The nature of politics in Africa seemed then to be changing and at a very fast pace. At first glance, it looks extremely depressing and bleak. It is difficult to avoid the feeling that Africa is heading for total insolvency- politically, economically and depreciation in terms of human survival. Hundreds of thousands of Africans have been killed in genocidal violence. The list of Africans caught in the web of violence of one sort or the other - to name a few i.e. the Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Congo Brazzaville, Burundi and Somalia attests to this fact.
Some countries are even presently in a state of political and social disintegration.
Some countries have descended into a state of political instability and periodic factional violence whilst in others, the popularly elected governments after defeating other Presidents, have woefully failed to tackle massive economic problems their countries face. Indeed, some of them have gained a notoriety and reputation for autocratic decision-making. This makes depressing reading. This may be interpreted as a failure of African political leaders to grasp the opportunities that presented themselves in the early 1990s and as an indication that somehow, Africa is politically immature and a permanent economic basket-case. With the end of the Cold War and subsequent disappearance of super power rivalry from the African political and security equations, there emerged a belief, now shown to have been over optimistic and perhaps naive, that a major and malign influence had been removed from the continent for good.