Africa’s role in the World economy has been the
SUPPLIER of raw materials and a CONSUMER of imported industrial goods. This
began with colonization for much of colonial policy was preoccupied with bringing
about an increase in raw material production and exports. The development of
industry was discouraged in the African colonies. Despite efforts by
independent African states to overcome this economic difficulty, there has been
very little change. The EXPORTER of raw materials and CONSUMER of imported
goods status has created several economic problems for
African countries:
1. Unfavorable terms of trade and low purchasing
power (see page 329 for table).
2. Led to Huge Debts (mainly from imports)
3. Turned African countries into recipients of
financial aids (see pages 330 & 333 for Table)
Africa comprises 19% of
world's total land area and is home to 13% its population. The continent is
endowed with 97% of worlds chromium; 90% of cobalt; 85% of platinum; 64% of
manganese; 50% of gold and phosphates; 40% of HEP potential; 30% of uranium;;
20% of all traded petroleum outside USA and USSR; 12% of natural gas; 7.7% of
coal; 13% of copper; 15% of iron ore; the bulk of the world's diamonds; 70% of
world cocoa; 60% of coffee; 50% palm oil; millions of acres of arable land. In
spite of all these resources,
a.
b. Large populations in
c. Per capita income account for only 3% of world income.
This small share is even on decline
c. Controls only 2% of international trade
d. Maintains a Life expectancy much
lower than in the industrial countries .
e. Under 5 mortality account
for 30% of all deaths in
1. Under
utilization or non-use of resources
2. Ineffective or
inefficient use
3. Resources not being
utilized for Africa's benefit
Manifestations of economic
decline in Africa:
-declining food availability
-worsening balance of
payment deficits
-dwindling foreign exchange
revenue
-sluggish or negative growth
of national income
-high rates of inflation
-declining productivity
especially in the public sector
-rising budget deficits
-degradation of the physical
environment i.e deforestation, soil erosion,
desertification
-bankruptcy and the collapse
of corporations
-rising unemployment
-increasing indebtedness
a. Domestic mismanagement and problems:
Corruption; administrative
bottlenecks; ineffective population control; political instability;
pricing, trade and exchange rate policies;
civil wars
b. Hostile international economic environment:
Lack of demand for primary
products which represent Africa's principal trade items; trade
protectionism in developed economies;
rising interest rates and increasing debt burden; energy
costs
c. Acts of nature:
Climatic and geographical factors such as drought,
land-locked countries etc.
WHAT IS ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT?
Neo-classical economists have adopted several indices
for measuring development and inequalities. These indices are widely used in
World Bank and UN publications that monitor growth and development in the
international arena.
1. Gross National Product (GNP) per head
The most widely used indicator of economic
development. If GNP per head grows over time in a particular country, then
development is said to have taken place. The higher the GNP
per capita, the richer the country and vice versa. For example,
according to the table below which is based on 1990 figures, Mozambique with a
GNP of US$80 and Switzerland with US$32,680 are classified by the World Bank as
the poorest and richest countries, respectively. Using GNP, the world is
divided into income groups.
Income groups Average GNP (US$) 1990
Low
income 350
Lower
middle 1,530
Middle
income 2,220
Upper
middle income 3,410
Higher
income 19,590
OECD
members 20,170
Sub-Saharan Africa 340
Source: World Bank (1992) World Development Report,
Table 1
Among the 43 countries classified by the World Bank
as low income countries, 27 Are in
In 1992, Low income countries consumed average
energy equivalent to 339 kilograms of oil per capita, Sub-Saharan Africa
consumed an average of 103 kg ( up from 74 in 1965. Energy import increased from
7% of merchandise import in 1965 to 28% in 1990. Compare from 8% to 10% in all
low and middle income countries combined. Energy consumption
range from 17 kgs in
1989 Daily 1984 Population per
Calorie
intake Physician Nurse
Low income 2406 5,890 2,180
middle income 2860
2,180 980
lower midd.inc 2768
1,020 1,080
upper mid. inc 2987 1,160
930
upper income 3398 470 140
OECD 3072 450 130
Canada 3482 510 -
USA 3671 470 70
Japan 2956 660 60
Ghana 2248
20,390 1,670
Kenya 2163 10,050 -
Sub-Saharan
Africa 2122 26,670 2,180
Source: World Bank (1992) World Development Report,
Table 28
4. Adult illiteracy levels 1990 (%)
Sub-Saharan Africa: 50
Ghana 40
Zimbabwe 33
Ethiopia 76
Low income countries 40
Middle income
25
OECD
4
Group/Country Inf. Mort. Crude B/R Crude D/R Fertility Life
Exp.
