Article A – Underdevelopment and Dependence in
Black Africa – Samir Amin
Article B – African International Political
Economy – W. Ofuatey-Kodjoe
Underdevelopment and Dependence
in Black Africa by Samir Amin discusses the different perceptions of Africa
and the effects of colonialism on its history. According to Amin within Africa
lie two extremes of unity and division which have fostered the three
macro-regions: the Africa of the colonial economy which includes most of West
Africa, the Africa of the Concession-owing companies which is the area
surrounding the Congo River Basin, and Africa of the labor reserves which
consists of most of eastern and southern Africa. There are four historical
periods of Africa that shaped Amin’s division of Africa into the three
macro-regions: the pre-mercantilist period, the mercantilist period, the period
from 1800 until 1890 of African production, and the time of colonization.
Amin uses many different historical references
to create a cause and effect scenario for the current underdevelopment and
dependence that pervades black Africa. For instance the European colonization
of the coasts of Africa was an effect of the shift of “the centre of gravity of
trade in Africa, from the Savannah hinterland to the coast, (which) was a
direct consequence of the change of centre of gravity in Europe, from the
Mediterranean to the Atlantic.” In all three regions the dependence of Africa
became firmly established as each historical period passed with the outsourcing
of its peoples and goods to Europe and the Western colonies with “a very low
and stagnating return on labor.” Amin’s conclusion was that a “necessary
corollary of the “wealth” of the coast was the impoverishment of the
hinterland” can also be used to say that the prosperity of Europe from the 17th
century onwards depended on the degradation of Africa.
African International Political Economy by W.
Ofuatey-Kodjoe studies the underdevelopment and economic policies of Africa in
a post colonial period through the lenses of international relations. According
to Ofuatey-Kodjoe there are three paradigms which can explain the current
development of Africa: orthodox, Marxist and dependency. Orthodox or
‘modernization’ is the paradigm which focuses on the belief that
underdevelopment eventually has two future end goals – that of a successful
society or continued poverty. The Marxist paradigm is the belief that Africa is
perpetually in the stage that preceded capitalism. “According to this paradigm
the failure to form a capitalist class in Africa is due to the monopoly of
wealth and power which is concentrated in the political and social elite. The
dependency paradigm is the belief that as long as Africa and Latin America
remain “exporters of raw materials and importers of manufactured goods” they
shall continue to be dependent on the first world countries as the capitalist
leaders of society.
The major conflict of all three paradigms is
between the bourgeoisie minority and the proletariat majority. The bourgeoisie
cling to their power and wealth determinedly and do not advocate social and
progressive change because of their fear of losing social class. This social
conflict between the capitalist bourgeoisie class and lower working class is
also evident in Amin’s discourse on the rich coastal trading areas and the
backward hinterland. Colonial trade due to its focus on settlement in the
coastal areas and drainage of people and resources within the hinterland
necessarily gave rise to a “polarization of dependent peripheral development”.
This peripheral development has continued in modern times in the form of social
class strife. The bourgeoisie have come to accept ‘economic subordination’ of
inferior classes and as a result “African governments remain in a perpetual
crisis of legitimacy.”
Amin takes the discourse further in his belief
that Africa is underdeveloped not only due to social strife but also as an
effect of inter-African conflicts. He contends that with the interruption of
African social imperialism in the pre-mercantilism period “increased
fragmentation, isolation and tangling up took place which, as we know, are at
the root of one of the most serious handicaps of contemporary Africa.” It is W.
Ofuatey-Kodjoe’s belief that aside from social strife one of the greatest
problems of contemporary Africa is that social scientists focus solely on why
Africa is underdeveloped instead of creating a theory of development. “This
means that the present generation of African dependency theorists must reproduce
themselves, or, more precisely, they must produce a new generation of thinkers
who will continue the search for theory.”
My concern with W. Ofuatey-Kodkjoe’s paper was
his blunt denial of his ability to even attempt to formulate a theory of
development for Africa – leaving it to other scholars to figure this dilemma
out. In the 21st century it is precisely this problem which plagues African
nations – the lack of responsibility taken up by individual’s towards the
problems of the continent. In Samir Amin’s division of Africa into three
macro-regions according to the plurality of the black race he automatically
excludes all of North Africa except for Chad and the Sudan. The nations of
North Africa, including Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria were key players in
African colonial politics, African-European immigration and the exportation of
goods. Therefore if we leave ideological differences aside such as religion and
race then they contribute a major part to the history of Africa through the
colonial period. As aptly noted by Amin – Africans can be both black and Muslim
so the exclusion of Northern Africa because of its history of Arab rule is
contentious.
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