AFRICANS ARE NOT BLAMELESS AND HOW AFRICANS UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA: A TWIN RESPONSE TO HOW EUROPE UNDERDEVELOPED AFRICA

Abstract

This paper examined the contending views on the development of Africa, focusing essentially on the twin responses from “Africans Are Not Blameless” and “How Africans Underdeveloped Africa,” to Walter Rodney’s “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa.” The paper critically reviews and interrogates the contending views on the challenge of development in Africa, bringing out the strengths and weaknesses of these arguments as they border on Africa’s development. With a careful review of these tripod views on the development challenges of the African Continent, the paper argues that both Europe and Africans are to be blamed for the problem of development in Africa as each of the perspectives is found culpable as they fail in their efforts to exhaustively advance a holistic cause and effect analysis of the Africa’s development story. In one way or the other, the attempts to advance their views and justify their stands from the lenses of their propositions, was not completely successful. This is why the paper concludes that, understanding the issue of development in Africa is to synthesize the arguments of these contending views. The paper calls on Africans to rise to the occasion to restore the glory of Africa through perseverance, hard work and reaffirmation of the uniqueness of Africa as a continent, and thus, the need to look inward and reexamine the ways of life of the people as Africans, and with this sense of Africanness, tackle head-on the challenges affecting the continent and reposition it for the greater good of the people.