per 1000 per 1000 per 1000
Low income 70 31 10 3.3 62
Middle Income 51 29 08 3.7 73
Upper Inc. 09 14 09 1.8 76
OECD 08 13 09 1.7 76
Canada 08 14 07 1.7 77
USA 10 15 09 1.9 76
Ghana 86 45 13 6.3 55
Mozambique 137 46 17 6.4 49
S.Saharan Africa 107 46 16 6.5 51
Source: World Bank (1991;1992)
Tables 1 and 27
-higher in developed countries: eg
Higher income countries had average of 71 and 77% of
population in urban areas in 1965 and 1990 respectively. Figures were 72 and 77
for OECD countries in the same year. Compare with 17 and 36 % for developing
countries in 1965 and 1989 respectively. Sub-Saharan Africa: 32 %in 1990;
Growth rate 5-9 % from 1980-1990
7. Social indicators and Physical Quality of
Life indices
Physical Quality of Life Index (PQLI) shows where
individual countries or other groups stand among the worst and best in the
world regarding indices such as adult literacy rates, life expectancy at birth
etc. Despite the crude nature of the PQLI, it is able to measure results rather
than input by making use of widely available data. Generally,
the higher the GNP of a country, the better the PQLI.
In short, developing countries are said to be
characterized a litany of ills which include poverty, very high rates of
population growth, low growth rates of gross domestic product, low rates of industrialization,
extremely high dependence on agriculture, high unemployment and
underemployment, uneven income distribution, etc. From all the criteria
examined, we can conclude that the whole of Africa is classified as
underdeveloped. However, can we depend upon mere statistics, especially the
GNP, to determine development?
Some basic
questions about development:
Is economic development synonymous with growth in
per capita income? According to Dudley Seers, the questions one needs to ask
about development are:
a) what is happening to
poverty?
b) what is happening to
unemployment?
c) what is happening to
inequality?
If the GNP doubles, triples or even quadruples and
yet the number of people living in poverty increases, unemployment rises and
inequalities become entrenched, then according to Seers (1969), then it is
doubtful to say that development has taken place
Patterns of disparities and inequalities can be seen
at 4 levels, namely
- international
patterns
- intra-national
patterns
- intra-regional
patterns
- intra-urban
patterns
The differences between poor and rich countries can
be measured by examining a wide range of statistical indices. If we analyze
international inequalities by comparing the GNP of various countries, the
result is shocking. In 1990, the average Swiss citizen had an income of $32,680
against $80 for the average Mozambican. While African had incomes of $340,
citizens of the OECD enjoyed over $20,000 (ratio: 1: 58).
The trend indicates that the rich countries are getting
richer while the poor ones are getting poorer. On the average citizens of high
income countries had incomes 55.5 times that of low income while middle income
countries were 6 times richer than their counterparts in the rich countries.
107 out of every 1000 babies born in Africa are likely to die before they turn
one (figure was 157 in 1965); 149 for Malawi; 134 in Burkina Faso; Zaire 94;
Ghana 103. These figures for 1990 show considerable improvement over the past
30 years, but it is still unacceptable (compared with 7 (.07%) in Switzerland
and Canada
On the average 107 children out of every 1000 born
in sub-Saharan Africa are buried before their first birthday (Compare with 35
in East Asia, 95 in South Asia, 50 in Latin America and 8 in OECD countries).
Apart from the pre-1 year olds, countless number of children between 1 and 4
also die from preventable or treatable diseases every year. In fact 33 out of
every 1000 kids between 1-4 years die annually in developing compared with an
insignificant 0.8 in the industrialized countries. Poor access to medical
facilities, malnutrition, lack of treated water, ignorance and the like
contribute to the prevalence of diseases like whooping cough, dysentery, polio,
diarrhea (diarrhea), malaria and other infant killers which claim millions of
life every year in the third world.
In the case of Africa, for instance, there has been
a tremendous improvement from 1965 when the infant mortality rate was 157, but
this is not enough. OECD figure dropped from 25 to 8 over the same period and
low income countries as a whole from 124 to 70. We can analyze all the other
indicators ranging from number of physicians per 1000 people to educational
levels and the result will demonstrate ludicrous disparities between the
developed and developing countries. Many developing countries, especially those
in Africa, are caught in a vicious circle of poverty and unless they are able
to break out (but how?) their situation will continue to get worse.
