DECOLONIZING CONTEMPORARY AFRICA’S ECONOMIC REALITY

By

Evaristus Emeka Isife, PhD

Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Arts,
Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka, Anambra State,Nigeria.
E-mail: emekaisife@gmail.com;ee.isife@stu.unizik.edu.ng

Abstract

Africa as a continent is rich in human and material resources. The continent is at an advantage
because of its arable land, tropical rain forest, savannah region, comfortable climate and a flurry
of biodiversity. The people of Africa are gifted with knowledge, wisdom and understanding of
the phenomenological workings of the self as well as the world around them. However, the
continent and a vast majority of her people are identified with poverty going by economic
indices (per capita income) by the Western monetary and regulating bodies hence, being dubbed
“third world or developing African countries.” This paper undertakes a critical exposition into
the reason why Africa as a continent and her people are economically poor. The paper finds out
that policies of African member states are the major reason which have led to enormous
borrowing from international financial agencies like World Bank and in the process, plunge the
continent into economic crisis with a huge debt profile leading to the devaluation of its member
states’ currencies. Again, the habit of consumption which is festered by importation of goods
that can be produced on African soil puts her at an economic disadvantage. The paper’s
objective is to redirect African thinkers and policy makers to the need to be truly independent
economically by looking into Africa’s history. Again, economic ties not beneficial to African
member states should be severed from the West on basic and major economic needs of Africans.

Keywords: Decolonization, Emancipation, Liberation, Economics, Consumer Protection

Introduction
Economic discussions have always been at the front burner of engagements amongst

nations because of their direct impact on the quality of life of individuals. Even politics is

out to serve that need hence its importance. A prosperous nation is one that understands the

dynamics of ensuring a clean bill of economic health especially as it has to do with the GDP,

GNI, per capita income and other sundry or related economic concepts. Interestingly, the

world as it is today has been bridged by globalization which brings about an

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interconnectedness of multiple countries together all engaged in economic activities. Writing

on this global economic outlook, Barry Naisbitt et al notes that:

The Covid-19 pandemic and the effects of the measures taken

to protect lives continue to dominate the short term global
economic outlook….The dramatic disruption to the global
economy is projected to lead to a fall in global GDP of 5%...a
loss around S10 trillion for the global economy…The
uncertainties created by the pandemic and the lockdown
measures meant that the estimated fall in global GDP….(F35).

No nation or continent is isolated in the world economic trajectory. This economic

interaction among the comity of nations is such that some nations benefit more than others

thereby having an economic advantage over others. The reason is majorly the ownership

(technology related) of the means of production. The purchasing power parity (PPP) amongst

nations makes it such that the PPP-based expenditures allow direct comparisons of indicators

of well-being, such as expenditure per capita, because they are now in a common currency.

Similar comparisons can be made for other aggregates such as health, education, housing,

government, and GDP. The PPPs for household consumption are the main input for

estimation of the International Poverty Lines, which is a main driver of international

development efforts. Countries with different rates of economic growth can compare their

price levels and per capita expenditures to guide their development policies (The World

Bank, xvii).

Granted that the entire world is now one big economic hub or beehive of activities,

what is the place of African member states on this world economic stage? It is evident that

colonialism has assumed a new coloration of neo-colonialism and this is evident in the

economic activities of the world today. Foreign goods and services are still making inroads

into Africa thereby stifling Africa’s chances of producing what she needs in her own soil. A
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lot of Africans still prefers Western products as against African home grown ones. This

subtle neo-colonialism is affecting Africa’s economic developmental strides amidst other

factors. Oseni Afisi attempts to put this challenge in its right perspective thus:

If only a free-market economy, in which individuals

rightfully make choices and thereby contribute
information into the price system, could operate instead
of the system of central economic planning, many
African countries would vastly develop both
economically and politically…. This is because without
the competitive struggle for stimulating innovative ideas
and actions, a just social order will be absent. The
society therefore becomes vulnerable to economic and
political dictatorship resulting in the devaluation of
individual liberty (91).

What option then is there for the people of Africa to liberate themselves from the economic

harsh realities they are faced with, seeing that most policies of government are geared

towards accessing more loans from Western donors? The question is important because in the

process of procuring these loans the African leaders have to bend their economic

philosophies towards fulfilling the whims and caprices of the international financial agencies.

These and many more issues shall be discussed in the paper while new ideas will be

proffered for the economic emancipation of Africans. The paper now examines the

relationship between neo-colonialism and economics.

