Review of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

It was written by Walter Rodney, with an economic analysis of how Europe engaged in an unequal relationship with Africa and subsequently exploited the continent country and specifically how this form of colonialism differed from other parts of the world. Rodney posits that Europe and Africa had a dialectical relationship where Europe's development was dependent upon the underdevelopment of Africa. He argues there was an intimate and causal relationship between Europe's growth and Africa's decline or at best, stagnation in terms of development. Thus, Europe's capitalist growth can only be correctly and fully understood with the concomitant exploitation of Africa and colonialism. This book is an economic analysis of how Europe engaged in an unequal relationship with Africa and subsequently exploited the continent country and specifically how this form of colonialism differed from other parts of the world. Rodney posits that Europe and Africa had a dialectical relationship where Europe's development was dependent upon the underdevelopment of Africa. He argues there is an intimate and causal relationship between Europe's growth and Africa's decline or at best, stagnation in terms of development. Thus, Europe's capitalist growth can only be correctly and fully understood with the concomitant exploitation of Africa and colonialism.

Africa is rich in natural as well as human resources which are the basis for the prosperity of a given nation. Despite its potential the continent is still underdeveloped. Different scholars have tried to analyze the root causes of under development in Africa in different perspective. Some from the colonization perspective and others from the political set up of the continent. Based on this rational, we were initiated to review different literatures to identify the real causes of poverty in Africa, and to recommend an appropriate development theory for the continent. The socio political set up of African countries has a similarity with those of the East Asian nations which have brought economic progress through exercising developmental state. These countries were able to solve their citizens' unemployment through implementing technical education in their education policy, which is the peculiar feature of developmental state. Therefore, African leaders have to strive for change in the continent to reverse the situation through applying developmental state theory and gradually in a way of exercising democratic culture in the region.

From the years of independences to the present era, many debates took place about Africa and its capacities for change, progress and development. This is evidenced through the implications of the United Nations and its specialised institutions, National programs like USAID, Regional organisations as OECD, and private institutes as McKinsey Global Institute, universities and research programs, International banks and so on, to help Africa in making possible the so desired development. It seems that the entire world systems are working to help Africa to achieve the aforementioned goals. Throughout the history of this continent researchers have discovered, as in other continents, different dynamics for change, progress and well-being which characterise all humans around the planet. Imperialism and colonialism have slowed down these movements initiated by Africa but have not stopped them (movements). Since the Conference of Berlin to nowadays, the problematic of development in Africa is one of the main debates in the scientific literature of development studies. In this essay, we want to try to understand some aspects of that problematic by analysing a critical article of one of the most radical theories of the development, namely the post-development theory.We want to explore issues that this theory put on debate on the basis of the critical article of Jan NederveenPieterse “After post-development”. The first part of this essay will help us to understand and discuss the development theory and its critics as well as negations put forth by some radicals as the post-development theory. In the second part of this essay, the contemporaneous debates about African development and its (new) mechanisms will be explored by regarding another article entitled “The ‘New Scramble’ and Labour in Africa”by Roger Southall. In this way, we want to understand the recent debates about Africa and the possibilities of its “development”.

Africa Update.Vol. XXVI, Issue 3 (Summer 2019) How Europe Underdeveloped Africa: A Tribute to Walter Rodney, 2019

