A continent molded by ideology and post-colonial battles, Africa has produced influential people. These are the top five African leaders in order of prominence.
September 21, 2023 • By Greg Beyer, BA in History and Linguistics, Diploma in Journalism
Paul Ndema’s The Last Supper, which was published by the African Courier in Germany, features a number of African figures who supported pan-Africanism.
Despite being frequently disregarded in the field of geopolitics, Africa has had a significant impact on global political developments in the 20th century. Africa has served as a testing ground for numerous ideas, some of which have been wildly successful and some of which have failed miserably, since it was a center for colonial and decolonial practice.
Since the end of World War II, it has also served as a battlefield for ideologies, with numerous proxy conflicts fought over the continent as the US and the USSR sought to establish dominance.
Amidst the chaos, African leaders surfaced who would influence their nations, either positively or negatively. These five African presidents of the 20th century are among the most significant.
1. The late Nelson Mandela
FW de Klerk and Nelson Mandela, courtesy of National Geographic Kids
Nelson Mandela, arguably the most well-known African leader of all time, is a symbol of adversity, liberation, harmony, and forgiveness.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was educated at the University College of Fort Hare and the University of Witwatersrand, where he pursued his legal studies. He was born in 1918 in the Transkei region of South Africa. He got involved in resistance to the apartheid practices of the white-minority government of South Africa in the 1940s after joining the African National Congress.
uMkhonto weSizwe, or The Spear of the Nation, was established as a result of Nelson Mandela’s advocacy for the ANC to have an armed wing. He was a defendant rather than an attorney, and he spent time in and out of court. He was given a life sentence after it was shown that he had planned to overthrow the country. uMkhonto weSizwe, or The Spear of the Nation, was established as a result of Nelson Mandela’s advocacy for the ANC to have an armed wing. He was a defendant rather than an attorney, and he spent time in and out of court. He was given a life sentence after it was shown that he had planned to overthrow the country.
Nelson Mandela altered his perspective on life and completed his education via correspondence while he was incarcerated. While he remained dedicated to Black rule in South Africa, he turned pacifist after seeing that apartheid had stripped Black people of their dignity and made Whites become nasty people. Mandela promoted total equality and the abolition of the desire for retaliation.
Apartheid was unsustainable by the late 1980s, and the FW de Klerk-led South African government concluded that granting Black people political authority was the only way to prevent civil war. Nelson Mandela was freed from jail in 1990 on the condition that Black people would not seek retribution. Following the first completely democratic election, Mandela was elected president in 1994. During his presidency from 1994 to 1999, he oversaw reconciliation. Significant attempts were made to unite the various racial groupings and to promote South Africa as a diverse but inclusive nation that protected human rights and freedom for all citizens, regardless of background or color. Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk split the Nobel Prize together.
Nelson Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup, which South Africa hosted, as a platform to inspire all South Africans. When South Africa ultimately emerged victorious in the competition, the country as a whole briefly united. Nelson Mandela, who was 95 years old when he passed away on December 5, 2012, had mostly retired from public life following his presidency.
2. The Nkrumah
Kwame Nkrumah speaks with India’s Jawaharlal Nehru during the Commonwealth Conference, 1960, from Universal Images/Getty, via The Nation. Kwame Nwai Nkrumah was born in 1909, attended school in the United States, and relentlessly fought for the Gold Coast’s independence from Great Britain. Marcus Garvey, a Black American leader, and Marx and Lenin were among his main sources of inspiration.
He went back to the Gold Coast in 1947 and took up the position of secretary of the United Gold Coast Convention. His desire for independence from Britain grew more radical, and he founded the Convention Peoples’ Party to coordinate peaceful demonstrations and large-scale action in support of his demands for instantaneous independence.
After it became apparent that the Convention People’s Party may pose a significant threat to the British, Nkrumah was released from prison. In 1952, Nkrumah was chosen to lead the Gold Coast as prime minister. British Togoland and the Gold Coast united to form Ghana in 1957, the year the nation gained complete independence. It was instantly evident that Kwame Nkrumah would rule in an authoritarian manner when he approved of detention without charge or trial. Nevertheless, he gained a lot of support for his efforts to develop infrastructure.
Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah, via News Central
Nkrumah was elected president of Ghana after the country became a republic in 1960. He ran a relentless campaign, seeing the goal of his endeavors as the creation of a “United States of Africa.” Because he was more concerned with Pan-Africanism than with leading his own nation, disastrous schemes caused Ghana’s economy to collapse. Nevertheless, Ghana became a one-party state and Nkrumah declared himself president for life. With self-serving politicians in charge, the nation descended into corruption, and Nkrumah withdrew from public life following a 1962 assassination attempt. Nkrumah went into exile when the military took control of Ghana in 1966 while he was on a tour to China. He passed away from cancer in 1972.
Due to his anti-colonial views and independence struggle, Kwame Nkrumah gained a great deal of notoriety and popularity. He is now regarded as a significant African leader who championed pan-Africanism throughout the continent.
3. Sankara Thomas
Thomas Sankara is frequently referred to as Africa’s Che Guevara. He was born in 1949 in Upper Volta, which is now part of Burkina Faso. He chose to pursue a military career, against his parents’ wishes for him to become a priest. He experienced populist uprisings, communist ideology, and the horrors of war early in his career while serving as a soldier in Mali. Ankara was a personable individual renowned for his moral rectitude. Despite holding high positions in the government, his political rivals viewed him as dangerous because of these qualities. Sankara was detained by President Ouédraogo, but in 1983 he managed to escape from prison and take office as Burkina Faso’s president. He put into effect a number of effective socialist programs during his brief presidency. By emphasizing equality, education, and ecological preservation, he transformed healthcare and significantly decreased the newborn death rate. He improved access to education and gave women more authority. He planted ten million plants to stop the desert from getting worse. The conservative portion of the nation criticized him despite his enormous success because they disagreed with his progressive policies and anti-imperialist views.
A scheme involving France, the CIA, and former president Blaise Compaoré resulted in the assassination of Thomas Sankara in 1987. Compaoré went on to take over the government and rule until his retirement in 2014, at which point he left the nation. In 2021, Compaoré and his accomplices were tried in absentia by a tribunal, which found Compaoré guilty of murder and sentenced him to life in prison.
One of the greatest African leaders, Thomas Sankara was assassinated at the age of 37, similar to many other revolutionaries.