Economic Neo-Colonialism

The damage that colonialism has done to the psyche of Africans is of monumental

proportion. Africa is still yet to recover from the material and psychological plunder of the

colonial West. Unfortunately, Africa is still drawn to the colonialists and their ideology from

an economic angle. The technologically advanced West still ensures their involvement with

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African countries (low income nations) and this relationship practically annihilates the

potentials for the development of the low income states contributing to the capital gain of the

technologically advanced nations. Neo-colonialism as an example, is a situation where a

poor country needs more money to meet her needs and a rich country provides it but with

stringent conditions that will see to the poor country being in debt to the rich countries which

devalues its resources, land and even labour.

Writers, such as Walter Rodney, have remarked how Europe underdeveloped Africa

and this underdevelopment seems to continue today unabated through the instrumentality of

neo-colonialism. Neo-colonialism can be aptly understood as “a situation of infringed

national sovereignty and intrusive influence by external elements” (Langan, 1).

Neo-colonialism has assumed different connotations and meaning in academic circles. For

many, neo-colonialism is seen as being associated with vulgar forms of Marxism. For some,

it is seen to deny any form of meaningful African agency, reducing Africans to mere victims

in the global arena. For others, the concept is associated with modern African tyrants like

Robert Mugabe, while for others it is seen as a blame game on the West for the continuing

mal-governance of certain African elites.

Kwame Nkrumah must be noted as the first to create the concept in his treatise:

Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism in 1965. Langan argues that, concerning

the concept, Nkrumah’s relative failure to contend with ideational aspects of external

influence over African states is something which, for instance, requires redress in any

modern application of the concept of neo-colonialism. It is important to examine

“developmental” discourse and how interventions in the internal affairs of African countries

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by foreign elements are legitimized as a moral endeavour for “progress”. Many interventions

are infact undertaken on the basis of a donor (and at times, corporate) language of altruism,

despite the fact that tangible consequences of such action more often than not, exacerbate

conditions of ill-being and poverty” (2).

It is not in doubt that the motive behind European imperial conquest and eventual

colonization of Africa has economic motives or undertone especially with the exploitation of

Africa’s raw materials and the consequent bringing in of finished products for double gains.

Neo-colonialism, therefore, is a continuation of colonialism but in a very subtle way that

does not make it seem like a forceful conquest. Neo-colonialism can be looked at from two

perspectives. The first is that, it is a subtle conquest by the former colonizers this time

around through the economic space, while the second perspective is on the colonized still

inadvertently loving the chains of colonialism by remaining a slave to the former colonial

master goods and services. Nkrumah captures the point thus:

Old fashioned colonialism is by no means entirely

abolished. It still constitutes an African problem, but it is
everywhere on the retreat. Once a territory has become
nominally independent, it is no longer possible, as it was in
the last century, to reverse the process. Existing colonies
may linger on, but no new colonies will be created. In
place of colonialism as the main instrument of imperialism
we have today neo-colonialism (3).

The contradiction about neo-colonialism is that it is found in a nation that is seen as

independent with all the outward trappings of a sovereign state recognized by the

international community. But, the state in reality operates an economic system and even

public policy is directed from the powerful donor countries outsides. This often leads to

control which makes it difficult for competing goods or interest to flourish. The former

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colonial power begins its dominance through a proxy which is the now independent power.

This is one of the major reason why economic development appears very far away from

African countries as this neo-colonialism becomes a cesspool for corruption by the leaders.

Nkrumah notes that the result of neo-colonialism is that foreign capital is used for the

exploitation rather than for the development of the less developed parts of the world.

Investment under neo-colonialism “increases rather than decreases the gap between the rich

and the poor countries of the world” (5). While non alignment is a good way to cooperate

and collaborate with other countries, African countries must rather take to decolonizing the

status quo which will put Africa in an advantage especially with the utilization and

management of her resources. This is far better as we shall see than neo-colonialism which is

the worst form of imperialism. For those who practice it, it means power without

responsibility and for those who suffer from it, it means exploitation without redress. In the

days of old-fashioned colonialism, the imperial power had, at least, to explain and justify at

home the actions it was taking abroad. In the colony, those who served the ruling imperial

power could at least look to its protection against any violent move by their opponents. With

neo-colonialism “neither is the case” (Nkrumah’s)

There is almost no African country today that is not under one form of neo-colonialism or

another. And this is taking a toll on the economy of Africa. Neo-colonialism has not

allowed African countries to make progress with regards to economic development. This

narrative has to change so that Africa can truly be a continent with independent member

states. Bemoaning the damages the colonialists have done on the continent of Africa is not

enough. Africa should be able to rise above such petty level by proving that it can take full

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responsibility for its economic affairs. To be partnering with the West purportedly seen as

the cause of the economic woes of Africa through colonialism and neo-colonialism is a

contradiction that is reprehensible. Frimpong recommends that “efficient country-level

policies should be geared towards inflation to enhance price stability and minimize external

uncertainty shocks to overlay future convergence. It would be worthwhile to investigate

integration among various regional blocs in Africa by inculcating country-level variables

such as productivity (24).

