JSPES, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Spring 2016)
pp. 89–103

Underdevelopment in Africa: Theories and Facts

Emmanuel Oladipo Ojo

Ekiti State University, Nigeria

This paper contends that while the history of Africa’s underdevelopment is often traced to the Atlantic and Arab slave trade and to colonial rule, African leaders have been heavily responsible the continent’s underdevelopment and backwardness. It concludes that irresponsible and irresponsive leadership, vampirism and prodigality, corruption, lack of respect for democratic ideals, insecurity and endemic civil wars — which are not legacies of the slave trade — are the fundamental causes of Africa’s underdevelopment.