Why do African countries have more dictators and are prone to tribe-like war?

Question

At one point in time, every country was ruled by oppressive regimes who didn't listen to the masses, but slowly people were able to influence gov'ts and provide checks and balances- how?One guess is that in the old days it was easier to revolt against a gov't since there wasn't as large of a discrepency between military technology from the masses to the gov't.
Do warlords just keep toppling because of their own heavy-handedness until they start listening to the people- and that is the one that stays (like a kind of political evolution)?

Answer 1

Most African countries are still in early stages of development. It was not until recently that most of them came out from under colonial rule of European countries. In European countries it has taken over 1000 years to get to the point they are today. Until very recently there was a lot of conflict, regime changes and anarchy in Europe. We cannot expect these countries to suddenly become functioning western democracy's over night. When the colonial powers left Africa in the mid 20th century it had the same effect as when Rome disintegrated and left a power vacuum in Europe. We can only hope that with education and support from more advanced countries this process will not take so long in Africa.

Answer 2

Africa has so many nations. When just one becomes unstable the continent as a whole suffers. When the colonial powers (France, and England) left Africa after World War Two the whole continent seemed to be up for grabs. SO leaders of militia and other religious figures stepped in to fill the leadership void. But since they had no government infrastructure in place (like the colonial powers had) there was little to no accountability.

Plus to make matter worse during the cold war both America and the Soviet Union flooded these nations with money as to win favor with the leaders. But we the cold war ended so did a lot of the money. Since then there has been more unrest than ever before.

Leadership is needed to fix it. But as the saying goes, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.