Reasons for Underdeveloped West AFRICA
-
Upload
funke-deborah -
Category
Documents
-
view
329 -
download
4
Transcript of Reasons for Underdeveloped West AFRICA
INTRODUCTION
As an entity, the 16 nations that comprise the geographic region of West Africa is
among one of the poorest regions in the world in the 21st century, even though the region
is among the richest in the world in its stock of natural resources and raw and
underdeveloped human talent. The natural resources of Nigeria for example, include:
natural gas, petroleum, tin, iron ore, coal, limestone, niobium, lead, zinc and arable land;
in Liberia: iron ore, timber, diamonds, gold and hydropower; in Sierra Leone: diamonds,
titanium ore, bauxite, iron ore, gold, chromite; in Cote d'Ivoire: petroleum, natural gas,
diamonds, manganese, iron ore, cobalt, bauxite, copper, gold, nickel, tantalum, silica
sand, clay, cocoa beans, coffee, palm oil, hydropower; and in Niger: uranium, coal, iron
ore, tin, phosphates, gold, molybdenum, gypsum, salt, petroleum (Compiled from the
2005 CIA World Factbook). Liberia also has one of the largest rubber plantations in the
world.
According to modernization theories, internal factors in the countries, such as
illiteracy, traditional agrarian structure, the traditional attitude of the population, the low
division of labour, the lack of communication and infrastructure, etc., are responsible for
underdevelopment. Differences in structure and historical origin are considered of little
importance; international dependencies are not taken into account. Consequently, a
change of these endogenous factors is the strategy for development. The industrialized
countries are the model for economy and society, and this model will be reached sooner
or later. There is a continuum between the least and the most developed country and each
country has its position on this line. The difference as compared to the industrialized
countries is the degree of backwardness which has to be made up for. Suitable measures
1
are the modernization of the production apparatus, capital aid, transfer of know-how, so
that the developing countries can reach the stage of industrialized countries as soon as
possible. Development is seen as an increase of production and efficiency and measured
primarily by comparing the per capita income.
WHY WEST AFRICAN COUNTRIES ARE SAID TO BE UNDERDEVELOPED
A historical perspective is essential in order to understand why West African
countries have failed to take part in the international economic development we have
seen in this era of globalisation. Geographical and demographic conditions are key
factors in West Africa’s development, as is confirmed by many of today’s crises.
West African Countries are said to be underdeveloped because of the following
reasons list hereunder:
1) Prolonged Military Rule/Intervention in Governance: It is believed that
meaningful development cannot take place in a country where democracy
cannot thrive. Democracy is seen as bedrock of development as evident in
most developed nations such as United States of America, Britain, Japan and
some other countries in the world. Therefore, with prolonged military
interventions and rule in most of the West African countries, development was
hampered.
2) Technological Underdevelopment: An important reason for the continent’s
technological underdevelopment is the geographical obstacles to
communication both internally and with the rest of the world. The Sahara has
been a barrier in the north, and the Atlantic coast had no contact with the rest
2
of the world until the first Europeans arrived around 1500. Influence from the
Arab world and India came mainly via the Nile Valley and the East African
coast, and had little spillover effect further inland. With the exception of the
Niger and the Nile, the continent’s rivers with their large waterfalls have not
provided a navigable route to the interior, in contrast to the rivers of Europe
and Asia. The problems of today’s land-locked states illustrate the great
importance of communication for economic and cultural development.
3) Poor Health System and High Mortality Rate Factor: Among the five
geographic regions of Africa (Eastern, Northern, Middle, Southern and
Western Africa), West Africa has the lowest average per capita Gross
Domestic Products, and the second highest average infant mortality rate after
Middle Africa. This has added a great deal to underdevelopment of West
Africa. Any country with a very high mortality rate will be regarded as
underdeveloped, little wonder West African countries are said to be
underdeveloped. There are poor human capital development and poor health
development policies and programmes in almost all countries in West Africa.
This is attested to by the number of qualified Africans and technocrats in
foreign countries where they are not better treated. Insecurity and poverty
account for the brain drain (Emeagwali, 2004). A healthy nation is a wealthy
nation. When the citizens are poor, they cannot access health care facilities,
their capacities are not developed, it implies that the resource endowments in
the area are dormant and unexplored. Developed human capital is the catalyst
for resource development. This gives the foreigners engaged in foreign direct
3
investment opportunities to exploit the area and further under develop the
economy.
4) High Literacy Rate as Causative Factor: The region also has low rates of
individuals who can read and write; this means that with low level of
education in the countries, underdevelopment looms. High level of illiteracy
thus accounts for West Africa being called underdeveloped.
