Decolonizing Power: the Search for Authentic Leadership in Post-colonial Africa

Stephen Onyango Ouma

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Chapter 5 Decolonizing Power: the Search for Authentic Leadership in Post-colonial Africa

In: Africa Unbound: Decolonial Pathways to Sovereignty and Liberation

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Stephen Onyango Ouma

Stephen Onyango Ouma
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 173–203

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004760967_006

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Abstract

This chapter interrogates the persistence of neo-colonial dynamics within African political systems, arguing that independence did not dismantle the colonial state but reconfigured it under new elites. It traces how administrative hierarchies, centralized authority, and extractive governance models inherited from colonial regimes became the blueprint for post-independence states. These structures fostered authoritarianism, elite capture, and dependency – conditions perpetuated through debt, foreign aid conditionalities, and multinational corporate control. Drawing on neo-colonial theory, world-systems analysis, and critical development studies, the chapter shows how the global economic order continues to constrain African autonomy. The influence of IMF/World Bank programs, particularly through Structural Adjustment Policies (SAPs), entrenched neoliberal models that eroded public trust, weakened state capacity, and subordinated African priorities to global capital. The chapter contrasts these realities with the transformative visions of Kwame Nkrumah, Thomas Sankara, Julius Nyerere, and Mahmood Mamdani, whose philosophies of participatory governance and Pan-African solidarity offer enduring alternatives to imported models of statecraft. Yet, amid this enduring legacy of domination, the chapter identifies emerging movements of renewal. Grassroots networks, feminist collectives, and Pan-African regional initiatives – such as the AfCFTA – are redefining leadership around principles of accountability, inclusion, and social justice. These movements embody the call for a decolonized governance paradigm, one rooted in African ethical traditions such as ubuntu and ujamaa, where leadership is understood as service rather than control. The chapter concludes that authentic liberation requires transforming both the structures and the spirit of leadership – building institutions that reflect Africa’s cultural values, historical experiences, and aspirations for collective sovereignty.

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Africa Unbound: Decolonial Pathways to Sovereignty and Liberation

Series: Africana Philosophy, Volume: 4

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004760967

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 10 Feb 2026

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Chapter 5 Decolonizing Power: the Search for Authentic Leadership in Post-colonial Africa

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Africa Unbound: Decolonial Pathways to Sovereignty and Liberation

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