Not only are disparities seen at the international
level, but within the boundaries of individual countries too. In many African
countries, urban dwellers receive incomes several times higher than their rural
counterparts (refer to table below)
Source: Harrison, P (1984) Inside the
Rural-urban disparities are greater in
This includes the following measures:
a. Social differentiation
b. High class vrs low
class residential areas (slums, squatter settlements, ghettos)
c. Unequal access to jobs in various parts of the
city
d. Unequal acces public
transport
e. Unequal access to quality education for children
How can we explain the persistence and
intensification of disparities, in capitalist and peripheral capitalist
countries? Two main
views have been advanced on this issue:
1. Spatial inequalities should be seen as the
unfortunate but inevitable by-products of the capitalist mode of production (Browett 1984:156)
2. Uneven regional development is a necessary
pre-condition for continuous capital accumulation (Browett
1984: 155)
EXPLAINING UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN
Several theories have been propounded to explain how
development and underdevelopment occur. These include:
1. Neoclassical/Modernization
theories,
2.
Neo-Marxist (Dependency and World system)
3. Marxist
theories.
a. Neoclassical/modernization theories (also called
'growth' theories)
Key features:
1.
Development was seen as a linear movement of society from traditional to
modern. As Epstein (1973:1-2) puts it, this unilinear
approach, while making some allowances for individual countries and regions
describes contemporary world history as the progression of each country from
underdeveloped or traditional to developed and modern and postulates a series
of two or more stages through which all countries are alleged sooner or later
to pass. Thus, the more 'traditional ' of the dual segments is seen as
historically more archaic or less advanced, and it can see in the less
traditional of the two segments the image of its own future.
ROWSTOW'S EVOLUTIONARY LADDER OF DEVELOPMENT
Perhaps, most of all, Rowstow's
evolutionary theory of the stages of development represents the most popular version of
this unilinear view.
-According to Rostow
(1960) all societies must pass through five developmental stages which comprise :
1. the traditional society
2. pre takeoff
3.
take-off stage
4. the stage of maturity
5. high mass consumption.
2. The transition from traditional societies to modernity
in the 'backward' societies supposedly hindered by 2 types of obstacles:
a. lack of certain inputs - e.g competent entrepreneurs, skilled workforce, motivation
or work orientation
b. too much of certain other
characteristics lumped together as tradition,
e.g traditional
religion, extended family system etc.
The essence of this theory was that the problems of
3. Development and westernization are synonymous.
'Modernization' theorists saw development as a continuum following the pattern
followed in earlier decades by
Problems with
modernization theory:
a) Too much emphasis on internal processes and
constraints as the determinants of development
b)
Its insistence on the universal applicability of western paths of development.
c) By neglecting history and the seeds sown by the
expansion of global capitalism, the modernization school failed to account for
underdevelopment in the developing countries, particularly in Africa since, as
argued by neo-Marxist scholars, the present day underdevelopment in these
countries has been determined by the past five centuries of capitalist world
development (King, 1989; Mabogunje, 1979; Amin, 1974a). To paraphrase Potter (1985:48),
The processes that led to mercantile trade, and
distant colonialism, imperialism and post-war independence were also agents
responsible in promoting contemporary underdevelopment in developing countries.
Thus, no account of contemporary
d) Over
dependence on the GNP as the barometer of development
e) Yet another shortcoming in the modernization
development theory is its failure to consider the importance of spatial
structure in the process of development.
Despite all the weaknesses in the modernization
theory that make it quite unacceptable, it is still in vogue. In the 1980's,
the World Bank and International Monetary Fund resurrected 'modernization' and
re-christened it 'Structural Adjustment'. In simple terms, structural
adjustment, like modernization theory attributes underdevelopment to internal
constraints while ignoring history and exogenous factors, and calls upon
developing countries to put their economic houses in order so as to facilitate
export led growth (Higgott,1983; World Bank, 1981) and
consequently generate foreign exchange to cover import costs and for internal
development.
b. The Neo-Marxist/Dependency paradigm
There are 2 main streams: Dependency theory and
World System theory.
Despite the varying streams of thoughts within this
school their key argument could be summed up as:
The chasm between the levels of prosperity in
different countries was created by an economic process in which the development
of one sector of the globe (the WEST) resulted in the stagnation or gradual
retrogression of poor developing countries. Capitalist development
simultaneously generated development in Western nations and underdevelopment in
poor developing countries many of which were colonized by the West. Development
and underdevelopment are therefore not separate processes, but related facets
of one single process (Buchanan, 1968:81-3; also cited in Brewer, 1977 and
Forbes, 1984). In other words underdevelopment and development are two sides of
the same coin, to paraphrase Frank (1966; 1969; 1972). Thus, underdevelopment
in the
According to this school of thought, external forces
are to blame for underdevelopment in
c. World System Theory
One of the theories cast in the neo-Marxist
perspective. Key theorist is Immanuel Wallerstein.