5) Lack of Political Stability: Lack of political stability accounts for many of the
development problems in post-colonial Africa, and has deep historical roots.
The ethnic diversity of the continent is extraordinary; linguists have identified
around 900 separate language groups. Nation-building in Africa’s independent
states has thus been particularly difficult. National endeavours have been
hampered by internal conflicts and civil wars, and at worst a form of anarchy,
as seen in the Congo. The forces behind these conflicts are often complex. But
once the parties have resorted to violence, we see in Africa, just as in the
Balkans and the Caucasus, that ethnicity overrides all other forms of loyalty
with a ferocity that defies belief, but is easier to understand if we bear in mind
the role that nationalism has played in European history. Shrewd and
ambitious politicians are aware of this, and know how to take advantage of the
“tribal instinct” for all it is worth.
6) Slave trade and colonialism: Can the slave trade and colonialism be regarded
as a cause of underdevelopment in West Africa today? Africa’s integration
into the world market following 1500-during what we may term the “proto-
globalisation era”-took on a perverted form when slaves became the dominant
4
merchandise from around 1650. The cruelties of this trade have left deep scars
in both the African and the European psyche. The export of an estimated 12
million people across the Atlantic, and possibly a similar number to the Arab
world in the course of a full millennium may have been a factor in Africa’s
lower population growth compared with that of other continents. In economic
terms, the slave trade tended to overshadow trade in other goods, and although
it enabled certain strong kingdoms to increase their power, it was devastating
for the groups affected by the kidnappings and conflicts that the trade entailed.
In political terms, the rulers who controlled the trade on the African side were
caught up in a particular form of dependence that had profound effects on
African political culture. At the same time, African labour played a key role
in building up the “Atlantic system”, and was thus a decisive factor in
American and European (including Norway’s) development. Here the
foundations were laid for a closely knit web of development and
underdevelopment. The present day African claims for reparation are
understandable. But slavery was also widely practiced in African societies,
and it was African leaders and intermediaries who brought almost all of the
slaves to the coast. African historians have long sought to put the record
straight on this chapter of the continent’s history. Colonial rule can be
regarded as the next phase of Africa’s integration into the international
system. European policies varied considerably between regions and over time,
from a brutal period of conquest at the end of the 19th century to active
development efforts following the Second World War. The main achievement
5
of colonial rule was state-building. However, this involved imposing the
European system of competing nation states onto the continent through a
process of conquest that was largely motivated by European strategic
interests. The result was a political map that is economically irrational and
dysfunctional. Basil Davidson sums up this state of affairs in the title of one of
his books: The Black Man’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State.
One of the most important tasks today is to offset and overcome the
limitations of the nation state through the development of regional and
continental bodies based on the European model. The colonial powers
developed modern export systems, infrastructure and education facilities that
were necessary to make the whole colonisation venture profitable. And
indeed, it is difficult to envisage any other way in which Africa could have
become integrated into the world market so rapidly. Various counterfactual
development scenarios have of course been discussed, and there is an ongoing
debate on how realistic they are. Nevertheless, the colonial system can be
criticized on several points: for its extreme use of violence during the first
phase (for example in southern Africa, where land was confiscated and
Africans subjected to forced labour); for taking a disproportionate share of the
value created; and for failing to use state power to promote broader
development until after the Second World War (particularly regarding higher
education). However, the connection between colonisation and
underdevelopment is not straightforward. Independent Ethiopia came at the
bottom of all tables of development statistics at the time colonisation was
6
coming to an end in the rest of Africa, and most of the successful newly
industrialised countries in South East Asia are also former colonies.
Cultivating a victim image will not lead to a productive development strategy.
7) War as Causative Factor: Moreover, since the 1990s, the region experienced
civil conflicts or wars in a number of countries, including Liberia and Sierra
Leone, costing hundreds of thousands of lives and the destruction of billions
of dollars in infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals and businesses. The
interesting irony about West Africa’s underdevelopment is that, although the
people in that region are among the poorest people in the world, individuals of
West African descent outside of the region and the continent tend to be in
significant to substantial numbers among some of the most influential and
highly-respected scientists of all sorts, world-class entertainers, professional
athletes, politicians, business men and women, etc., especially concentrated in
North America and the rest of the Western Hemisphere, and other parts of the
world.
