Freedom and Development

In 2012, the Freedom House indicated that only 18% of African countries are considered free. Despite some progress in the 1980’s Africa’s progress towards a democratic and free society has been largely hampered. The most important problem remains lack of strong political will on the part of African governments to commit to progress and democratization. Several of these governments would try to convince you that democracy and freedom is not a priority, at least not for Africans. Others would tell you that they are having elections every four or five years and thus have become democratic states. Still, others assert dictatorship or as they call it “the developmental state” is proven to be much more successful in advancing economic growth and prosperity, often citing China as a case in point to justify their argument. Though archaic in its own right, the last argument also rests on the character of the government.

Unfortunately for these African dictators, almost all the developed countries of the world experienced a well-structured, sustained and often irrefutably spectacular progress in all aspects of society not using "the Chinese model". While the socio-economic and political repercussions of the Chinese model of development is yet to be revealed, it’s no justification to restrain free thinking and free expression, which by themselves are engines of creativity and positive dynamism in any society.