How Socialism Destroyed Africa

Equating industrialism with colonialism, Africa’s nationalist leaders rejected it and adopted socialism in the 1960s. Foreign companies were nationalized, a string of state-owned enterprises were developed and a variety of state controls on rent, prices, imports and foreign exchange were enforced to record the commanding heights of the economy. Nowhere in Africa was the socialist experiment effective. It was a miserable fiasco in nation after country consisting of Angola (under dos Santos), Benin (under Kerekou), Ethiopia (under Mengistu), Ghana (under Nkrumah), Guinea (under Toure), Mali (under Keita), Mozambique (under Chissano), Tanzania (under Nyerere), and Zambia, among others.

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