8) Foreign Aid Factor: Foreign aid serves a useful purpose when it is provided
to alleviate temporary hardship as in cases of natural disasters such as
droughts, but, experience in West Africa has proved that aid recipients could
easily construe foreign aid as a substitution to their own productivity. Across
the continent, food aid has suppressed food production, undermining the
prices of local produced foods. Agricultural production has declined
significantly, as farmers migrate to urban centers to create a shortage of farm
workers and exacerbate food production deficit. A mentioned earlier, a major
7
debilitating by-product of foreign aid to Africa is the culture of corruption that
has taken root at every level of every government. Foreign Aid is a bribe
given to poor countries by rich nations to enable the latter access resources,
and markets cheaply. It is also a bribe to poor nations to prevent the migration
of poor people to rich nations. It is a bribe to poor nations meant to address
rich nation’s interests. We all know what bribes (aid) do to our police force
(governments), the police get fatter but the crime and traffic offense related
highway accident rates go up (under development of people). To the robber
who bribes a policeman to ensure he/she is not caught – bribery is a good
thing that promotes the looting industry. But if one were to ask the citizenry
whose relatives perish on highways and their property get looted by thugs - a
future without bribery is what they will go for. In line with explanation and
definition on aid the good intentions of the West (de jure purpose of aid) have
resulted to a de facto “looting” of the resources of the Africa people by the
West through the accomplice of African leaders who analogically represent
the corrupt police forces in their countries. In this regard role of aid in
bringing development in Africa tends to be very doubtful. Thus the
verisimilitude of development (conditioned) aid and the cold war contribution
to political developments in African are exposed by the varying but most often
clearly negative overall and varying consequences. The analysis of the role
and consequences of foreign aid and the cold war could be divided into: i) aid
and politics of tyranny, ii) the impact of the West as a consequence of the
Cold War, and, iii) the “disembedding” of the democratic debate from within
8
national borders on the continent and “re-embedding” within the international
arena between national leaders and Western powers.
9) Corruption: Today, corruption has become the way of life in every country in
West Africa, and the theft, bribery and embezzlement of aid, and other
government resources are so endemic, they are not considered as crimes.
African politicians and government officials have engaged in corruption
practices, and a 2004-2005 World Bank Report showed that $148 billion were
embezzled out of Africa by politicians and bureaucrats; a significant amount
of it being aid and loans earmarked for development activities to benefit
Africa's poor. Without transparency, accountability, and good governance,
Africa's future will continue to remain bleak. No wonder West Africa
countries are said to be underdeveloped. There is the get - rich – quick-mania
in West Africa, especially among the political leaders. The inordinate
ambition for wealth accumulation is an offshoot of corrupt practices which are
aspects of underdevelopment. An African appears to be contented with
stealing public money and eventually remitting same to other foreign banks,
yet the industrialized countries that claim to be corrupt-free accommodate
such practices. An African also appears to be happy stealing from one side of
his pocket and transfers the ‘loot’ to the other side of his pocket and
congratulates himself for a job well done. These acts have no multiplier
effects on national economy since the booties are not invested for
regeneration. This culture of inordinate material acquisition accounts for
underdevelopment in West Africa. There is a noticeable increase in the
9
deterioration of infrastructures and social services in underdeveloped
countries as a result of poor management of resources, poor governance and
corruption. Where infrastructural development is carried out at all, it lacks
quality, integrity and comparable standard. Reducing public expenditure and
reordering of government priorities and removal of subsidies on essential
facilities and commodities implies deepening the poverty situation and
underdevelopment. There is need therefore, to explore ways of mitigating
underdevelopment in West-Africa.
10) Low Labour Productivity and Per Capital Income: Low labour productivity
is a consequence of capital shortage which is a result of the population's low
saving ability. As the saving rate is determined by the low real income, the
circle is closed. Strategy theories intend to break up this cycle at a certain
point which they consider critical and which varies according to the different
theories. Thus, they want to initiate development and transform traditional
subsistence economy into a modern market economy. Their main emphasis is
on capital formation and investment (investment theories) and, by and large,
they prescribe action for overcoming underdevelopment while they contribute
little towards explaining the causes of underdevelopment.
