TOPIC 10

THE AFRICAN SITUATION

REFERENCE
1. Williams, Grarving, “Nigeria: A political Economy “ in G. Williams (ed) Nigeria:
Economy and Society
2. Rodney, Walter, How Europe underdeveloped African
3. Ake, Claude, Explanatory notes on the political economy of Africa”, Journal of
Modern African studies 141,1976 pp 1- 23
4. Fernandez, Raul, “ Thirs world industrialization a new panacea? “ monthly review
may 1980 vol 32 1,pp 11-18
5. Abellatif Benachenlou, for autonomous development in the third world” . Monthly
Review July – August 1980 vol 32, 3, 43-52
6. Akeredolu-Ale, E.O, “ free Enterprise strategy and the persistence of social
underdevelopment “. Paper presented to the 9 th world congress of sociology in
Uppsala, Sweden, August 1978.
7. Aboyade, o, “ issues in the development of Tropical Africa “, Ibadan Social
Science Series, Ibadan University press 1976

(1) CLAUDE AKE

According to Claude Ake, the economy of the Third World is characterized by five
points:
1) Stateist: controlled by the state. This he, said, was inherited from the state is an
explorer. They underpay labour and manipulate the economy
2) Underdeveloped productive forces ( the characteristics of African bourgeoisie)
3) Dependent economy: they are primary producers and depends solely on others to
buy their products and process before they are in good shape
4) High sectorial disarticulation. The different parts of the economy are not linked.
5) Three main modes of production
1. Primitive subsistence mode
2. Simple commodity (petty traders)
3. Capitalist mode ( Derived or imposed capitalism with a low level of production –
much of the capital, the goods and the know – how are got from abroad.
Consequently, the bourgeoisie is a commercial, weak, middlemen bourgeoisie that
depend on foreign bourgeoisie)
AKE’S VIEW OF CLASSES
A lot of people think that Africa is not class divided. He however said that Africa
appeared classless because of the rudimentary urban proletariat as well as the large
body of people ( peasants, unemployed and underemployed etc.) Who do not earn
wages. Nevertheless, he argued that is a distinction between those who have and
those who do not have. Usually, the people who own are people who control the
political sphere of the society.
AKE ON ETHNICITY:
Ake feels that ethnicity is exploited by the bourgeoisie. It is his contention that
there is the politicisation of ethnicity and when the bourgeoisie compete among
themselves, they use distorted information to ascertain the support of some ethnic
groups. He therefore behaves that in most of the African countries, ethnicity is used
as a tool of oppression after it had been used to ascend the power to the center.
He feels that ethnicity will diminish as the bourgeoisie and proletarian positions are
well established.
AKE ON ONE PARTY SYSTEM
Ake feels that the state is run by people who do want opposition or competition. It
is therefore common in most African countries that people who loose elections are
always oppressed or suffer.
AKE ON ECONOMIC STAGNATION
Ake argues that the African bourgeoisie is dependent on their foreign counterparts.
This kind of bourgeoisie do not really develop the society because they are self
centered. The situation could therefore be exploited by their foreign counterparts
who would be ready to give aids in form of lending, hand outs, gifts etc. and often
– time , with string attached to it.
Ake is a dependency theorist.
 (2)PROFESSOR ABOYADE
ISSUES IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TROPICAL AFRICA. IBADAN
SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES, IBADAN UNIVERSITY PRESS .
According to Aboyade (1976) “ Tropical Africa………. Constitutes the economic
backyard of the contemporary world. This, he however argued, has not always
been so and needs no longer be so. It is an agreed fact that Tropical Africa (that is,
areas covering about 7.4 million sq miles south of Sahara and North of Zambezi)
has a still greater potential for economic development. However, the ability to
realize this potential especially in the face of massive obstacles depends on the
possibility of resolving the inherent historical conflicts in the areas of socio-
economic analysis (Tropical Africa).
The paper therefore hopes to examine the problems of the development of tropical
Africa in the proper historical context of the contemporary world economy – since
“ the part is meaningful only in terms of the whole”
THE PRE- COLONIAL ECONOMY
The present state of economy of Tropical Africa only falls within the antecedent of
history. Previous to the colonial era, the zone under consideration, it has been
argued, had been self sufficient. Recent historical and archeological evidence have
served to prove that tropical Africa could be described as having:
A) Thriving agricultural and pastoral communities producing adequate food for their
requirements as well as some surplus for inter-regional commerce.
B) An essential democratic econ organization based largely on small peasant
proprietorship with strong egalitarian elements in the access to and the use of land,
and in the resulting distribution of income by factor shares
C) Fairly complex social institutions to support large political units that were able to
organize and administer for the defense of their communities as well as erpaged in
trade with other large and distant communities.
D) Impressive indigenous works of art, crafts and artifacts, which are distinctive and
could only be products of long settled communities with high cultural values,
expressing an integral part of everyday economic Life, religious worship and social
order.
These historical findings are of great importance because of some reason such as
that:
 I. The old notion of vicious circle of poverty can scarcely apply to communities that
produced a surplus for expanded production as well as for supporting cultural
goods and services
II. With the wide expanse of land and the beneficence of good tropical weather
(abundant rainfall and sunshine) fairly high output of food per man/acre can be
