They had very few schools, for instance, and even fewer universities. Like when the Congo achieved independence from Belgium in 1960, there were 16 Congolese college graduates in a nation of 14 million people. Also, in many of these new countries, the traditional elites had been undermined by imperialism. Most Europeans didn't rule their African possessions directly, but rather through the proxies of local rulers. And once Europeans left, those local rulers, the upper classes, were seen as illegitimate collaborators. This meant that a new group of rulers had to rise up to take their place, often with very little experience in governance. I mean, Zimbabwe's long-serving dictator Robert Mugabe was a high school teacher.