The Kleptocrat and the Statesman
As I hinted in my last post, the rape of the Belgian Congo would sadly continue after independence, under the rule of the rather colorful Mobutu Sese Seko. The country would be renamed Zaire after independence.
Mobutu’s greed knew no bounds. He built himself a magnificent palace in his village that cost about $100 million at the time. The village also housed an airport that was capable of handling supersonic Concorde jets, which he frequently leased from Air France. He would order the seizure of about 2,000 foreign enterprises without compensation, in what was ostensibly a nationalization program. The seized assets were typically handed out to himself, friends and family. He treated the Central Bank like his personal account, funneling huge sums abroad to buy luxury houses, office blocks and grand estates in Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and other countries. Zaire would experience almost unbroken economic decline from 1965, till when he was ousted in 1997 by Laurent Kabila. He would die months after from cancer. Kabila himself would be murdered in the aftermath as Zaire, now Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) descended into chaos, with a number of African countries in the region trying to exploit the situation. For an almost unbroken period of at least 500 years, the vast majority of the people of the Congo have been miserably poor because of the extractive political and economic institutions they have had to live under.
On a much brighter note, we now move on to the life of Seretse Khama. He was the first Prime Minister of independent Botswana. During the period of the African independence movements of the 1960s and 70s, Seretse Khama was a singularly exceptional man. He was uninterested in amassing personal wealth and much more interested in adapting Botswana’s institutions to the modern world. Interestingly, this work of modernization did not start with him. It started in the 19th century with his grandfather, King Khama, who was a chieftain in what was then known as Bechuanaland. King Khama played a key role in the setting up of political institutions known as the Kgotla, which constrained the power of the chiefs like himself and also introduced some measure of accountability of the chiefs to the people. Incredibly, these institutions survived unscathed during the colonial period but this was partly due to the fact that the British, relatively speaking, never took more than a marginal interest in Botswana compared to other places in Africa that they were active in. Had they sensed that Botswana had vast diamond deposits, perhaps this might have been different. The diamond magnate Cecil Rhodes based in what would become South Africa, must have sensed this, for he planned to move aggressively on Botswana. The territories of northern and southern Rhodesia were already named after him. They became Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively. The famous Rhodes scholarship was also set up in his name. King Khama and two other chieftains managed to outsmart Rhodes by getting Britain to take greater control of Bechuanaland. Greater control by Britain still left them with significant autonomy. Under Rhodes, they would have had none. The diamonds would eventually be discovered after independence.
Seretse Khama and the other Botswana elite made sure that the diamond discovery was used to fund public services and education (like I said in my last post). So even in Botswana, getting ahead is still a function of how seriously you take education. The result of this is that today, Botswana has one of the highest GDP per capita in Africa, if not the highest. It is comparable in wealth terms to successful eastern European countries like Estonia and Hungary and to Latin American ones like Brazil. It is significantly less corrupt than South Korea, but South Korea’s dominance in scientific and technological development ensures that it has a much higher GDP per capita. From the inception of independence, it has been democratic, holds regular and competitive elections, and has never experienced civil war or military intervention.
At this point, I would like to discuss how inclusive institutions were developed in other parts of the world. We shall specifically be looking at Britain (more accurately, England), the United States and Japan.
England’s journey towards inclusive institutions spans several centuries, with each wave successively reducing the arbitrary powers of the monarchy and opening up political power to ever wider segments of society. The first major milestone was laid in the early 13th century during the reign of King John (King John looms large in the world of entertainment. Shakespeare wrote a play about him and he often appears in Robin Hood stories and movies as a villain). At the time, the English monarchy had completely unrestrained power. The English barons who constituted the elite at the time, were fed up with this, so they drafted a document that became known as the Magna Carta (Somewhat similar to Botswana’s Kgotla). In it, were some stipulations that acted as a measure of restraint (far from complete though), on the King’s arbitrary power. It is considered the beginning of the emergence of the rule of law in England. Unsurprisingly, King John didn’t like it and tried to get the Pope to annul it, but the influence of the Magna Carta remained. England had begun the march towards inclusive institutions.
The power of the monarchy was further constrained by the first elected Parliament in 1265. Despite consisting of elites, a significant portion of it consisted of men who represented broad segments in society; in commerce and industry for instance, that didn’t have close ties with the King. These men would consistently oppose the monarchy’s attempts to increase its powers.
In 1381, another pivotal event occurred. This was known as the Peasants’ Revolt, which as the name suggests, saw the further redistribution of power, not just from King to the elites but to the masses.
England’s political reform was not a smooth process. From time to time, a new King would arise who would try to push back the reforms. This back and forth would eventually culminate in civil war in 1642, between the monarchy and parliament. Some members of parliament would fight on the side of the monarchy. The war would last till 1651. The struggle over institutions would continue even after the hostilities had ceased. This would lead to the second civil war in 1688. This time, parliament would be more united and better organized. They not only won but also changed the nature of the monarchy to one bound by a new constitution designed largely by them. This event in English history is referred to as the Glorious Revolution. It played a decisive role in further opening up political and economic access to broader segments of society.
After 1688, parliamentarians started making a series of key changes in economic institutions and government policy that would ultimately pave the way for the Industrial Revolution. Parliament began a process of reform in economic institutions to promote manufacturing, rather than taxing and impeding it. It would also embark on financial reform, creating the Bank of England in 1694, as a source of funds for industry. England would embark on the world’s first Industrial Revolution in 1760, jumpstarting the mass prosperity era for English society.
In the final post on this subject, we will look at the rise of inclusive institutions in North America and Japan.
BEFORE YOU GO: Please share this post with as many people as possible and check out my book Why Africa is not rich like America and Europe on Amazon.
Bibliography
Acemoglu, Daron et al. 2012 Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity and Poverty. London: Profile Books Ltd
Meredith, Martin. 2014 The Fortunes of Africa: A 5,000-year History of Wealth, Greed and Endeavour. New York: Public Affairs
