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may include but not limited to customs, traditions, folklore, music, the day to

day life of a people, the family groups, social and political organisation, how

they approach productive endeavours and how they react to various

experiences of life.

According to Anyanwu (1983:21), human beings are a product of culture

in the sense that it is culture that made people what they are. Culture, he

further says, cannot be separated from human experience, and it is this

experience that produces it. It can also be considered as a common living

experience shared by the people. All forms of experience, whether personal,

impersonal, scientific, religious, political or economic, shared by a people

form the basis of culture.

Anyiam-Osigwe (2005:30), in his understanding of culture, asserts that

it establishes the rules of conduct in society, defines the moral institutions of

society and also provides the framework for their preservation and

sustainability as sacrosanct aspects of society. However, it is important to

note that culture is never static but always dynamic because man changes

with his experiences in life and it is by being dynamic that culture is able to

satisfy human needs especially as these arise within the context of their

social relations. This way, it is also able to modify or jettison those elements

that have become anachronistic.

Aluko (2000:41-43) identifies some of the functions of culture that are

germane to our discussion. First is that culture is the basis of the identity of

a people since it is about their values. It is also the means by which they

communicate both with themselves and with others. It is also a basis upon

which a people can be evaluated and judged. Second, culture determines

the social and political arrangements of a people. Thus, issues pertaining to

human rights and justice as well as how the political system of a people is

ordered can be discussed within the framework of culture. Third, and very

importantly, culture defines and gives shape to the system of production and

consumption of a people. For example, the capitalist system of production

has evolved from a Western culture.

When culture performs the above functions, it makes the experiences

of life more meaningful and can also enhance the economic development of

a people. The dynamism of culture can lead to development in all spheres

of life: economic, social, educational and political.

7

Ebun O. Oduwole

Anyiam-Osigwe on Culture and Economic

Development in Africa

Introduction

There is no doubt that Africa today is faced with a lot of problems bordering

on social and political instability, human rights abuses and economic

underdevelopment. These problems are begging for urgent solutions and it

is in an attempt to resolve the problem of economic underdevelopment in

Africa that Anyiam-Osigwe identified the traditional African culture as

offering viable solutions. He construes the problem of Africa’s economic

underdevelopment as largely culture based. This paper identifies the principal

aspects of African culture which Anyiam-Osigwe sees as essential for the

attainment of economic development and an all round development in Africa.

He argues that the rich aspects of our culture which include the extended

family system, communal living and the traditional role of women in the

family and society are major factors that would enhance economic

development in Africa. However, to fully understand how precisely African

culture can help in achieving economic development in Africa, the paper starts

with an examination of the notions of culture and economic development.

What is Culture?

The word “culture” has many definitions and meanings. Construed in a

narrow sense, Thompson (1991:4) affirms that culture is “the way of life of

a given society or the universe of values and artifacts in which a given

people live or standardized and expressed behaviour within the framework

of a given system of social organization”. This definition points to the fact

that culture is about people, their values and the way they relate to their

environment and with one another in society. In its broadest term, culture

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Contemporary Africa is grossly underdeveloped when compared with

some countries hitherto referred to as third world countries. These include

Japan, China, Brazil and India. They have all recorded an impressive reduction

in the rate of poverty and social degradation. Sadly, however, the African

condition as noted in the ninth session of Osigwe’s Lecture series (2007:2-

3) is such that its contribution to the global Gross Domestic Product is said

to account for less than two per cent and its contribution to world trade has

declined from four percent to less than two percent. Most countries in

Africa are import dependent consumerist economy, hence, they have had

to devalue their currencies. In fact, most African countries have become

dumping grounds for foreign products. One wonders why Africans, in spite

of their being hardworking, intelligent, strong and even innovative, still live

in abject poverty. Why, in spite of all the mental and physical resources in

African, we still lag behind in development? What could be the cause or

causes and how can we tackle underdevelopment in Africa? The missing

link definitely is not just the lack of credit, nor markets, nor access to

technology, nor lack of skills, nor lack of managerial discipline or human

resources. What then is this missing link? This question shall be addressed

in the subsequent sub-sections.

The Effect of Colonialism on Africa’s Economic Development

In Emmanuel Onyechere Osigwe Anyiam-Osigwe’s view, there is an

intricate connection between culture and economic development. He says

that the crisis of Africa’s underdevelopment is culture based and culture

driven (2005:37). A major factor that led to the economic underdevelopment

of Africa is colonialism. The impact of colonization on African culture has

affected the mindset of the African in that the mind of the African has been

colonized.

