Development In Africa

Front 1

What does 'development' mean?

Back 1

• meaning differs depending on place to place
• programmes to improve broad economic and social wellbeing
• tied to modernisation theory and imposition of Western political values on a society
• use of resources and technology to enhance wellbeing: capitalist economy (socialist model 50s/60s); modernisation of agriculture; subsistence economy towards market-based; wage labour; urbanisation; detribalisation and industrialisation
• evolvement of secular society
• development of international ties embedded within a global economy
• set of dualisms: moving from traditional to modern

Front 2

Cooper's view

Back 2

• development originally set up to revitalise empire in a post-war world
• initially designed to facilitate empire
• unintended consequences (esp. for French)
• Eurocentric model: Europe was seen as modern with no alternative ideas of modernity
• emphasises influence of African trade unions and political movements
• reflected engagement of local mobilisation with global discourse and of local discourses with global power

Front 3

Ferguson's view

Back 3

• development portrayed as apolitical but actually utilised by development agencies to maintain power monopoly
• failed development projects have unintended consequences
• in order to receive development, societies had to present themselves as something they were not: development wouldn't work as it wasn't designed for the actual society
• Lesotho was described as a pristine agricultural society but this was very different from reality
• disjuncture between portrayal and reality
• not progressive but actually quite flawed
• role of the state as an influential actor: dev. agencies pretend that the state is a neutral vessel and forget that it has political motives
• society not homogenous: diversity within the mass, e.g. generations, gender, class differences etc.

Front 4

Tanzania, c. 1960s and 1970s

Back 4

• ujama project wanted to put people into villages to work communally
• incorporated into government policy
• Oxfam continued to support the policy even though it had been changed by the government
• ideas from socialism and the USSR - led by Nyerere
• RDA (Guinea) tried to put these ideas into practice
• first set of villages had positive motives and seemed to work well but were shut down by Nyerere - power struggle?
• 95% of those in the villages were forced there
• soldiers burnt huts with infants still inside
• ideological clash with Oxfam

Front 5

Tanzania cont.

Back 5

• Why did Oxfam continue to support this policy?: didn't understand change from RDA to government system? suited them to use this project as an example? Oxfam's field director was colonial official in Nigeria?
• disjuncture between theory and practice

Front 6

When and why did 'development' become the aim of British and French colonial governments in Africa?

Back 6

• revitalising empire in a post-war world
  
• initially designed to facilitate the growth of empire by making the colonies more self-sustainable

Front 7

What understandings of African societies and the state have underpinned development policies? With what consequences?

Back 7

• assumption of the existence of a tribalised pre-colonial society
  

• state must have complete control; state becomes influential actor in developmental policy
• Lesotho: disjuncture between theory and practice

Front 8

What effects do development policies that fail to achieve their stated objectives have?

Back 8

• enhancement/extension of state bureaucratic power
  
• money injections
• policy to follow
• breakdown of communication

Front 9

How have ideas of development, and the means of achieving it, changed over time and through practice?

Back 9

• originally just for empire
• use of resources and technology to improve wellbeing
• example of the farming practices at the Office du Niger: originally imposed by colonialists, but then discourse between them and farmers found a better way of growing crops: 'development' and modernism not always the best ways