Pre-Contact African Societies and the Challenging Realities of Post-Contact Economic Models

Abstract

Going through Africa and looking at history, it is well known that her economic development lags behind that of other regions of the world. On the other hand, there is also a special breed of self-serving authoritarian leaders who have held and are still holding their people down in a strangle-hold. Some manipulate the legislature to make laws accommodating their unceasing interest in remaining heads of the government of their countries while others achieve same through questionable processes in courts while development indices remain at their lowest ebbs within their nations. Using empirical evidence from cross-sectional comparisons across some African countries, this study offers a new explanation for the successes and failures in African development, which builds upon the insights of post-contact theory. It argues that variations in the extent to which post-contact state institutions clash with pre-existing ones, accompanied with bad leadership largely account for what differentiates state capacity and economic growth across the region. The theoretical framework adopted in this work is development theory using Marxian view. Although, this is a descriptive study which employed the use of documentary evidence. The work recommends that African leaders should emulate leaders like President Mandela, imbibe the spirit of true democracy and adopt Africapitalism as a way of reviving the African economy.