Africa’s Economic Predicament

Africa is one of the continents that is sadly dubbed, the “Dark Continent, Third World or

Developing Continent” by the Western machineries and instruments of oppression like the World

Bank and IMF. This claim is true because it is the Western bloc that sets the rule of doing

business all over the world. They determine what you export and what quality; they determine

your borrowing capacity as well as the interests a country is to pay back. They determine the

strength of a country’s currency through devaluation mechanism. In fact, the economic losses of

the West have multiplier effect on almost all African nations. Understanding this point, Momoh

avers that:

The economic problems facing Nigeria were sharpened by

two external factors: The first factor is the economic
recession which started in the Western developed
economies around 1978. It did not spare any industrialized
nation and it could not have, by the logic and dynamics of
its nature and operation, spared any industrializing nation
like Nigeria. The second factor is the oil glut in the world
market which led the Western nations to cut down on their
purchase of oil and this in turn, lowered the price and
demand for oil in the world market (viii).

The situation in one African country is not different from the other because African countries are

characteristically mono-economies and heavily dependent on imports especially sub-Saharan

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Africa. What is today called ‘world economy’ or ‘global economy’ is the brain child of the West

and African countries had to buy into it so that they can have a market for their products. Is it

any wonder why African member countries economy is going down the slope on a daily basis?

We do not hear of devaluation of currencies amongst developed nations only in African and

some Asian countries. The explanation for that is Western imperialism or neo-colonialism.

It is like saying that although one has been granted independence, one still remains

indirectly under the control of the West. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) for example

has the mandate to work to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability,

facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and

reduce poverty around the world. On the other hand, while the IMF focuses on macro economic

and financial stability issues, the World Bank concentrates on long term economic development

and poverty reduction as their mandates.

While it is true that the economic challenges of African member states are partly caused

by corrupt leaders, it takes a discerning mind to see that the IMF and World Bank have a sinister

motive towards impoverishing African countries. The motive or goal of IMF and the World

Bank must have been a very sincere one when it was created at an International Conference

convened in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, United States in July 1944. One of the mandates

of the IMF is to provide short and medium-term loans and help countries design policy

programmes to solve balance of payments problems when sufficient financing cannot be

obtained to meet net international payments obligations. But African political leaders have used

that opportunity to keep getting loans which it cannot repay thereby; devaluing the currency of

the member countries and plunging the African continent into further hardship occasioned by the

inability to repay the loan and interests. Tom K. Alweendo makes the point when he avers thus:

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 The second factor that in my view has contributed to the
lack of economic development on the continent is the
legacy of colonialism. Most countries on the continent
became independent in the 1960s. The unfortunate thing is,
however, that after the colonial powers departed, they
continued to dominate the African economies. What is bad
about this is not so much the fact that the departed colonial
powers continued to be involved in the African economies,
but rather the fact that they did so at the expense of the
Africans (1-2).

The colonial powers continued to exploit the African raw materials to build their

economies at the expense of the African economies. What is astonishing though is the fact that

Africa allowed them free passage to do so, and still allows them to date. The point here is not to

blame the colonialists solely for Africa’s economic woes. But Africa cannot afford to follow

where the cue leads to her economic problems and this is one of such. The question of a vision

or an action pointing towards Africa’s economic emancipation, whether local, national or even

regional, has been made ever more imperative by the demise of economic planning regimes and

the attempts to promote market policies in their place but without paying attention to the hopes

or aspirations that are integral to the goals of national and regional planning. Underscoring the

importance of planning, Njoku Davidson states that planning is the first step in public

administration. According to him, this “deals with working out a broad outline of what needs to

be done and the method to be used to accomplish government’s determined goals. It is the

process by which the policy makers design a package of actions to deal with legal, economic,

social, cultural and political problems in both the short and long-term” (93).

