Selected Readings - The Roots of Africa's Leadership Deficit
Robert I. Rotberg
Robert Mugabe’s misrule in Zimbabwe is a particularly grotesque chapter of an old, old story: after a promising start, an African leader descends into brutal tyranny. Why do so many African leaders go so terribly wrong? And will a new generation of African follow Mandela’s model instead?
In this short article, Robert I. Rotberg (Harvard University) examines the disparity between Africa's many poorly led nation-states, and the one that were consistently led well. Where do these differences come from? Are they particularly African? Are they a product of colonial misrule? Do they reflect a common problem of transition from dependency to independence? Do they emanate from deep-rooted poverty and a lack of economic growth? Is sub-Saharan Africa’s lamentable leadership record, in other words, attributable to exogenous variables beyond its control, or does Africa respond less favorably to a leadership challenge of the same order as every other region’s?