According to Anyiam-Osigwe, the subversion and destruction of our

culture and the imposition of counter–cultures on African culture, to a large

extent, accounts for the chronic political and socio-economic failures and

absence of industrial and technological advancement (2006:15). If the crisis

of development is culture based then culture will be in the best position to

solve the crisis.

What is Economic Development?

Development can be classified into the physical, technological or scientific,

moral, economic and social dimensions. However, our focus is on the

economic dimension of development. By economic development, we may

mean an increase in the standard of living of a nation’s population with

sustained growth from a simple, low-income economy to a modern, high-

income economy. It has to do with a change in the way goods and services

are produced, not merely an increase in the level of production achieved

using the old methods of production on a wider scale. Its scope includes the

process and policies by which a nation improves the economy. Economic

development does not necessarily mean economic growth. While economic

growth implies only an increase in quantitative output; it may or may not

involve development. Economic growth is often measured by the rate of

change of gross domestic product (GDP), which is the aggregate value-

added by the economic activity within a country’s borders.

Economic development takes place when economic growth yields

positive results in the lives of people in society. It is not merely about the

modernisation of a society from a peasant to industrial one but more about

how the standard of life of members of society is affected for the better.

Indicators of economic development include improvements in literacy rates

and life expectancy, and a reduction in poverty rates. Thus, a country’s

economic development is related to its human development, which

encompasses, among other things improved access to good health services,

qualitative education, decrease in poverty rates, increased leisure time and

social justice. Anyiam-Osigwe emphasizes the human factor as the primary

constituent to all developmental initiatives. The human factor involves the

moral element which can be expressed as the ability to moderate the

propensity to pursue self-serving goals at the expense of the common goal.

According to Anyiam-Osigwe, for a community to record economic

development its members must excel in fundamental human values such as

honesty, integrity, honour and propriety in all their conducts. It is in this

regard that Anyiam-Osigwe opines that moral development is a prerequisite

for economic development.

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According to Osigwe Anyiam Osigwe :

the destruction of the African metaphysical worldview,

carefully crafted and delivered through a Euro-western

curriculum forms, appropriately eroded the cultural

perspective and the moral premise of the society, leaving the

people in a limbo of ambiguous identity (2007:20).

Thus, with the dominance of Western hegemony assisted by Western

education, Africans began to hear their own history from strangers. A situation

that marked the beginning of the loss of African identity and incoherence in

the African man’s perception of himself.

The first thing to do, then, is for Africans to discover their authentic

history because it is a roadmap to their genuine identity. Africans must

strive to give authenticity to our lives by living the life that is genuinely our

own; integrating our cultural values, historical values and sociological

perspectives in their proper and concrete forms (2008:4). Authentic history

and genuine identity will make Africans contribute to global issues in all

areas of development.

A lot of scholars (Anke Graneb:1997, Wiredu:1992) have argued in line

with Osigwe’s view on the negative impact of colonialism on Africa’s identity

and self-definition. They agree with Osigwe that colonialism had a negative

effect on our identity.

Wiredu, for instance, posited that: “What is required of authentic identity

is that belief, decision or choice should be based on one’s own conscious

reflection” (1992:70). In other words, to maintain self identity is not to remain

the same as ancestral times but to make a conscious and deliberate attempt

at change especially by looking at that which is good in our traditional cultures

and borrowing what is good from other cultures too. Although this kind of

change, which would amount to a decolonization of the mind, may not be

easy given the fact that the minds of most Africans have been deeply

colonized, the fact remains that it is still possible.

Leadership and Culture

Another factor identified by Anyiam-Osigwe as responsible for

economic underdevelopment in Africa is corruption. This, to a large extent,

Anyiam-Osigwe says overcoming the challenges to Africa’s development then is:

dependent on imbuing the individual with the appropriate

mindset: a mindset that would elevate him beyond the

subjective limitations of the encumbrances of colonial

incursion, to perceiving and exploring the new opportunities

that the process of colonization, decolonization and

globalization offer (2005:41).

This, in essence, is the major key to Africa’s development. From the

above, we can say that colonisation is the greatest challenge to development.

In the first instance colonisation limited the African man and led to the crisis

of identity. What do we mean by this?

The Crisis of Identity

Anyiam-Osigwe acknowledges that Africa is very rich in resources, culture

and history. Colonization, however, imposed a pseudo-foreign culture that

brought about an hybrid Euro-African culture as a replacement for a

systematized and coordinated indigenous cultural perspective of pristine

African societies.

