Table Of ContentCA
aF AFRICA’S
n
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There are milliards of off beam assumptions that Africa will always a S’S DEPENDENCY
remain immobile in development of whatever type. This pseudo take has till T DE
mainly been propounded by Western thinkers in order to dubiously make uP
Africans internalise and reinforce this fl imsy and fl imfl am dependency. rnE SYNDROME
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Africa needs to embark on paradigm shift; and tweak and turn things hD
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around. Africa has what it take to do so quickly, especially now that new g
sN Can Africa Still Turn Things around for the Better?
economic powers such as China and India are evolving as counterweight aC
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to the West. Shall Africa use these new economic forces to its advantage u
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based on fair and win-win cooperation? To do so, Africa must make sure d Y
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that it does not slink back into business as usual vis-a-vis beggarliness, r
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dependence, frailty, gullibility, made-up backwardness, monkey business, h
eR
and pipedreams, not to mention the nasty and narcissistic behaviours BO
eM
of its venal and navel-gazing rulers. Verily, Africa needs, inter alia, to tt
erE
use its God-given gifts, namely, immense resources, young population, ?
abundance of vast and unexploited amounts of land. Equally, Africa
must, without equivocation, invest copiously and earnestly in its people,
the youth in the main. Most of all, Africa needs to shy away from all
colonial carryovers and encumbrances. This volume shows many ways
through and by which Africa can inverse the current imbroglio-cum-no-
go it faces for the better; and thereby actualise the dream of being truly
independent and prosperous. N
k
w
a
NKWAZI MHANGO is the author of Saa ya Ukombozi, Nyuma ya Pazia, Souls on z
i
Sale, Born with Voice, Africa Reunite or Perish, Psalm of the Oppressed, Perpetual Search, N
Africa’s Best and Worst President: How Neocolonialism and Imperialism Maintained Venal . M
Rules in Africa and ‘Is It Global War on Terrorism’ or Global War over Terra Africana?: The h
a
Ruse Imperial Powers Use to Occupy Africa Militarily for Economic Gains. n
g
o
Langaa Research & Publishing
Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon Nkwazi N. Mhango
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
Africa’s Dependency
Syndrome:
Can Africa Still Turn Things
around for the Better?
Nkwazi N. Mhango
Langaa Research & Publishing CIG
Mankon, Bamenda
Publisher:
Langaa RPCIG
Langaa Research & Publishing Common Initiative Group
P.O. Box 902 Mankon
Bamenda
North West Region
Cameroon
[email protected]
www.langaa-rpcig.net
Distributed in and outside N. America by African Books Collective
[email protected]
www.africanbookscollective.com
ISBN-10: 9956-762-11-3
ISBN-13: 978-9956-762-11-8
© Nkwazi N. Mhango 2017
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording,
or be stored in any information storage or retrieval system, without written
permission from the publisher
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements…………….……….………… v
Preface………………..………………….………… vii
Abbreviations……………………………………… xiii
Chapter 1: Aid Dependency and Aid
Vicious Circle……………………………………… 1
Chapter 2: What Africa Needs Socially? ………… 59
Chapter 3: World’s Duty-Bound
Responsibility to Africa…………………………… 95
Chapter 4: The New Scramble for Africa………… 117
Chapter 5: How Did It Start and
What Should Be Done? ……………...…………… 135
iii
Chapter 6: What Africa Should
Do Politically? …………..………………………… 153
Chapter 7: Africa Still Has the
Wherewithal for Development………….………… 179
Chapter 8: How Should Africa Address
Economic Quandaries? ………………..…….…… 199
Conclusion………………………………………… 211
References……………….………………………… 213
iv
Acknowledgements
This volume would not have seen the light of the day had my
wife Nesaa not stood by my side. I wholeheartedly acknowledge
her immense and unconditional help and support. So, too, my
brother, friend and mentor, Prof Sean Byrne did a lot to
convince me that I can still churn wealth materials. My brother
Prof Munyaradzi Mawere as well kept on bugging me to write
even more. Prof Jessica Senehi also encouraged me a lot not to
mention Brothers, Sirili Akko (Arusha-Tanzania); and Salih
Hassan Ibrahim (Winnipeg, MB, Canada) who always want to
be the first to read my books. Langaa Publishers have always
been instrumental in my writing. Our children Ng’ani (Nyanyi),
Nkuzi (Kuji) and Nkwazi Jr., (Genius) have always inspired me
to do more. I, therefore, disingenuously acknowledge and
appreciate all who in a way or another contributed to making me
who I am today.