Europe Underdeveloped Africa. It is demonstrated that Rodney's ideas are usually presented in distorted forms and the criticisms against them lack a valid foundation. Rodney was not a person rigidly bound to some idea. He was a scholar who applied Marxist theory in a creative fashion to the African condition. In addition to the economic exploitation of the African people, Rodney also dealt with the anti-imperialist and anti-racist political struggles in Africa. In the process of critiquing the works of some influential African scholars of today who ignore basic economic factors and focus on legal and cultural issues, Hirji presents a strong case for the continued relevance of Rodney and his major work. He notes that the predictions implied by How Europe Underdeveloped Africa as to the economic domination of Africa today are 'stunningly accurate.' Rodney's method of social analysis which combined theory with practice is essential for analyzing the African and global societies. Some critics accuse Rodney of overemphasizing external forces and neglecting the agency of Africans. Hirji points out that such criticisms are flawed because Rodney's analysis integrated external and internal factors. And the core role that imperialism plays in the underdevelopment of Africa cannot be overemphasized. The liberation of Africa from the clutches of imperialism has to be led by Africans. African masses have to take control of state power in order to halt the underdevelopment of Africa by the West and their African class allies. The apologists of neo-liberalism say Rodney was too polemical and mixed the role of the scholar with that of an activist. Yet, it is a misguided view since history abounds with cases of exemplary scholars and scientists who were also prominent activists in their days. In sum, Rodney does not offer a simple binary choice between hope and struggle to Africans and others but an integrated emphasis on hope and struggle. Walter Rodney was assassinated by local reactionary forces working in conjunction with imperialism in 1980 in his home country, Guyana. Yet, his legacy as a revolutionary and public intellectual survives. Despite the concrete and ideological reversals since his times and the erasure of anti-capitalist texts from syllabi in Africa, Australia, Asia, Europe and America, some prominent scholars continue to refer to How Europe Underdeveloped Africa as a foundational text. His major book still commands a global audience. In this special issue of Africa Update, we have invited eminent scholars to evaluate the continuing relevance of Walter Rodney to Africa and the rest of the world in line with the Enduring Relevance thesis of Hirji and in accordance with the Postscript to the original publication by Rodney written by A.M. Babu. We are fortunate to include the piece by Kimani Nehusi, The Walter Rodney Professor of History, University of Guyana and Professor of Africology at Temple University. He updates the relevance of Rodney by indicating the attention paid to his work today by top theorists and by popular musicians alike and concludes that the themes of unequal exchange that Rodney theorized in the dialectical relationships between Europe and Africa persists today. Also included is a piece by the editor of this special issue of Africa Update, Biko Agozino, Professor of Sociology and Africana Studies, Virginia Tech, with a focus on the enduring relevance of the analysis of education for underdevelopment and education for development in Africa by Walter Rodney. Finally, Nigel Westmaas, Associate Professor of Africana Studies at Hamilton College, completes the special issue with an overview of the contemporary relevance of Walter Rodney's popular education work against imperialist domination and to Marxist historiography, innovation of world system analysis and the application of dependency theory to Africa.

Africa Development, 2005

The idea of development is generally seen as central to any discussion of the economic, cultural, and political sociologies of the worlds nations. Nations of the West are seen as developed and members of the First World, while those of Africa, Latin America and some of those of Asia are seen as developing and belonging to the Third World. I propose to examine the meaning and application of the term development with respect to Africa, then discuss whether Africa was ever developedrecognizing that the term is temporally relative. I will also discuss the idea of what Africa would look like were it at the frontiers of development. I will then examine theories and applications of theories of development for Africa. Finally, I will examine current theories of development and their potential for success in Africa. Theories to be examined are the neoclassical theory, dependency theory, post-structuralism, and developmentalism. Résumé Le concept de développement est habituellement considéré comme central à toute discussion portant sur les sociologies économiques, culturelles et politiques des pays du monde. Les nations de l'Occident sont considérées comme «développées» et faisant partie du «Premier Monde», tandis que celles d'Afrique, d'Amérique Latine et certaines d'Asie sont perçues comme étant «en développement» et constituent le «Tiers-monde». Je suggère que l'on procède à un examen de la signification et de l'application du terme «développement», dans le cas de l'Afrique, puis que l'on cherche à savoir si l'Afrique a jamais été développée (considérant que ce terme possède une temporalité relative). J'évoque également «ce à quoi l'Afrique ressemblerait» si celle-ci se trouvait au seuil du développement. Ensuite, j'analyse les théories et applications des théories de développement à l'Afrique. Et pour finir, j'étudie les actuelles théories de développement, ainsi que leur potentiel de réussite sur le continent. Les théories examinées sont les suivantes: la théorie néoclassique, celle de la dépendance, du post-structuralisme et du développementalisme.