sudan has struck oil recently, making the situation more significant and at the same time more tenuous.

Among the destitute African countries, Nigeria sits in a class by itself in terms of corruption, unrealized potential, and wasted importance. Although it has the largest oil reserves in Africa, it ranks 214 in per capita income.

After winning independence from Britain in 1960, the country survived as a fledgling democracy for about five years. Then from 1966 to 1999 Nigeria was ruled by military governments, interspersed by a civil war (Biafra) and the constant animosity between the Muslim north (dominating the military and the government) and the south. Today, Nigeria has a functioning democracy, but corruption is endemic. Kidnappings, crime, and civil unrest are so rampant that some oil companies explicitly prohibit their employees from having any contact with the locals.

The list above is just partial. We haven’t even mentioned Zimbabwe’s thug-in-chief, Robert Mugabe. We haven’t discussed the wars that split Ethiopia from Eritrea, the lawlessness in Somalia, or the gruesome situations in Sierra Leone and Liberia. It is tragic. But from my vantage point, Africa’s future looks worse than its past.