According to Anyiam-Osigwe:

The colonial adventurers fundamentally malformed Africa’s

spiritual, cultural, socio-political and economic tapestry; and,

in that process, left behind fragmented, distorted or decimated

cultural patterns in Africa ( 2005:30).

Colonization left Africans with a perverted mindset .The process of

amalgamation in which the bases of grouping people together were neither

natural boundaries, nor historical origins, nor compatibility, made African

development worse. The amalgamation did not give adequate consideration

to the question of African development. Rather, the primary focus was on

the economic and political intention and aggrandizement of the colonizers.

This, no doubt, led to a loss of identity and apparently a loss of culture on the

side of Africans. Colonialism led to the crisis of identity and we no longer

live a life of our own.

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of this on majority of Africans is an attitude of helplessness. Africans became

lazy, objects of welfare by donor countries that are quick to extract far

more valuable obligations from Africans in return. Sadly, it is this attitude of

laziness, on the part of Africans, that restricts them from tapping and making

use of their potentials and abilities to the fullest.

Osigwe advocates that local knowledge must be employed in resolving

African economic problems. He draws attention to the failure of imported

solutions that are Euro-centric and the occidental economic recovery policies

that are, for all intents and purposes , lacking in an African perspective that

is requisite for addressing Africa’s underdevelopment (2004:39-40). Anyiam-

Osigwe will not favour economic moves such as The Baker Plan, The

Brandy Plan, and HIPC initiatives. Rather the NEPAD (New Partnership

for Africa’s Development) is more of a wholly African initiative for

development in Africa. He affirms that as Africans are blessed with all

material, human, physical and natural resources, all we need do is tap into

them for our economic development.

On the issue of corruption, a lot has been done and a lot still needs to be

done. The Economic Finance and Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Nigeria,

for example, is making some progress. However, there is need to do more.

Oyeshile rightly noted that government should ensure democratisation, give

people their rights as at when due, put measures in place to alleviate poverty,

provide security, allow citizens to know the limits of government, promote

rule of law and engage in human welfare programmes, and education

(2002:59). Although a critic may say that these suggestions are good but

appears Utopian given that, as Osigwe rightly noted, corruption is not only

limited to the leaders but also deeply rooted among the followership. The

question is: where do we start the reform from? From the leadership or the

followership?

The Community, Self and Economic Development

The African man because of colonialism acquired a new way of explaining

and interpreting existence. This new view places the self or individual above

the community and emphasizes the materialistic aspect of life as fundamental.

The Western culture moves from the individual to society whereas the African

hinders economic growth. In Anyiam-Osigwe’s view (2007:20), the African

society was largely without the disposition to corruption while crime was

rare and devotion to community was total. A part of African culture

emphasizes a metaphysics that strengthened the basis of religion and morals.

A metaphysics that provided the community with the ideal of an unblemished

existence and proffered the unseen hand of Supreme God, albeit through a

pantheon of deities, by which members willingly surrender themselves to

the sovereignty of the community .

Modern African states according to Anyiam-Osigwe became bedeviled

by the crises of corruption, dereliction of duty, dishonesty and illegitimate

accumulation of wealth through abuse of office. Corruption is seen as one

of the tools employed by the colonialists to subdue the African culture. It

can be described as a counter-culture which the colonial masters sponsored,

canvassed and enthroned in Africa (2005:33). The intrusion of corruption in

the African mindset, no doubt, breeds several negative elements that impair

African development. According to Anyiam-Osigwe:

The lack of honesty and probity in the management of public

affairs and assets, the disposition to unlawful acquisitions,

falsehood, hatred, envy, jealousy, and lust are all

manifestations of a spiritual impairment which adversely

affects the appropriate configuration of the mindset(2005:20).

As such, the larger percentage of the society that is affected by this

negative configuration of the mindset functions with a limited and distorted

perspective in their contribution to national development. They are more or

less occupied by personal interests and gains rather than developmental

goals that will benefit all. The wealth and resources of the nation is seen as

a national cake that is to be shared.

Still on the question of leadership, Anyiam-Osigwe says that there is no

way Africa can attain genuine development with the current trend of self-

centeredness, corruption, greed, ignorance, mediocrity, rabid quest for political

power on the part of our leaders as well as deep seated apathy and sense or

resignation on the part of the populace. He also noted that post-colonial

African leaders became fond of dependence on foreign aids. The implication

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and above individual interest and, in that context, responded to community

duties with unrivalled diligence and rigour (2005:33).

The family in the traditional African society has all the potentials for

making positive contribution to the alleviation of poverty but this has not

been the case in contemporary times. In most cases, the people classified

as poor are either under-utilised or rendered productively impotent by

conventions, beliefs, value systems and psychological states that are not in

concert with the order of the existential scheme. Thus, the advantages of

the family system are not well explored.

