Introduction
Through the middle of the 20th century, after about
5 centuries of colonialism, Africans began decolonizing themselves by gaining full
political control of their government through protracted nationalism consciousness.
Hence, the development of Africa, was flexing in the hands of Africans and no
longer the Europeans who had exploited this region without significant or long
range developments. As years pass and development in Africa still slows and
decades upon successive decades only sees the region still stocked in the “third
world economic zone”, while most of the resources it has, slips out of the third
world economic zone, to be among the developed and even compete with other
strong European economies, the worries of the root underdevelopment became trend in
the international circus.
Abstract
Different scholars have attributed the underdevelopment of
Africa to colonialism in the face of works like “how Europe
underdeveloped Africa” by Walter Rodney, etc. while other works like “How Africa underdeveloped
Africa”, by Igwe who asserts that Africa’s underdevelopment is instigated by African themselves. It is upon this contradictory
literature about root of Africa’s underdevelopment that this work is carried out.
This paper tends to make a comparative analysis of the root of Africa’s underdevelopment
with a solution to this problem. It has made if not extensively at least categorically
at the availability of materials a consult on various materials to suffice or cement
this work.
UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
According to the United Nations definition, an undeveloped country
is one which has a real per capita income that is lower in relation to the real
per capita income of the U.S.A, Canada, Australia, and Western Europe, emphasis here is on the low income level relative to the advanced countries and lack of any perceptible success in making substantial
improvement in quality of life of the masses.
In simple words, underdeveloped country is just another name by which a poor
backward country is known
In relation of the
above definition of underdevelopment, and in consideration of its ethnocentric
definition of underdevelopment in comparison to European economies, Africa laps behind because of it poor real per capita income which laps behind also its European counter parts.
The following are the means of underdevelopment in Africa;
High rate of population
Low
productivity combined with high rate of population is largely responsible for low income and poor living standard.
High growth rate of population means more people to be feed, clothed and
provided other necessary goods year after year. In Africa population growth is
higher than economic growth which does not help to maintain standard of living
of the population. The requirements of
food, clothing, medicine, schooling, etc. all has put pressure on the poor economic
of the continent thereby leading to high labour force, and this labor force
creates a higher supply of labour than its demand leading to unemployment. Birth
rate in the world is placed at 19.86% of the top ten countries are African countries
with Niger republic coming first with 51.08% (Ekeh, 2013)
High level of unemployment
Unemployment levels are
high in Africa due to lack of capital and low level of development in various economic
sectors. Thus, countries have not been able to make use of their labor force due
to increasing population and low level of economic development. Agriculture is
the main economic stay in Africa and large number of laborers are employed in production
than are really needed. Technological advancement in this angle is negligible
as there is no significant technological
industries unlike the ones in Europe.
Poor Education
African countries subjugate
their educational budget to other irrelevant sectors. There is evidence of poor
schools, poor teaching environment, low level of academic materials, inadequate
man power and improper capital funding concerning education. Yet it is in this
angle that you will see the visibility of embezzlement of funds by government bureaucrats.
Disease and malnutrition
In Africa, the spread of
diseases such as HIV/AIDS, yellow fever, the wide spread of the recent Ebola disease
and other tropical diseases can be found overwhelming in Africa. The world’s infant mortality rate is placed
at 44.13% of the last 9 countries African countries occupies this position
(WHO, 2013).
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR
THE UNDERDEVELOPMENT OF AFRICA
The following factors both external and internal are
responsible for the development of Africa.
Poor leadership of African countries seems to be visionless towards the development of Africa. Their
interest is “to pious materialistic wooliness
and self oriented pedestrianism” (Achebe, 1998). This leaders grow corrupt and siphoned
money meant for public use in other to distribute social amenities proper,
create opportunities, and fill all gaps of social necessities, and put them in
their own private account for their own interest.
The elite who
are in possession of authority seems to be backward in their consciousness towards
the living condition of the masses as they claim blind while favouritism,
nepotism, Godfatherism, etc has formed the bases for appointment and employment.
Like other countries that have suffered colonialism
(America, China, Japan, etc.), they were able to overcome this exploitation
after independence by manufacturing good, selfless and productive visionary ideas that shaped
their continents in Africa, this leaders have rather been selfish
without revolutionary ideas and anywhere they appeared one, chauvinism would destroy
it.
References
Emeh, Ikechukwu Eke; Dependency theory and
Africa’s underdevelopment: a paradigm shift from pseudo-intellectualism: the
Nigerian perspective. International Journal
of African and Asian Studies-an Open Access International; Journal Vol. 1; 2013.
Gupta, Neha: (2018), Economic Development and
Policy in India. School of Open Learning, University of Delhi India.