Africa and the dilemma of fostering development through western-oriented ideas in a multi polar world

Abstract

The central argument of this paper was that Africa’s development dilemma set in with the introduction of colonial rule and the subsequent application of foreign ideas and technology for development. The paper has highlighted Africa development trajectory prior to the advent of colonialism. When the African exploit in the fields of agriculture and manufacturing were examined, it was seen that the continent made a steady progress. But after the colonial rule was introduced and the subsequent application of foreign technology for development, Africa started to experience difficulties in the economic sphere. Given the fact that transfer of technology is fraught with difficulties we emphasized that, as long as Africa continues to apply only exogenous ideas and strategies for development, real socio-economic transformation would elude them. On the basis of this we recommended, among other things, a switch of emphasis to indigenous technology which should be based on research and development.