The Distant Dream of African Development
Conflicting Theories on African Under-development Since Colonialism
Oct 4, 2009
As complex as it is, the debate about the future path to African development has been narrowed down to two major schools of thought. The first - the Internalist school, holds that Africa alone has the responsibility of bailing itself out of its present state of underdevelopment. The Externalist school, as the second group is called, insists that Africa alone cannot attain any level of development because of historical constraints and also because of the power structure of the modern world.
African Underdevelopment in Historical Perspective
Development in every sense of the word hardly fits the African context except when used with reference to the period before Africa established contacts with Europe in the 15th Century. This is the central thesis of Walter Rodney’s book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. After this contact, Africa was deprived of the most important ingredient for development – self esteem, as the people became objects of the obnoxious slave trade.
As the slave trade drained Africa of its talents and manpower, it sowed the seeds of conflict within Africa. This provided yet another justification for colonialism as it was claimed that Africans butchered themselves “left, right and center.” Colonialism was Africa’s greatest nightmare and this period is often the dividing line in the debate between Internalist and Externalist theories of African development.
While the internalists accept that colonialism marked a great turning point for African development, they argue firmly that Africa is supposed to have recovered from this scourge after more than half a century of independence. They insist that Africa can only develop if it shows readiness to arrest corruption, uphold good governance, democracy, respect for the rule of law, property rights and solve its countless internal problems.
The "internalist" theory received a boost from U.S. President Barack Obama when he visited Ghana on July 11, 2009. In his speech in Accra, Obama called on Africans to take responsibility for their development. “Africa’s future is up to Africans,” he said categorically. “Development depends on good governance … that is the change that can unlock Africa’s potential. And that is a responsibility that can be met only by Africans.”
The Externalist Paradigm on African Development
The main thrust of externalist thinking is the tendency to blame outside forces for Africa’s continued underdevelopment. President Obama’s harshest critics within Africa showed their faces when he observed that “the West is not responsible for the destruction of the Zimbabwean economy ….” Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, his sympathizers and a long line of African leaders are on record for blaming the woes of their countries on the West.
The externalist theory of African (under) development feeds highly on the dependency theory which situates the global political and economic order in a “centre” – “periphery” context. It postulates a diametrical relationship between the rich countries of the north and the poor countries of the south. In this relationship, resources flow from the South to enrich the North.
As Africa lags behind the rest of the world in almost every imaginable aspect of development, it is very unlikely that these conflicting schools will find common ground any time soon. While the "internalists" stress on issues of governance and democracy, the "externalists" advocate a very radical approach to African development. In 1964 for example, South American Marxist and revolutionary Che Guevara stressed on the need “… to eliminate completely the exploitation of dependent countries by developed capitalist countries, with all the consequences that this implies.”
Sources:
Akisah-Sarpong, Kofi. “Emerging African Development Thinking,” 2009.
Huffington Post. "Obama Ghana Speech.” 2009
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, 1982.
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