v
vi
Preface
This book is intended to act as a wakeup call, if not an eye
opener, for African countries to take their destiny into their
hands. It aims at encouraging Africans to negate the dependency
they have been forced to accept as true while it is a hoax based
on the propensities and resources Africa boasts having. Mhango
[forthcoming] argues that dependency in some cultures, especially
collectivistic ones, is wealth based on Social Capital Theory
under which “social relationships among people" can be
productive resources” (Coleman 1988 cited in Chiu, Hsu and
Wang 2006: 1875). However, the same is vice versa in
individualistic culture. Although it is not the first book to have
embarked on such a journey, I believe it will add up to the call
for Africa to turn things around for the better so that it can do
away with pointless dependency while it actually sits on
humungous resources of high value (Mhango 2015; 2016). In my
journey to addressing the problems that Africa has faced for
many decades, I am showing where the said problems lie and
what should be done to turn things around for the better based
on the present opportunities such as investing in science and
technology, the rise of China and India, and competition these
emerging powers are going to cause. However, there is a caution
here that the coming of China and India may end up
exacerbating exploitation if Africa is not going to play its cards
smartly.
The difference this book makes is the fact that the author is
optimistic that Africa will one day turn things around for the
better. And the difference the book is the fact that the author
exclusively and specifically shows how Africa can turn things
around. However, this will not be a walk to the park. It needs a
lot of soul searching, commitment and high moral authority for
African leadership to start thinking like dignified humans-cum-
vii
creatures. For, in many African cultures, nobody should live on
charity or handouts from someone without having any means or
plans to reciprocate or returning the charity. It is from this
backdrop, among others, that Africans never know any social
assistance provided by the government. Instead, they are the
ones that offer social assistance to the government through their
taxes and labours that many corrupt Africa mumbo jumbos
spend without any gist of accountability or remorse.
As argued, this volume is different from many books that
have addressed the issue of Africa’s dependency. While many
scholars have appointed one or a few particular issues to address,
this book takes a multifaceted approach of addressing many
issues in one volume. While many scholars such as Walter
Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Didia Dal,
Munyaradzi Mawere, Francis Nyamnjoh and many more have
addressed one side of the coin by blaming colonialism on
everything on foreign causes of its destabilisation,
underdevelopment, poverty and whatever ills Africa faces, this
book, to the contrary, blames both sides namely the colonial
powers and African governments that took over after
colonialism for the quandaries Africa has been in. Eme (2013)
notes that the approach the so-called international community–
led by the United Nations (UN)–was more or less a treatment
of symptoms instead of causes, and the gap gradually widened
between the so-called developed and less developed countries of
this world (p. 118). Ironically, despite this anomaly being known
for a long time, nothing has ever been done to address it.
Instead, it has been reinforced and internalised so as to become
the new normalcy if not the sine qua none of development–that
has never been actualised–for Africa.
To do justice for both sides so that they can see their
contribution to the quandaries Africa is in historically, I have
decided to implicate both sides not just because I wanted to do
so. It is because of the roles they intentionally or unintentionally
viii
played in creating the cleft stick for Africa this volume addresses.
This is why it is stated from the outset that Africa needs to
venture into both sides of the divide when it comes to its
anguishes and stumbling blocks in its efforts to turn things
around for the better. Essentially, this approach helps the duo
to see their culpability or the role they played so as to accept
liability; and thus, thereby help each other by working together
to address the problem they both created either by commission
or omission. On the one hand, there are problems that are purely
colonial that caused Africa’s underdevelopment, dependency
and poverty. While, on the other hand, there are some causes
and problems that are purely African either committed
intentionally or otherwise all depending on how one looks at
them epistemologically based on the true history of Africa. You
can divide these problems in two categories namely external and
internal or inflicted and self-inflicted ones. So, too, the said
problems can be divided into three typologies namely economic,
political and social. For, if we critically examine the concepts of
development, dependency and underdevelopment, we find that
Africa has never depended on the West. Instead the reality is
vice versa. This is so if we avoid manipulative politics that has
become the realpolitik of the current world where lies are made
truth and vice versa. If anything, this is the line of logic Africans
need to know. Again, how will they know this and why? They
need to teach each other the reality about their predicaments so
that they can see the problem in its true colours. Knowing this
reality will encourage them to ask very crucial questions: Why
should they depend on us but tell us the opposite? If our
dependency is a myth, does it mean we can demystify it and
move forward just like others humans and societies in Europe
and Asia did?
This volume strives for justice for Africa and anybody else.
The underlining philosophy is that charity always begins at
home. One needs to do justice for him or herself before
ix
