Factors constraining development: Africa | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

Introduction

• Africa covers about 6% of the Earth’s surface and makes up 20% of its land area. With 54 countries and a population of around one billion people, Africa represents approximately 14% of the global population. The continent is incredibly diverse, with nearly 1,000 different languages spoken across its regions.
• Despite its vast resources and potential, Africa contributes only 1% to world trade. The continent is home to 25 of the world’s poorest countries. Every year, between 300 to 500 million Africans contract malaria, leading to 1.5 to 2.7 million deaths. This alarming statistic translates to a child dying from malaria every 45 seconds in Africa.
• HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis (TB) pose significant health challenges in Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region most affected by HIV/AIDS, with about two-thirds of the global HIV-positive population residing there. Despite having only 14% of the world’s population, Africa accounts for over a quarter of global TB cases, making it the second leading cause of illness and death among adults after HIV/AIDS.
• Many African countries rely heavily on development partners for funding, with an estimated 80% of inputs in agriculture, education, and health coming from foreign sources. This dependence highlights the challenges faced by the continent in achieving self-sufficiency and sustainable development.

Factors Constraining Development in Africa

Colonial Rule:

• At the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, European nations intensified their settlement and influence in Africa, driven by various interests, including wealth, religion, and politics. This period is often referred to as the Scramble for Africa.
• Many African states were ill-prepared for independence, with their borders often drawn arbitrarily by European powers. This lack of consideration for ethnic and tribal differences made it challenging for various groups to coexist peacefully.
• After colonial rule ended, local political elites typically took over governance. Despite gaining political independence, many African countries struggled with economic success, remaining heavily dependent on trade with former colonial powers and foreign aid.

Tribal Differences:

• Newly independent African nations often comprised numerous tribes that had been held together during colonial rule and had united in their struggle for independence. Once the Europeans withdrew, there was little incentive for these diverse groups to stay united.
• In countries like Nigeria, the Congo (Zaire), Burundi, and Rwanda, tribal differences became so pronounced that they led to civil wars, as loyalty to one's tribe often took precedence over loyalty to the new nation.

Economic Problems:

• Most African states had minimal industrial development, a situation deliberately maintained by colonial powers to ensure that Africans would rely on Europe or the USA for manufactured goods. The colonies were primarily expected to supply food and raw materials.
• After gaining independence, many countries depended on one or two commodities for export. A decline in global prices for these products could have disastrous effects. For instance, Nigeria relied heavily on oil exports, while countries like Ghana and Cameroon depended on cocoa, Zambia on copper, and so on.
• Throughout the 1970s, a significant drop in the global prices of products like cocoa, copper, coffee, and cotton severely impacted countries like Ghana, Cameroon, Zambia, Mozambique, Egypt, Sudan, Ivory Coast, Zaire, and Ethiopia.
• African nations faced a shortage of capital and skills, with rapidly growing populations. Loans from abroad led to heavy debt, and as these countries focused on increasing exports to repay the loans, food for domestic consumption became scarcer.
• This situation left African nations heavily reliant on Western European countries and the USA for markets and investment, enabling these countries to exert some control over African governments, a phenomenon known as neo-colonialism.
• Foreign assistance often did not promote industrial development or technology transfer, leading to a dependency on perpetual aid. Despite Africa's vast natural resources, the continent benefited only marginally from them.

The Cold War

• The Second World War brought significant changes to Africa, intensifying the struggle for independence and self-determination. Soon after the war, a wave of independence swept across the continent.
• However, as these fragile nations emerged, they found themselves entangled in the Cold War between the East and West. The Cold War also influenced post-colonial Africa, with effects that still persist today.
• This era fostered authoritarian regimes in Africa and contributed to economic decline as superpowers vied for influence. During the Cold War, some states faced military interventions from countries opposed to their governments, often due to perceived leftist or Soviet-aligned policies.
• For instance, Angola was invaded by troops from South Africa and Zaire because of its Marxist-style government. In cases where new governments pursued socialist policies, such as nationalizing resources or foreign businesses, or displayed pro-communist tendencies, Western nations often responded by cutting off aid or destabilizing these governments, as seen in Angola, Mozambique, Zaire, and Jamaica.

