In search of a development philosophy for the fledgling African economies

Nwajiobi, Theophilus Chukwuemelie (2024) In search of a development philosophy for the fledgling African economies. Masters thesis, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

[English] PDF - Accepted Version Available under License - The author retains copyright ownership and moral rights in this thesis. Neither the thesis nor substantial extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author's permission. Download (1MB)

Abstract

The socio-economic underdevelopment which has been the bane of the post-colonial African states has often been attributed to a failure of leadership.¹ The big question, though, is: Why have virtually all African states failed in leadership? While the failure of leadership in Africa can be attributable to many factors, colonialism, in many ramifications, created African states that were designed to fail. To begin with, the clash of cultures between traditional African societies, on the one hand, and the foreign Western ideals, on the other hand, dealt a heavy blow to the Africans. It effectively turned the African into a schizophrenic creature who, as it were, is trapped between ‘the anvil and the hammer,² neither here nor there. He has lost a grip on his traditional values yet can’t get a hold of the foreign ones. This picture of the modern African man shows why he is destined to fail. Moreover, the political structure created by colonialism did not take cognizance of the traditional/cultural peculiarities within the various local communities. The infamous scramble for Africa which started with the Berlin conference of 1884, and the subsequent colonial rule, saw countries created by mapping out land areas, without taking into consideration the varying and often polarized ideologies of the different ethnicities in these new countries. In Nigeria, for instance, there are over 250 ethnic nationalities/cultures/languages all lumped into one country and named so by the colonialists. Most of these constituent groups do not agree on anything. Little wonder that shortly after independence, the country had to break into a bloody civil war that claimed over 3 million lives. This is the story of not just Nigeria, but indeed most of the sub-Saharan African states. These states were plunged into bloody coups and countercoups, genocidal wars, and power tussles in the absence of true nationalism. In the face of these socio-political realities, whither Africa? Colonialism came with a predominantly capitalist system of economic development, and its concomitant democracy, but many traditional African communities were socialist states that didn’t have a centralized government. This thesis attempts to explore some of the reasons why most of the post-colonial African democracies have not fared well, as well as examine some possible alternatives/ solutions to the problem. This is done with a view that the African intellectual elite, more than any other class, should be saddled with this responsibility. This thesis, therefore, discusses politics and economics in sub-Saharan Africa. Although a large part of the essay references Africa in general, since there are similar problems of under-development, the peculiarities of each region however require that the scope be narrowed down to Africa south of the Sahara, where the countries share a lot more in common in terms of history and heritage. The thesis is an attempt at forging a way forward in dealing with the crises of governance in sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, the thesis takes liberal democracy and doctrinaire socialism, the two major competing political theories in the world today, as reference points in this discourse. The reason for this is not only due to the fact that most African states currently practice some form of democracy, but also because the pre-colonial structures in these states had some elements of either or both of these theories. I, therefore, try to figure out how we can build a stronger, more progressive state structure that could lean on, but is not entirely dependent on either/ or both liberal democracy and doctrinaire socialism. The thesis will be divided into three parts. The first part attempts to establish that there is a nexus between development and economics., and to show that most African states are in fact under-developed. The second part discusses why the post-independent African democracies have not thrived, while the third part explores alternatives/ solutions to the problem. ¹ Cf. Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria, 1984. ² In the words of the famous Ghanaian poet, Kofi Awoonor.

Actions (login required)

View Item