Why Africa Fails by Elly Twineyo-Kamugisha

Author:Elly Twineyo-Kamugisha [Twineyo-Kamugisha, Elly]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780624057956
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Wrong political ideology and development policies

The developing world is experiencing a revolution unlike any other it has ever known. No strangers to tumult, countries in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe are for the first time embracing capitalism. Their success or failure will depend in a large part on whether they can make the transition from the old world of comparative advantage – relying on abundant natural resources, sunshine and cheap labour – to the new world of competitive advantage: making strategic choices in an age of global markets and networked organisations (Fairbanks & Lindsay, 1997).

Bates (1981) has argued that African politicians chose policies that served their own interests rather than those that favoured national economic development. Therefore, countries did not adopt policies that favoured national strategies for growth and development; instead, leaders adopted policies, strategies and frameworks that ensured their personal benefit. Such a self-serving pattern of politics after independence was bad for development.

The second approach was the adoption of socialism. President Nyerere, who promoted Ujamaa, a form of socialism adopted in Tanzania, said that the African societies of the times, without a class of professionals or a middle class to steer the private sector, were suited to socialism. By nature, Africans were themselves socialist, with communal ownership of productive assets, such as land. At independence, with agrarian economies and support from the USSR, most African states adopted a socialistic or dual economy. The strong belief in the role of the state as the manager of national resources was adopted as the new approach by African independent states. Most revolutionaries, including Nelson Mandela, were perceived by the West as communists or socialists.¹⁰

As we have come to know, communism or socialism failed to deliver growth and welfare in African societies. And as Keynes wrote: ‘ . . . Communism is discredited by events; socialism, in its old-fashioned interpretation, no longer interests the world’ (Skidelsky, 1992: 121). The belief in communal ownership discouraged competitiveness and self-interest. Governments saw themselves as sole national providers of the needs of society, and in Africa, this failed to solve problems associated with poverty. Begging for aid continued. It is only recently that most African countries have accepted a private-sector orientation in national development. The only problem has been that, after accepting economic liberalisation, leaders forget the vital roles played by the state in regulating, influencing and facilitating the economic sector. The global financial crisis and comments from world leaders, such as former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, that the financial sector has become greedy, have left people wondering whether ‘capitalism has lost its self-confidence’, as Keynes noted (Skidelsky, 1992: 121).

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.