Africa’s Developmental Impasse: Some Perspectives and Recommendations

Africa is among the “poorest” regions of the world. The reality is thatAfrica is not poor but rather impoverished. This impoverishment datesback to the dawn of capitalism when slavery was one of the key elementsof capitalism’s “original accumulation”, as demonstrated par Karl Marxin The Capital.Colonial administration replaced slavery as from the 19th Century withthe occupation of Africa by Western powers. This has led to a systematiclooting of its natural resources and the exploitation of its cheap labourwhich served to industrialise Western countries.Thus, slavery and colonisation constituted the main causes of Africa’simpoverishment. With its accession to independence from the 1960s,one may have thought that looting Africa would have come to an endand its development stepped up. It was the contrary that occurredbecause in many countries, foreign domination had been reinforced inconnivance with the new African leaders.The failure of the neo-colonial management of African countries wasillustrated by the external debt crisis which started from the end of the1970s and led to the World Bank and IMF’s intervention. Theseinstitutions forced upon African countries the notoriously sadadjustment programmes which contributed to worsening the crisis intheir economies, taking poverty to an unprecedented level.The international financial crisis that occurred in 2008 illustrated thefailure of market fundamentalism of which adjustment programmes arethe forerunners. This crisis which has shaken the very bases of thecapitalistic system affords African leaders and thinkers the opportunityto break loose of the neoliberal yoke and explore a development paththat is more in tune with Africa. The author underscores that such apath should be non-capitalistic because the heavy toll that Africa haspaid since the birth of capitalism until now is a proof that the capitalisticdevelopment model is bound to fail