The African Mind and Globalization: Rethinking the Causes of Africa’s Underdevelopment

Abstract

Sustainable development is an enduring old concept, which has become “the new bride” in building socio-economic, socio-cultural and socio-political paradigms of development by modern social practitioners and theorists the world over. The concept is often a co-traveler with “globalisation”, a concept that views the whole world as “a global village” and which seeks to break hitherto incompatible frontiers between nations of the world in favour of mutuality and complementarity for the sake of humanity. Africa, the once touted “cradle of civilisation”, and indeed, the forerunner of science and technology has not fared well in all of this, as she lags behind in almost all indices of human development, which measure the socio-economic advancements and wellbeing of nations. This paper identifies the root causes of Africa’s underdevelopment to include the intellectual and moral categories inherited from the traditional system, which seem to be at loggerheads with the modern idea of development. The paper also suggests the way forward, if the continent must break away from this self-inflicted dilemma and away from the cycle of underdevelopment.

Keywords: The African mind, globalization, development dilemma, Africa’s underdevelopment, intellectual and moral categories, sustainable development.