Decolonizing the African Psyche of Dependency.

The sort of planning that will bring about the economic emancipation that the people of

Africa desperately need today will not be done by the Western imperialists and Africa should not

expect it can be done by these imperialists because their intentions cannot be ascertained to be

9
genuine with regards to sincerely seeing Africa liberated from its economic woes. For example,

the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) introduced its African long-term

perspective project, out of which emerged various attempts at formulating different national

visions up to the year 2020 yet, the African continent is still very far from being emancipated

economically. This is expected because the International Financial Institutions cannot be the

ones to map out an economic future for the continent or design alternative strategy to transform

Africa because they are advertently or inadvertently responsible for Africa’s economic woes and

downturn. Have African leaders not had a plan on their own on how to emancipate the continent

economically? It is important to recall the 1979 Monrovia report on Africa in the year 2000

prepared by African scholars under the auspices of the then Organization of African Unity, and

follow-up Lagos plan of Action endorsed and signed by African Heads of State in 1980.

Why these have not helped in changing the course of the economic fortunes of Africa is

because of how the world is globally structured today. For about four centuries, Africa seemed

to be at the receiving end of ideas. Worthy of note is the Berlin Conference of 1885 for the

partitioning of Africa which had none of Africa’s forefathers in attendance. There have been

several projections and prescriptions by African scholars on how Africa can be emancipated

economically. Some have argued that Africa needs a viable democracy (participatory) which

should transcend the liberal democratic model given the multi-ethnic and multi-religious

contexts in African politics. Others have argued or proposed that Africa must begin to

“delegitimize dictators”. And, yet, for others, there has to emerge a positive identity and

consciousness, development of the necessary knowledge and skills, political democracy and an

overarching emphasis on developing agriculture. In fact, Olugbenga and Arunma are of the

opinion that assuming that most of the challenges are properly addressed, Africa should be a

10
transformed continent. It should become a stable and peaceful continent with a committed

people that share a common destiny. In new Africa, poverty, destitution and misery will be

things of the past. What must be done is to “develop agriculture, adopt technology, seize global

opportunities, and both ensure that leaders and followers alike develop new attitudes and

transform their institutions” (14).

All of these projections are for a better African continent for her people in the light of the

contemporary age and times. That we are living in a globalized world does not negate the need

to think in a traditional sense if that would bring about the greater good for the greater majority.

The way and manner in which Africa is being run today by her leaders is just a continuation of

the colonialist way of thinking. This may be due to globalization and its effects on almost every

culture and community of people. And globalization is a Western ideology and construct.

Ikechuckwu Ogugua opines that virtually all African nations have worked hard to develop based

on the Western model of development. And development has eluded Africa for the old paradigm

was based on quantitative and economic analysis. The old paradigm of development “envelopes

and cushions loss of identity, loss of personal meaning, loss of sense of community and freedom.

Apart from the problem of indoctrination and imposition of models on Africa, there seems to be

the problem of authoritarianism with regard to our customs and traditions; and we do not want

these changes” (159-160).

The economic models that Africa has been adopting have not really emancipated the

continent from its many economic woes because they are imperialists in nature. Capitalism, for

example, is an economic system that is geared towards profit maximization. Socialism too has its

limitation because the state cannot provide everything for the citizens. The mix-economy is

good but has its own limitation because it still incorporates capitalism and socialism with their

11
problems. The Marxist view affirms that imperialism has dragged Africa closer to capitalism.. A

lot of western scholars have argued that without colonial intervention, Africa would have stayed

backward. Sometimes one wonders how they got by that conclusion because it is a sheer

assumption that is unfounded. The colonialists did not come to make the lives of Africans any

better. If for anything, they came with an agenda to plunder the resources of Africa by taking

undue advantage of the people and then build their own empire in the process.

It is common knowledge that Africa was home to the raw material needs of the West.

They did not only get the raw materials they so desired but they also shipped Africans as slaves

to work in their plantations. Even the Berlin Conference that discussed the scrambling and

partitioning of Africa was done with the sole intention of achieving economic advantage. Africa

would have fared better without Western colonization. This is why there are a lot of vast

literature blaming colonialism for all the ills of former colonies including persistent poverty and

dictatorship. The per capita income of most African member states especially the sub-Saharan

Africa is less than a dollar not because these countries do not have human or natural resources.

How are these resources valued in the world market? It can be argued that market forces are what

determine the price/value of commodity, but those forces are mostly artificial and can be

manipulated.