achieved with unsophisticated production technique.
III. The democratic imperative of government and distribution of real income in a way
that mitigate against wide social justice were ensured by the social relations which
incidentally forms the basis of economic organization.
IV. Every able-bodied person was gainfully occupied in economic roles and in pursuit
of maximum self fulfilment, within the constraints of available technology and the
ethos of established social values e.g the frowning against deliberate underutilized
of manpower.
“Similarly, given the motivations, a given community could raise total available
surpluses to pay tributes (taxation) for financing communal PROJECTS (social
goods, or PROSECUTING wars ( Defense) or preparing new land for cultivation
( Capital formation)” p.3
PHYSICAL PROBLEM OR FACTORS MILITATING AGAINST
TROPICAL DEVELOPMENT
However, the above social and political arrangements was such that hinders major
economic transformation. This is because of the tropical nature of the environment
in which:
a) The land/labour ratio provides for little or no pressure for technological
innovations in production.
b) The perilous tropical diseases (Esp. from mosquitoes, worms, flies, rodents etc. as
well as floods, fire, pests, parasites and other natural perils operate to keep a rather
morbid kind of ecological balance between the population and their environment
c) Poor technology in the mechanical sciences made it difficult to construct the
necessary transportation and communications network through thick forest ,
swamp and riverine terrain to being in various communities together and Forester
larger trade and markets.
d) The very munificence of tropical climate to which we have earlier alluded, was
not altogether beneficial. The fact that all forms of life grow faster in the tropics
means that it applies to both economically beneficent and harmful lives alike. The
weather vaparies sometimes are such that rainfall maybe too much or too little, or
 too soon or too far for good cropping. This is worsened by strong words which
cause leaching on the poor soil. The hot Sun, though good for plants dissipates
human energy especially the peasant in the farm.
e) There was little or no financial or economic incentive for the communities to
sacrifice more leisure for work at existing relative price and the prevailing
technology.
POLITICAL. THE IMPACT OF COLONIALISM.
Colonization of the tropical African countries undoubtedly
Upset the social and economic balance – wheel of these countries. This became
more pronounced not because of new contacts with the outside world it brought
( Tropical Africa has had earlier contract the Mediterranean through trans-saharan
trade) but because of the change both in pace and in character of external
incursions which resulted in commercial deprivation in West African slave trade
and it’s economic dominance in the foreign – owned plantations and wines in east -
central Africa
With the above preamble, let us now examine the impact of colonialism on the
nature productive capacity of tropical Africa, and the legacies this has bequeath in
terms of New problems for national economic management and the process of
social reconstruction.
1. The first major impact of colonialism was to alter the balance between man and his
environment. Slave trade did not only reduce the number of people per same acre
of land but the character and structure of the remaining population was necessary
altered. The structure was such that there were less able bodied men, more
dependents ( aged, children and the infant) and women. It was therefore necessary
to have a choser spatial redistribution of settlements for greater protection and
safety. This resulted in the weakening of social relations and a strain of the
maintenance of social order through traditional democratic institutions as power
relations were substituted for reasons and consensus.
2. There was a slight change in the entrenched external dependence of the economy
of tropical Africa with the recedence of slave trade. However, the change was in
style and not in character. This was because the emphasis was not on the
reconstruction of and development of Post slavery economy, rather, it was on
creation of enclev economies as service statellites for the rising tempo of 19 th
century western industrial capitalism
 3. The post slavery mud “ economic revolution “ of the late 19 th and early 20th century
Tropical Africa led to the growth of new shanty towns, rising imports, expanding
money supply, the spread of western literacy, the creation of a new living style.
However, the prosperity of the tropical economy at this period had been criticized
as being enclaves’ without any indigenous base since the fulcrum of developments
resided in metropolitan countries.
The Residual Legacies of Colonialism in Tropical countries especially as it
affects the development policies of the subcontinent includes the followings.
I. It denudated the area of vital manpower and left a lopsided demographic balance
unable to cope with the harsh tropical elements in the development process
II. It expropriated much of the irreplaceable stock of highly valuable natural resources
(e.g mineral wealth) which are an important foundation for economic development
III. It appropriated to a small elite or disproportionate share of capital stock of the
community especially of the fertile land.
IV. It imposed both by direct fiscal and physical coercion and by indirect Price
incentives, a structure of production and specialization dictated by demand
patterns and strategic requirements which were external to African economies and
beyond their influence
V. It created a set of administrative institutions which not only undermined local
traditional democratic processes, but were immensely unsuited for motivating and
mobilizing the economy for real task for massive sustained development.
VI. Finally, it destroyed an essentially humanistic the system which inherently
reconciles material development with moral virtue and social justice.