This is a mega-galactic question that hundreds of scholars, historians, political scientists, ethno-anthropologists, both Euro-American and African, tried to answer, even before the independence of African states, in the early 1960s. As, I presume, you have already seen on the shelves of the Library of your Department, so you are spoiled for choice... Among other things, in 1976 I was Associate Researcher at the Institute of African Studies of the University of Nairobi and, therefore, at least in those days, I knew the commitment of Kenyan teachers and students in this field. I don't know if things have more or less changed since then, for the better (or for the worse…). Yours is however a very complex question, which would require multiple and elaborate answers. So much so that it takes a lot of time and space, writing another book (sic). The input that, as a former Africanist, I feel able to give you is that, in general, the colonial powers, in order to achieve their goals, even after their exit from the continent, have often privileged, not so much unconsciously, certain ethnic groups and their elites, compared to all the others. Ethnic groups that could serve as ram's heads, in order to achieve their goals, above all economic and exploitation, in decolonized Africa.

This is a complex issue former colonies are entangling with. Any way,Africans have decolonized long a go. But the post colonial behavior shows colonialism has lingered on in different form now. It has left its imprints in different institutions then put in place by former colonial administrators. In some the colonial masters' language remained influential. In others such as French former colonies the currency system is another feature. The political system that former colonies experience these days is a copy or seem to be copy from their former masters. They are dictatorship in western democratic lipsticks. Former colonial powers pitting one group against the other in a kind of underworld approach has complicated political situations such in sub-Saharan Africa. Remember what is behind coups by military and counter coups...