Muammar Gaddafi ruled Libya from 1977 until 2011. The list goes on, but I don't want to give you the wrong impression about Africa. Because while the continent does have less freedom and lower levels of development than other regions in the world, many African nations show strong and consistent signs of growth despite the challenges of decolonization. Botswana, for instance, has gone from 70% literacy to 85% in the past 15 years and has seen steady GDP growth over 5%. Benin's economy has grown in each of the past 12 years, which is better than Europe or the US can say. In 2002, Kenya's life expectancy was 47. Today, it's 63.