One of the benefits that family system is supposed to generate is to

bring teamwork and synergies among individuals and groups of that society

in which the combined total yield is greater than the sum of separate strengths

and aptitudes. So if the individual potentials are not well maximized, the

total good will not also be maximized. This will on the long run affect the

poverty level of the social system. In other words, there is a need to give

priority to an all round development in order to maximise the potentials of

every individual in the family and, consequently, society.

So, to achieve economic development, an all round policy must be

maintained to ensure that all individuals cultivate the right mindset by tapping

their abilities to maximum capacity. The way to achieve this is to allow all

individuals identify and develop their innate abilities and potentials and put them

to practical application for the collective well-being of all in society (2005:25).

The Role of Women in African Culture

To have a full grasp of economic development in Africa, Anyiam-Osigwe

suggests the need for a thorough understanding of the role of women in

society. Anyiam-Osigwe notes that women constitute half of the world

population and they are largely dormant due to the subjugation of women by

a chauvinistic male-dominated social order. In order to achieve economic

development, there is a need to tap the resources and ability of women in

society. In developing countries, rural women are major food producers and

generate a large part of the cash income for their families. Rural women

contribute to socio-economic development in three ways: at the household

level, at the community level, and at the national level. So, ignoring the

culture moves from society to the individual (1984:180). This new

interpretation of self is contrary to the African cultural interpretation of self.

The African culture is averse to self, individualism and materialism. Rather,

within the context of the African culture, the self operates in the midst of

the family, community and it operates to bring about common good and not

the good of self alone. This is the essence of the family and family ties.

Thus, for Anyiam-Osigwe “the building of the total man upon whom

society rests her quest for economic enhancement, commences from the

family” (2000:67). In Anyiam-Osigwe’s strong view, “the pristine family

structure of the traditional African societies that plays out as the extended

family system can be identified to be largely supportive and sustaining”

(2000:69). Sustaining in the sense that the weaknesses of one member of

the community would be covered by the other.

This idea of communal values does not in any way mean the rejection

or repression of individual values, hopes, aspirations, achievements and rights.

But it is expected to bring together individual talents, qualities, strengths and

assets for the good of the whole. Since man is a social being, an individual

will be better developed within his community. Although, it may be difficult

to maintain a balance between the individual and community but balancing

the two means avoiding the selfish or self - centered nature of individualism.

It will avoid amassing wealth for self and self alone but with considerations

for the community and others.

The Question of Poverty and Family

Anyiam-Osigwe (2005:17) in his quest to unravel the puzzle about the endemic

poverty of Africa in a world of abundance raised some pertinent questions.

He asked what the missing canons in our developmental initiatives are.

What initiatives must humanity evolve in resolving the contradictions of

poverty in the emerging world order? In an attempt to answer this question,

he postulated that the major setback to the attainment of holistic human

development is the limited application of the potentials and abilities of a

larger section of the human family.

In African society, the human family is an important aspect of our culture.

African cultures encourage placing the interest of their community over

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actualisation of the potentials of women is like ignoring the possible

contributions of a large percentage of society to the economic development

of society.

Agriculture and Economic Development

Another area identified by Anyiam-Osigwe as beneficial to Africa’s

economic development is food security by agricultural investment. He sees

agriculture as a complex venture between God in heaven and the farmer on

earth. A hungry man is an angry man, so the adage says. If Africans can

secure their belly, then there will not only be economic empowerment but

also peace. This is because instead of engaging in endless wars, we will be

busy with agricultural productivity.

If Africans can emulate Israel in terms of her strong agricultural

investment then we will make more progress in economic terms. Israel,

unlike some African countries, does not have oil to depend on, for its economic

sustenance. Yet, it is one of the leading industrialized nations in Europe and

the world. If Africans can invest on land, rather than buying ammunition

and depending solely on oil, then we are bound to attain economic progress

(Proceedings of the 5th session of the EOOAO: 2003).

Conclusion

In Anyiam-Osigwe’s opinion, the crises of Africa’s under-development are,

culture-based and culture-driven. Africans need to develop an African

personality that is nurtured with faith in the self, faith in his antecedents,

faith in community through the family and competitive intellect. This does

not mean we are to re-invent the African past rather we need to distil the

requisite African personality from the present amorphous pseudo-modern

African personality created by colonization. This will lead to an appropriate

mindset of a dynamic and sure-footed African that is competitive and

adaptive to the emerging world order.