"African Solutions" in chains : external and internal causes of Africa's continued dependency fifty years on

Abstract

The political independence of African states in the 1960s provided opportunity for Africa to materialize the Pan-African desire for 'African solutions to African problems' as opposed to the dependence on, and impositions of, external powers. Over fifty years after independence however, the continent remains chronically dependent on external systems and interventions. Using Mills' Racial Contract theory and Frantz Fanon's Pitfalls of National Consciousness, the study engages with the causes of Africa's continued dependency. The paper contends that the constraints in materializing 'African solutions to African problems' resides in the fact that while outside forces have condescendingly treated Africa as 'a charity case' from which no real solution to its woes can emerge, Africa's lackluster and myopic leadership also share the blame for the miscarriage of a potentially sound ideal.