11) The Challenges of Leadership Crisis and Underdevelopment in West Africa:
Development, as a multidimensional process, is much more than an economic
phenomenon dealing with the material and financial growth in a people’s
lives. It involves the reorganization and reorientation of the people’s entire
economic and social systems. Apart from improvements in incomes and
10
output, radical changes in institutional social, administrative structures,
people’s popular attitudes, customs and belief systems, development involves
a fundamental modification and reorganization of the international economic
and social system to accommodate equity that negates global inequality
(Todaro and Smith, 2003). If development involves the above, there is the
necessity for visionary and dedicated leadership that is imbued with the desire
for change that is anchored on patriotism and democratic governance. The
current world economic system demands total reorganization in economic
relations and trade in line with the forces and facilitators of globalization. For
the reorganization and modernization to achieve development targets and be
effective, leadership everywhere should be adequately equipped with the
requisite knowledge, motivational force, managerial ability, forthrightness,
accommodating spirit, flexibility, acuity, organizing capacity etc. to identify
the necessary institutional structures for reforms. This is expedient to drive the
wheel of development in this era of information and communications
technology (ICT), Knowledge - driven economic production and knowledge
leadership for millennium governance. Leadership implies critical
management of critical resource endowments in a country. West Africans are
endowed with critical indigenous knowledge, traditional technologies and
wealth (Gakuru, 2005). Indigenous knowledge encompasses traditional
knowledge, innovations, technologies and practices. It involves broad based
subject matters such as traditional agriculture, biodiversity-related and
medicinal knowledge and folklore. On its part, traditional technologies are
11
defined as processes and products that have been valuable sources of
technology even before western industrialization. They include, among others,
agriculture, food production, processing and preservation and brewing; water
procurement and storage; health and medicine; plant and animal breeding;
forestry; engineering; energy; architecture; textile; cosmetology; music etc.
When these are preserved and encouraged, they can boost entrepreneurship,
economy through foreign exchange etc. and subsequent development. The
question however, is: have West African leaders and government ensured
these technologies and knowledge to achieve diversified economy, food
security, job and employment generation, entrepreneurship, leadership and
capacity building and wealth creation?
CONCLUSION
West African countries are said to be under-developed as a result of the above
factors such as leadership problem, corruption, prolonged military rule, colonialism and
slave trade, war, poor health system and high mortality rate, high level of illiteracy, low
level of technological advancement in terms of communication and agricultural
development, reliance on foreign aids amongst many other factors.
Any serious effort to engage development problems in West Africa must begin by
taking notice of the reality that socio-economic development in the West African
countries may be attained, and sustained only if the processes engaged toward these ends
are properly mindful of the cultural and social experiences of Africans. This means
looking at things from the point of view of those whose welfare one seeks to improve; for
12
only when the life experiences of the indigenous people are clearly understood would it
be possible to work within the context of their cultural and traditional observances to
establish accommodative social and economic institutions necessary for sustained
development. This approach is what is termed 'contextual development'; a process that
requires a balanced integration of indigenous cultures, religious beliefs, prevailing social
arrangements, and new ideas from developed nations into a unique development strategy
that suits a particular nation-state. Contextual development thus requires a good
understanding of the needs of the people, and how to design and implement programs
that take advantage of the peculiarities of the society, and expectations. It also requires,
as an imperative, that one who embarks on development programs in West Africa be
acquainted with the cultural belief system in the country, the role religion plays, the level
of literacy, availability of skilled labor, traditional roles of the sexes, prevailing social
arrangements, and most importantly, what development means to the people.
It is an intellectual challenge to fully grasp the historical causes of Africa’s
underdevelopment and to distinguish between internal and external factors. On the one
hand, many of Africa’s problems are due to a combination of Western and African
factors and the fact that Africa has been integrated into the world economy on
unfavourable terms. This, together with intrinsic geographical and demographic
disadvantages, means that an international effort on a completely new scale is needed to
lift the continent out of its present state of underdevelopment. This has been referred to as
a “reformed globalisation”.
On the other hand, many of the problems facing African countries are due to
internal causes. Ethnic differences and political and cultural traditions have made it
13
difficult to build strong institutions – of the kind developed in Asian countries – that are
able to address the challenges of globalisation. This means that African leaders at all
levels must take responsibility for improving the situation through self-help, awareness
raising and discipline in the broadest sense of the word. African critics have spoken of the
need for a “structural adaptation programme”, also with regard to culture.
14
REFERENCES
CIA World Fact Book (2009): Equatorial Guinea.
Eke, P. P. (1983):Colonialism and Social Structure: An Inaugural Lecture. Ibadan:
University of Ibadan.
Emeagwali (2004):How Do We Reverse the Brain Drain?
Frank. G. (1966): The Development of Underdevelopment. Monthly Review, Vol. 18
No.4.
Shillington, Kevin (1989): History of Africa. Revised Edition. New York: St. Martin’s
The Journal of Pan African Studies, vol.3, no.10, September 2010.
World Bank. (1997): World Development Report 1997: The State in a Changing World.
New York: Oxford University Press.
15