Africa's underdevelopment

Recently, I was going through an article on the development and underdevelopment of Africa and some brief notes on how Europe underdeveloped Africa. I saw the view of many scholars like Walter Rodney, Andre Gunder Frank, Clark Ake and many more who were of the opinion that Africa’s predicament came into the lime light after its encounter with the colonial masters – with the introduction of taxation, monetary system, railway transportation and many more. Of a truth, it is only realistic to agree with the “theory of modernization” by W.Rostow who maintains a position against the views of Walter Rodney, Clark Ake and Andre Gunder Frank. He said that Africa was the architect of its misfortune because she failed to move with the waves of development which involves the following stages; *traditional stage, *pre-condition for take-off, *take-off stage, *maturity stage and the modernization stage. Stanley, who supported the view of Rostow also added that most African countries attained political independence for close to six decades now and countries like Ethiopia and Liberia who were not colonised are still on the same level with other African countries – wallowing in abject poverty and underdevelopment. He claimed that Africa’s problem is with its leadership characterised by corruption, violence, etc.

My analysis begins from this point, and referring to the above claim of the stages of the waves of development, Africa was practically in its traditional stage when the colonial masters came and forcefully pushed them to the modernization stage at the expense of their survival. The after effects of colonialism still rubs on African countries and for many years they’ve have found it rather impossible to recover. I’ve been thinking of just the perfect example to paint the picture and idea in my head and I came up with this not so good instance; when a young child is learning how to walk and then an adult comes and just pulls the child by the hand and forces the child to work, at that point the child is able to walk with the support of the adult although the child is in pains of over stressing its tender legs. When the adult leaves the child, obviously the child will fall and in an attempt to keep moving(crawling), the child finds it difficult firstly because the child is in pains and secondly because the child is confused either to go back to crawling or continue walking in order to catch up with the adult…

On a more defined term, after the exodus of colonialism, African countries were caught in the middle of the waves of modernization and they had already missed some of the stages as stated by Rostow. At this point, it is only realistic to admit the fact that restoration is almost impossible. During colonialism, those Africans who were privileged to work with the colonial masters where corrupt as they should because they were practically involved in the misdeeds of the colonial master during their regime, like the transfer of funds to their personal pockets and payment of starvation wages. Back to my very abstract example, the child who in the course of his walk with the adult must have observed some moves or skills in the way the adult walked and may try to imitate the adult just to meet up with the adult who has now abandoned him/her, and don’t forget that the child’s leg at the point is close to useless and so all his/her efforts, labour and hard work may end in futility

I’m strongly of the opinionthat the colonial masters are the fore regenerating causes of Africa’s underdevelopment. Regenerating in the sense that now that we’re having difficulties in developing we look to them for help and all the do although in veiled approaches is to exploit us. Ever imagined trying to heal a wound by applying antibiotics unknown to you that it is a very dangerous chemical that no only freshens the wound but also makes it work. Africa they say needs to go back to its way of life before colonialism and begin the process of development over again – from the start, the very beginning. But after we have had a taste of modernization, how possible is it to go back to the traditional way of life. IT’s very impossible for us to return to life without the internet, hospitals and drugs, use of money in exchange for goods and services to trade by barter and the likes. At this point, I think the child should have a deep thought about how he wishes to move on. Either to crawl and trace the adult’s footsteps and formulate ways on how to meet up in his/her capability, strength, will and resources or whether to keep making vain efforts to fill the exact marks left by the adult. African countries need to device a mean on how refine and redefine their predicaments which I believe is a 100% possible, because I believe in the phrase ‘a beautiful disaster’.