Development does not mean being like Europe
ONE reader recently wrote asking whether what we are advocating for as development in Africa is a replica of the Western model of economic development. The reader argued that if that is what we envisage Africa to achieve, then it would require regression to many centuries to establish the same social, political and economic structures as Western countries.
It would also mean putting aside human rights, democracy and the freedoms that humanity has achieved thus far. It would also mean forcing people to provide cheap or free labour and bringing back domestic slavery. It would mean rewinding the clock.
To respond to this question it would make sense to try and envisage what we want for Africa and how that can be achieved. In general, development is about contentment which is a state of being happy and satisfied. When a society feels that it is content and happy and that it has access to basic needs, then development will have happened. Within the social development framework, it means high life expectancy; access to relevant informal and formal education; access to healthcare, adequate water and sanitation; safety and security; and affording food and diet.
The next level after these have been achieved is to ensure conditions that enable the improvement of the well-being of every individual in society so they can reach their full potential. Once full potential and self-actualisation are achieved, they will lead to the organic growth of an economy enabling societies to continuously grow and get better. Achieving this requires a collaborative effort between the people and its leadership with the latter playing a leading role in investing in people, developing strategies and creating a conducive operating environment.
One of the challenges African governments face today is that they adopted governance and public management systems and structures that depended on former colonisers’ oversight. This has continued to give former colonisers the power to interfere in independent African States’ internal affairs. In addition, their planning and their view of the world continue to be informed by imperialism and colonial blueprints whose objectives are designed to maintain colonial exploitation.
In addition, colonialism was also about the extraction of resources and thus they concentrated on productive sectors and basic services in towns and cities primarily for easy management of economic processes and secondarily for easy control of the colonised societies and accumulation of wealth. Today, most people in Africa view urban life as the prototype of development and civilisation to the extent that some have dumped their profitable livelihoods and valuable pieces of land and moved to urban areas. That is one example of how colonialism continues to undermine development in Africa.
Remnants of colonialism have established deep-rooted structures through which powerful nations subordinate and exploit others. The social order in the form of race, class and gender established by colonialism remains embedded in these systems and structures. These have been justified, legitimised and normalised by claiming that the European way of life is the only way to which Africa should aspire. And this places a burden on Africans and their governments to adopt everything Western as part of how they view their world and how development must occur. Colonialism cannot be a thing of the past if the present is governed by its rules.
An example of how colonialism still shapes the former colonies’ worldview can be seen in the way African countries continue to centralise economic development in urban areas where access to basic services, and economic and employment opportunities are the preserve of to struggling government structures.
They face pressure to build more structures and to provide services in towns and cities, instead of supporting rural economic activities that enable rural communities to be more self-sustainable and forestall urbanisation.
Rural areas in Africa make up a large proportion of the continent and these should be the main focus for African governments.
The role of government in the rural development model is to remove economic growth barriers so that all citizens can realise their dreams with confidence and dignity without being pressured to pursue a better life in towns and cities.