The Crisis of Technological Underdevelopment in Africa

Abstract

Most countries in Africa lack even the ability to feed their own populations and rather than gain grounds, are rapidly falling behind other third world states. This research attempts an analysis of factors that impede Africa’s development bid. Corrupt governments, often kept
in power by foreign donors, repressive states concerned with preserving their own power, and governments with no political will to change existing harmful political and economic structures, foreign ideologically motivated aid programmes, unfair trading practices, are cited among factors responsible for this underdevelopment. The odds are seemingly
overwhelming against any sort of economic development for most of the African states. Based essentially on exports of raw materials and mass imports of manufactured goods, African economies are characterize by dependence, a low growth rate of gross domestic product, a huge trade deficit and a heavy foreign debt. In spite of these, the search for
developmental models must vary. Though, there are common problems, but they interact in different ways in different places and some are more pronounced and intractable than others. The paper concludes that rather than seeking general strategies for the resolution of such problems, developmental efforts should be made towards analyzing individual states. Every country has its own peculiar problems and must therefore seek its own path to technological advancement.