On March 6th the African nation of Ghana celebrated 50 years of independence—costing an estimated $20 million, slightly less than the $22.5 million in US food aid that Ghana received last year.

A few days earlier Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe celebrated his birthday in a national celebration—costing his country millions of dollars at a time when its economy lies in ruins after his 27 years of misrule. Inflation is roughly 1,600% per year, the highest in the world. Many Zimbabweans are now starving, something that never happened during the supposedly oppressive years of British colonial rule.

In covering Ghana's celebrations, the BBC failed to convey the irony evident in the enthusiasm for this independence party. The BBC did point out that thousands of Ghanaians returned from overseas to join in the celebrations. Nothing was said about why they were living overseas.

The answer lies in Ghana's troubled post-independence history. Its people's living standards have noticeably declined from what they once enjoyed in the British Colony of the Gold Coast. According to the Anglo-American historian Niall Ferguson, the average Briton was 39 times richer than the average Ghanaian at the time of independence 50 years ago. Today the gap is much wider.

Writing in The Los Angeles Times, March 11th, Mr Ferguson commented that "the economic consequences of independence gave the lie to the old leftist claim that Britain was exploiting its colonies. Between 1960 and today, the gap between Britain and Ghana has more than doubled, so that the average Briton is now 92 times richer than the average Ghanaian" ("Colonialism didn't cause Africa's problems, and aid alone won't fix them").

Mr. Ferguson pointed out that "the [British] Colonial Office at least provided the foundations for economic and political stability: trade, balanced budgets, sound money, the rule of law and non-corrupt administration."

Sadly, these were all ditched by Ghana's first president Kwame Nkrumah, thus setting a precedent for much of Africa. State control of all the means of production (socialism) and dictatorship became the norm, followed by decades of economic chaos and political instability. Throughout the fifty years since independence corruption has been a continual problem.

For the past twenty years Ghana's governments have been trying to rectify some of these mistakes, returning the country to more sensible economic policies. Although some progress has been made, poverty remains a major problem and corruption continues to thrive.

Ghana was the first of Britain's sub-Saharan African colonies to be granted independence. Fifty years later is a good time to reevaluate Britain's African role. Mr. Ferguson's article helps do that by pointing out some of the positive accomplishments that British colonial rule brought to Africa.

His article coincides with celebrations of the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade throughout the British Empire, a decision which led to the total abolition of slavery itself in 1833. This was a major step forward in the history of the world.

The British paved the way for other nations to follow. In fact, they forced other nations to follow. The British Royal Navy was given the authority to stop any ships on the high seas and to free any slaves on board. The British were able to accomplish this because they had naval supremacy at the time.

The Royal Navy patrolled the coast of West Africa for a century, effectively ending the slave trade. British settlement in other parts of Africa also contributed to slavery's decline.

But slavery is back. According to the United Nations it's back in every African nation, including Ghana. Clearly there were positive aspects to colonial rule, even though it has not been politically correct to say so publicly during the last five decades.

But subsequent events are leading many to reconsider some of the fundamental tenets of Western liberalism. The report of thousands of Ghanaians returning from western countries to celebrate their country's independence certainly says a great deal. A great wave of immigration from the Third World to the West's rich First World has taken place since independence, as those new nations failed to deliver on the promises made when they received their "freedom".

Long ago God promised that descendants of the biblical patriarch Abraham, through the children of his great grandson Joseph, would "become a multitude of nations" (Gen 48:19). This was partly fulfilled in the British Empire of which Ghana, as the Gold Coast, was a part. Economic development and political stability were two of the greatest gifts England gave her colonies.