Evaluation and Conclusion

This paper is not venerating African traditional economic system as being flawless.

Rather, what is being iterated is that Africa has the right to self determine its destiny even in a

global space, with her economic fortunes improving for the better. This point is crucial because

of the position of this paper that African economic development needs to be decolonized. In the

process of decolonizing Africa, there is the imperative to revisit Africa’s distant past in order to

12
strengthen the African spirit of communalism as well as family-hood that regulates interpersonal

relationships amongst Africans. That is to say, Africa should engage the contemporary world

with local knowledge initiative. The economic renewal has to be such that will take into great

consideration, the African factor. The African factor here is that unique African interpretation of

reality or mode of knowing and living. This aspect of the African is very important and has

relevance to the African life. So, whatever is done with regards to African economic

emancipation without taking this vital aspect of the African into consideration is incomplete.

The economic dimension of traditional Africa holds a lot of promise that can be

incorporated into the economic experience of modern Africa. For example, one fundamental

question that can be asked with regards to policy formulation is, what is in traditional African

thinking that can be added to the economic analysis or projections for Africa’s emancipation?

This question ought to always be asked because there are old ways of solving new problems.

Jim Unah, writing along this line of thinking notes that the individualistic attitude of ‘everyone

for himself and God for us all’ is totally un-heard of in the economic life of the African. Land

was a common property of all members of the community. Every family had a piece of land

allotted to it. Members of the family share from the family land. It is through land that the living

is connected to the dead. To deny a family of a share of the community’s land is to deprive such

a family of its external link to its ancestors (118).

There is a lot to learn here with regards to the Land Use Act that most modern African

communities employ in order to advance their economic quest. Land is sacred to the African and

a very important resource for economic development. Today, almost all African countries are

returning back to agriculture in boosting the economy and creating jobs. That cannot be

actualized if the Land Use Act does not capture the peculiarities of land in Africa from the

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traditional perspective. In traditional Africa, public utilities as road, market, halls, squares were

built through community efforts in which every member of the group contributed his own quota

for the collective good of all. Jim Unah again puts it this way:

Organized labour or community task force executed the

general programmes of the group. Whoever fails to take part
was surcharged in cash or kind. There was also a kind of
rotational labour force or work teams comprising a group of
certain age grades who took turns attending to the farming
projects of the labour force. This way, the weaker members
of the community could easily cope with their farm projects
without necessarily lagging behind (118).

The point being underscored here is that economic policies of traditional Africa took into

cognizance the weak and vulnerable because wealth is nothing if it cannot be distributed to cater

for the need of all. This idea of African rulers coming into power and amassing public wealth is

un-African. It is a Western residue of exploitation that is foreign to traditional African system of

economics. It is a taboo for an individual in traditional Africa to embezzle monies meant for

community development. The consequences are very dire and fatal which can lead to expulsion

from the community as well as death. The knowledge of this coupled with the kinship spirit that

exists in Africa makes it very difficult for the general common wealth of the people to be

misused by an individual or group. Wealth in traditional Africa or economic prosperity has a

different connotation. It is not for the suppression of the people but for the service of other

members of the society. The principle of life forces also operates here with the understanding

that every life force adds up to the collective force. What affects one, affects the other and the

poverty of one is the poverty of the other.

This ontological cum epistemological dimension of traditional African economic

principle ought to be known by all and to be preserved or maintained. This is where colonialism

is hugely blamed for the many economic woes of modern Africa alongside the colonial mentality

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that some African leaders have imbibed. Every reality has a colouration and so is colonialism. It

is an ideology of the West that is premised upon the culture of the West and such cannot fit into

traditional African identity. This is the same posture that economic dynamics and development

has assumed because they follow Western ontology.

Whether it is called IMF or the World Bank, the agenda is one and it is founded on

Western principle and not African occasioned by what is known as globalization. Innocent

Asouzu was correct when he stated that whenever the idea of globalization is defined within the

context of bifurcating type of ontology, it is immediately also brought into direct relationship to

the negative side of the innate primitive human instinct of self preservation; a character that it

shares with most finite sentient being and most especially with brutes. When this happens, the

foundation on which globalization is built is ontologically challenged and stressed. The most

adverse effect of this would be that “mutual understanding and co-existence would be put into

serious jeopardy, since what it takes to upheld these has been subjected to conditions that make it

almost impossible for them to be realized” (389). Africa should get back to African root in

solving her economic challenge. This is achievable if the mentality of dependency on the West

for survival is abolished.

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