The transition from colonialism to independence brought with it war and unrest for many African states. Trapped within borders devised by colonial powers, people all across the continent found themselves caught up in conflicts prompted by ethnic and regional differences.
The struggle for supremacy of one group over another engendered violence in which terrible atrocities and human rights abuses were committed. Some countries, Sudan and Angola for example, have yet to emerge from the chaos which came in the aftermath of independence.
However, the ending of the Cold War, during which the great powers competed to prop up despotic clients, has brought improvements. So too has the desire of African rulers to benefit from international aid which is no longer given unconditionally.
No longer can ruthless regimes expect to oppress their peoples and escape censure by donor nations. Though unscrupulous leaders are still plentiful, the era of tyrannical dictators - Idi Amin in Uganda, Jean Bedel Bokassa in the Central African Republic, Haile Mariam Mengistu in Ethiopia and Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire - would seem to have passed.
Nonetheless, it would be well to remember that current human rights reforms in Nigeria (the release of political prisoners and the promised repeal of draconian legislation) were secured not so much by international pressure as by the unexpected death in June of General Sani Abacha. The execution of writer Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow minority rights activists in 1995 was an act which outraged the world.
Perhaps the greatest victory over institutionalised human rights abuse in sub-Saharan Africa has been the defeat of the policy of apartheid in South Africa. The replacement of this country's supremacist regime by a multi-ethnic, democratic government has given hope - if not always economic security - to millions of people formerly oppressed because of their colour. And President Nelson Mandela has emerged as the single greatest champion of justice on the continent.
Gross abuses of human rights, however, are still widespread. As Amnesty International remarked in its latest report: "Ongoing armed conflicts and further social and political unrest (continue to lead to) appalling human rights violations in Africa".
Amnesty singles out the former Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and the Great Lakes region (which includes Rwanda, Burundi and the eastern part of the DRC).
The refusal by president Laurent Kabila to allow human rights investigators pursue their work in the DRC following the overthrow of the Mobutu regime was a setback for the United Nations which could do little but protest.
The greatest defeat for human rights in Africa during the past 50 years has undoubtedly been the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. This saw the slaughter of more than half a million people, mostly minority Tutsis, by extremists from the Hutu majority.
The genocide also marked a defeat for human rights activism in Africa because the killings occurred despite intelligence warnings about a possible catastrophe. The exodus of a well-armed UN force from Rwanda at the outbreak of the massacres and the subsequent reluctance of the international community to intervene illustrated how powerless the world is to ensure that human rights are respected.
But, as Claude Welch of the Department of Political Science at the University of New York wrote in a letter to The Times Literary Supplement last year: "The overwhelming majority of human-rights abuses in Africa are far less dramatic than mass slaughter. These abuses include prisoners being detained for years without trial, young women physically scarred by harmful traditional practices or children weakened by lack of immunizations".
To this list he could have added widespread lack of access to education, land, food, water, shelter and security. And corruption, a violation of people's economic rights, continues to be widespread. Poverty is to blame for widespread injustice in Africa.
But ultimately, it is the style of leadership, which tends to vest unlimited power in strong individuals or groups, that is at the heart of the continent's human rights predicament. In the words of one Kenyan human rights campaigner: "African leaders still have the mentality of the village".
The dispensation of favours cannot compensate for a lack of respected human rights and constitutionally enshrined values.