Ideologies’ Role in Africa’s Political Underdevelopment

Abstract

Ideology is the theoretical and practical mirror through
which the society is viewed. It gives social, political and
economic direction to governments and their policy
makers. But a particular ideology could be of disservice
to a particular people at a particular time. And in the
African situation, some ideologies, instead of serving the
good of the black people, were rather promoting
underdevelopment and divisions among the people.
Africa, naturally had an ideology, namely Conceptual
democracy, but which has been substituted by those
that played negative roles in Africa’s political development
namely: leftist, Rightist, Center leftist and Center rightist
ideologies. All these are examined peri-pasu, the Thirdway
theory, which this paper believes is serving the end
of neocolonialism. The objective of this article is to critically
examine the roles of different ideologies and classes in
the Africa’s political underdevelopment. We shall examine
the collapse of consensual democracy and review the
roles of the rightist, leftist, centre leftist, centre rightist
ideologies in the underdevelopment of Africa. We shall
take a critically look on the Third way theory.