The key argument is that underdevelopment and development cannot be studied
properly on the basis of individual nation states. The theory asserts that a
capitalist world economy has been in existence since the 16th century. From
that time on this system engulfed a growing number of previously more or less
isolated and self-sufficient societies into a complex system of functional
relations. The process of expansion had 2 major dimensions, viz. 1)
geographical broadening and 2) socioeconomic deepening. The result of this
expansion was that a small number of 'core' states transformed a huge
area into a 'periphery'. In between these core and periphery, world
system theorists identify 'semi-peripheries' which play a key role in the
functioning of the system.
Division of labor under the world system is characterized
by the core countries assuming the role of industrial producers whereas the
periphery is consigned the role of agricultural producers. The most important
feature of the semi-periphery compared with the periphery is an increase in
industrial activities. Furthermore, the rising semi-peripheries are strong and
ambitious states, more or less aggressively competing for core status ( Hettne, 1990 p. 123).
Semi-peripheries partially deflect the political pressures which groups located
in peripheral areas might otherwise direct against core states and the groups
which operate within and through their state machineries.
According to the world system theory, the process of
underdevelopment started with the incorporation of a particular external area
into the world system, i.e peripherization.
As the world system expanded, first
1. Underdevelopment is not an original state, but
rather a created condition
2. Development does not necessarily travel from the
center to the periphery. Underdevelopment of the periphery is the result of the
development of the center. The expansion of the industrialized and capitalist
nations creates and perpetuates underdevelopment
3. Capitalist development creates dualism both at
the international and national levels
4. International dualism within the
Critique of neo-Marxist views:
a. They provide a stagnant theory of development
that is a little more than a mirror image of the modernization theories they
claim to surpass.
b. Underdevelopment may not necessarily follow the
expansion of capitalism. Dependency theories failed to distinguish the spheres
of commodity exchange and production.
c. Neglect of internal processes and class formation
but class conflict, as Petras (1981:68) points out,
shapes the relationship between countries as much as it is shaped by
intersystem relations.
According Classical Marxists, underdevelopment can
only be understood in terms of Mode of Production and Class Analyses
(Foster-Carter, 1978).
a) Marxists fundamental
thesis is that the material economic base of society determines the
superstructure of social, legal and political institutions rather than vice
versa, and that each historical society is characterized by struggles between
the opposing social classes arising from the particular processes of production
within it (Sarin, 1982:7).
b)
c) The
capitalist mode of production which broke up and superseded the Asiatic mode
began in Europe in the 13th century, and has since dominated the world for
several centuries, included the accumulation of merchant capital, which
involved the exploitation of other societies through slavery, colonial plunder
and unequal exchange (Amin, 1974; Onimode, 1985).
d) It was
this spirit of capitalism that sent the European merchant class and the
colonialists to
From the Classical Marxist perspectives therefore,
modern society in the developing world is viewed as the process by which
pre-existing structures are encroached upon by capitalism in such a way that
surplus generated in the former are expropriated so as to perpetuate
('reproduce') the latter. Capitalism has emerged in the modern world as a mode
of production characterized by separation between producers and their means of
production. The economy has come to determine all other aspects of social life
to such an extent that society reproduces itself solely through the economy.
According to the Classical Marxists, any theory of
underdevelopment that does not include the mode of production cannot explain
the situation satisfactorily, since this is the foundation of all genuine
social theories. The imposition of the capitalist mode of production divided
the indigenous societies into the owners of the means of production and the
owners of labor and made it inevitable for the latter to move to the urban
centers to sell their labor to the former for a living wage in order to
survive. The bourgeois and elite classes that emerged from this relationship
have since co-operated with transnational and other foreign exploiters in the
exploitation of
Summary
of Classical Marxist views
1. The contemporary world dominated by 2 modes of
production: Capitalist and Socialist
2. Capitalist mode of production has 2 main features : viz.
a. Uneven distribution of
the mode of production
b. Commodity production
3. A means of production is unevenly distributed to
the extent that society is divided into 2 groups:
1. a small group of people who monopolize the means of production
2. the rest of the population who have no means of production
4. The relationship between the owners of means of
production and the majority who possess only labor is known as class relations.
Society is thus made up of the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The
difference between the exchange value of the proletariat labor power and
the value of its product called 'surplus value'. The surplus value goes into
the pocket of the bourgeoisie who thus live off the sweat of the proletariat.
5. Characterized by commodity production which give
capitalist society some of its characteristics
It may be argued that neither the neo-Marxist views as
espoused by neither the dependency school nor the classical Marxist views are
sufficient in themselves to render a fuller understanding of underdevelopment.
Taken together, however, they could complement each other and lead to a better
understanding since several competing devices are likely to prove reciprocally
reinforcing in a somewhat analogous way.
Key references:
Hicks and Streeten, 1979;
World Development Reports (1990; 1992); Ahluwalia,
1986; Cornia et
al, 1988; World Development , Vol. 7
No.6 1979 (special issue); Seers, 1972; 1977