Political Problems:

• African politicians often lacked experience in managing the parliamentary democracy systems established by the Europeans. Confronted with challenging issues, many governments struggled to cope, leading to corruption.
• Numerous African leaders who had participated in guerrilla movements before independence were influenced by Marxist ideologies, which frequently led them to establish one-party states as a means to achieve progress.
• In some countries, such as Kenya and Tanzania, this approach was effective, resulting in stable and efficient governance. However, in instances where opposition to such governments was impossible through legal means, violence became the only option.
• Military coups to oust unpopular rulers became prevalent. For example, President Nkrumah of Ghana was overthrown by the military in 1966 following failed assassination attempts.
• In cases where the military was unable or unwilling to stage a coup, such as in Malawi, the one-party system thrived at the expense of freedom and genuine democracy.

Crisis of Leadership:

• Leaders in Africa have often struggled to meet the basic needs of their populations, such as food, shelter, clothing, health, and security. This inability to provide essential services has led to a continued dependence on external assistance for even the most fundamental requirements.

Corruption:

• Corruption in Africa has resulted in the mismanagement and squandering of resources over the years. This has eroded public trust in leaders and created a sense of disconnection among citizens, who no longer feel that they have a stake in their country's future or its governance.

Lack of Technological Capability

• Technological Capability refers to how well countries can access, use, and create science and technology to solve socio-economic problems. For countries to be part of the global community, science and technology must play a role in their development processes. Unfortunately, many African countries lack this capability.
• Since gaining political independence, most African countries have struggled to change the structure of their economies. They still heavily rely on exporting raw materials such as cocoa, gold, timber, bauxite, diamonds, manganese, and oil, with little to no value addition.

Education and Research & Development (R&D):

• Many African countries invest very little in Research and Development.
• No nation has ever developed by merely borrowing to build infrastructure.
• Africans with higher education often perform better outside Africa. Many contribute significantly to the development of the United States in various fields. They succeed there because the systems are in place to support and absorb their expertise.
• Most African countries lack meaningful development strategies, making it difficult to identify and absorb the specialists needed for national development.
• Additionally, many African intellectuals struggle to collaborate on solutions to national problems. Instead, they often align themselves based on tribal, political, religious, or other personal affiliations, prioritizing individual welfare over national interest.

Neo-Colonialism

Neo-colonialism involves using capitalism, global business practices, and cultural influence to control a country, rather than through direct military or political means. The United States is a leading actor in this practice, with France also playing a significant role in its former African colonies.

• Dependency theory underpins economic neo-colonialism, suggesting that the global economic system is divided between wealthy countries at the center and poorer countries at the periphery.
• Economic neo-colonialism involves extracting human and natural resources from poor countries to benefit wealthy nations, perpetuating the poverty of the peripheral countries through their integration into the global economic system.
• Investment by multinational corporations can enrich a few individuals in underdeveloped countries while causing humanitarian, environmental, and ecological damage. This creates a cycle of unsustainable development and perpetual underdevelopment, turning these countries into sources of cheap labor and raw materials.
• Recently, China has also engaged in neo-colonial practices in Africa by making deals with African governments to extract natural resources. However, these deals have sometimes led to corruption, labor abuses, and tensions between Chinese investors and local populations.
• To secure a stable supply of food, Chinese and South Korean governments, along with powerful multinational corporations, have acquired exploitation rights to vast agricultural lands in underdeveloped countries.

Lack of Faith and Confidence:

• There is a loss of faith in major institutions like the judiciary and law enforcement agencies.
• Traditional values and discipline are breaking down, with corruption becoming institutionalized and environmental sanitation being disregarded.
• Africans seem to lack the confidence to improve their situations independently, looking to foreigners for solutions.
• Many do not see the value in working for the future of their countries, feeling that their sacrifices have not led to improvements in their lives.
• When leaders fail to achieve success, they often give up on improving the lives of the general population and focus on amassing wealth for themselves and their families.

Other Problems in the 1980s:

• In the 1980s, Africa faced economic and natural disasters. The world recession decreased demand for African exports like oil, copper, and cobalt, while a severe drought (1982-85) caused crop failures, livestock deaths, famine, and starvation.
• By the late 1980s, Africa was grappling with a debt crisis and was pressured by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to implement drastic economizing measures in exchange for further loans.
• In many cases, the IMF prescribed the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP), requiring countries to devalue their currencies and reduce food price subsidies. These measures led to increased food prices during a time of rising unemployment and falling wages.
• Governments were also compelled to cut spending on education, health, and social services as part of the austerity program.
• Additionally, in the mid-1980s, most African countries began to experience the spread of HIV/AIDS, which reached pandemic levels by 2004, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa.