Abstract
African values have been relegated and neglected. However, the widespread underdevelopment of African societies has been partly attributed to the relegation and neglect of African values. Explanations for the relegation and neglect of African values are diverse. They ranged from slavery to colonialism and Westernization, which have combined to fuel the paradox of inequality between Africa and the West. In this context, Africa is generally perceived as the least developed continent. On the other hand, some schools of thought argue that attention be paid to internal dynamics of African social structure and its interface with Western developmental agenda as a major issue in addressing underdevelopment of Africa . Within this background, this paper examines the necessity of reviving African values as a viable alternative to disarticulated development in Africa. Drawing on close reviews of archival materials and previous anthropological studies of African cultures, the paper demonstrated that the adoption of Western values within the context of modernisation has resulted into a breakdown of African indigenous knowledge while the adopted Western values have gained prominence in African societies. Further, the mixture of traditional and Western values has created dilemma which affect stability and development in African societies. Therefore, it is concluded that African indigenous knowledge system is very important and should be utilised in promoting stability and development in Africa . Prior to strong recommendations for policy intervention, this paper discussed, among several themes, how African values can be revived to stem the rising developmental crises in Africa .
Key Words: Africa , Indigenous Knowledge, Modernisation, Underdevelopment, Revival.
1. Introduction
Values refer to the reality of any phenomenon considered good and desirable for the society. Although African values were placed at the center of post colonial development discourse prevailing situations have not shown signs of improvements largely due to misappropriation of the adopted Western values. Studies demonstrated that traditional societies with minimal or no contact with the West tend to adequately adapt to their environments, while adaptation of those with extensive and continuous contact with the West had been disrupted (Falola 2002; Iweriebor 1997; Wirsing et al 1985). This acculturation driven disruption is unnecessary and can be redeemed without necessarily rejecting the adopted Western values. Empirical evidence from 65 societies indicated that values could change but would continue to reflect a society's cultural heritage (Inglehart and Baker 2000). It is in this light that this study explores how African values were shaped by and can reshape the adopted Western values.
Extending beyond various studies that criticized the adoption of Western values in Africa (Falola 2002; Dike 2000; Hendrickson 1989 ; Osoba 1987; Houtondji 1986; Ekeh 1983; M'Baye 1982; Onimode 1982; Rodney 1982; Ake 1981; Frank 1969), this study is an attempt to contribute towards expanding the frontier of African indigenous knowledge. The fact that the generation holding the quantum of indigenous knowledge is fast aging and will soon vanish is a justification of the necessity and urgency of reviving African values. The implications of the neglected African values and the necessity of their revival in the movement towards scaling up renewed interests in human development were examined. Different factors militating against African development were discussed in response to Vakunta's (2006) call for robust investigation of the root causes of underdevelopment in Africa as precursor towards rescuing the continent from impending socioeconomic catastrophe.
Reports of successful indigenous initiatives were presented as evidence of the power in African traditional values and inevitability of non-Western development in Africa . Analytically, this study presented different and interrelated issues such as the concept of values in perspective, African values with their relegation, development ideologies with politics of disarticulation, and values revival for redeeming disarticulated development. Cross links of these issues were provided in the discourse to set the stage for the placement of African values across different development domains in Africa .
2. The Concept of Values in Perspectives
Values emerged from human quest for peaceful co-existence with the environment and became the cornerstones of cultures and development worldwide. Earlier studies confirmed the relationship between values and development (Lerner 1958; Weiner 1966, Lehmann, 1987; DiMaggio 1994). Since Weber's thesis on Protestants' Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism, the influence of religious values on the development of capitalism remained popular. Compared to other religions such as Catholicism, Calvinism, and Lutheranism, Weber concluded that Protestantism led to capitalism through ethics of hard work, investment, frugality and competition. Although subsequent research refuted his hypothesis, the relationship between values and development holds sway (Lehmann 1987).
Challenging Weber's assumption, Lehmann (1987) argued that the minority status of the Protestants, especially the decline in their population from forty percent in 1580 to twenty percent in 1640, provided explanation for their immense contributions towards the development of capitalism through asceticism and hard work. Contrary to Weber's assumption, Catholic countries ( France and Italy ) grew faster than the Protestant Britain and Germany . This contradiction manifested from Weber's omission of comparable ethics (conscientiousness, moral seriousness and diligence) of the seventeenth century churches.
Extending Weber's assumptions, Lehmann (1987) found that different religious groups including the Protestants made remarkable progress. Surprisingly, however, the relevance of African religion has been neglected in the analysis of African development. Murove (2005) argued that African traditional religion and ethics were incompatible with the spirit of capitalism. This argument is contestable given the plethora of achievements of heroes and heroines in pre-colonial African societies. Capitalism equivalence can be crafted from African indigenous values and made relevant to African cultural realities.
3. African Values with their Relegation
Considering the evolutionary evidence of human existence, Africa is the cradle of world values. An American anthropologist testified to this reality as follows:
Fully modern human beings emerged in Africa somewhere around 150,000 years ago and rapidly migrated outward to occupy all corners of the globe (Massey 2002: 7)
The above testimony coupled with rapid change in human technology and industrial revolution led to wide disparities among people worldwide. Language, the ultimate social arbiter and engine of interactions, became a central feature of the wide disparities. The entire Africa has been bifurcated into different groups with diverse socio-economic structures. The most popular of the groups is sub-Saharan Africa excluding North and South Africa . Dislocating them from high tendency of attachment to nature the largely agrarian sub-Saharan African societies were pressurize to embrace western values. Historically, the agrarian status of Africa was an added advantage. Prior to the industrial revolution less than 5 percent of any society lived in cities and the total population of each city was below 1 million (United Nations 1982). The first known cities (Mesopotamia, Thebes and Timbuktu ) emerged in Africa (Massey 2002). This fact is a reminiscence of availability of socio-demographic factors of development in Africa . The extent to which the ancient cities promoted or hindered African development deserves attention.
Surprisingly, many African societies remained largely agrarian since 1800 when European and American societies began to witness high prevalence of industrialization followed by rapid reduction in the level of agrarianism. Industrial revolution created powerful foundations for new cultures popularly known as Western cultures, which Africans have massively adopted since the era of European presence in their continent. Dike (2000) placed emphasis on how European presence and socio-economic transition in Africa exacerbated tensions between Africans and Europeans. A principal outcome of the tensions is entrenchment of structures that make Africa an appendage of the West with advanced technology driven industrialization.
Whereas hunting and gathering had been the dominant mode of society for 6 million years and agrarianism for 10,000 years, industrialism flowered and matured in less than 200 years…Even more remarkable has been the shift of the human population from rural to urban areas (Massey 2002:13).
Unlike the situation in Europe and America , African transition to urbanism has been slow and incomplete. This introduces the relevance of urban coalition thesis and rural-urban continuum with forward and backward linkages in the analysis of global capitalist development. The significance of rural Africa to the sustenance of the development of highly urbanized Europe and North America cannot be ignored. However, s ome scholars (Mcphee 1979; Gann and Duignan 1974) believed that Africans benefited immensely from colonialism in terms of the development of modern structures such as tarred road, railway, electricity, ports, and schools, among others.
Ironically, the belief that colonialism was beneficial to Africans has been repeatedly debunked in literature. Vakunta (2006) recalled that colonial administrations built roads, schools and hospitals which were not intended to serve Africans as several African traditional values that hitherto guaranteed stability gradually broke down following the colonial conquests. Similarly, Thiongo (1989) confirmed that Africa was made to stagnate during many years of colonial rule, while the rest of the world made quantum progress. Africans were compelled to surrender their power entirely and embrace the western model of development.
This compulsion and its concomitant western attraction are key strategies for African underdevelopment. The assumption that western education promoted African development has been debunked in light of well established pre-colonial higher educational institutions in Africa . Al-Azhar University in Egypt , the University of Fez in Morocco , Timbuktu University in Mali , among others are models of African indigenous institutions (Vakunta 2006). Obviously, western education has not matched the realities of African societies but has generated enormous identity crises as shown below:
In a nutshell, colonial education was a simulacrum intended to foster subordination, exploitation and inferiority complex in Africa … the colonialists did not deem it necessary to train indigenous physicians and engineers. Sadly enough, these legacies seem to linger in Africa in the wake of political independence (Vakunta 2006: 33).
In sum, combined forces of slavery, colonialism and Westernization resulted into relegation of African indigenous values. As a manifestation of these forces, Africans experienced m ajor changes such as the colonial political systems, evolution of new boundaries and ethnicity, land redistribution, taxation, forced labor, cash crops, currency, Western education, Christianity, and Islam (Falola 2002). These situations and the problems they generated subsequently led to triumph of and antagonism against the dominant Western cultures. A popular antagonist, Frank (1966) rejected the concept of the Third World designed for the cultural systems of non-Western societies.
Frank (1969) showed how many Latin American countries were underdeveloped despite their close ties with the West. Frank's revelation indicates that denigration of indigenous values is a counterforce against indigenous development efforts. The effects of activities of multinational and transnational companies in Africa fit Frank's description as the ultimate purpose of the companies is the exploitation and transfer of surplus value and not improvement of Africans' living standards. The existence and persistence of the companies have resulted into escalation of African developmental crises such as corruption, poverty, unemployment, resources conflicts, crimes and other debilitating issues.
Pan-African movements designed to address the aforementioned crises tried but could not achieve much due to a myriad of factors. Principally, Western educated elites largely dominated the movements and excluded a considerable proportion of people at the grassroots. The marginalisation of several indigenous custodians of cultures in the process of utilizing Western parameters to benchmark African development deserves attention. A popular notion in the African anti-colonial movements is that the transfer of power from the colonial powers to Africans would promote rapid development. Unfortunately, the flag bearers of the movements failed to replace the colonial capitalist structure with African alternative and as such plunged the continent into another phase of imperialism, which Nkrumah (1966) described as neocolonialism ( Botwe-Asamoah 2002).
Though African leaders usually clamoured for development they failed to ensure it. Iweriebor (1997) attributed the failure of African leaders to their corruption and fundamental commitment to promoting the global capitalist interests, which debar Africans from development. Obviously, Western powers contributed to the collapse of regimes that tended to promote African development and disengagement from neo-colonial tendencies. Patrice Lumumba of Democratic Republic of Congo and Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana are classical cases followed by elongation of Western interests through modifications of African social structures.
Ekeh (1983) categorized social structures into three divisions: the transformed, the migrated and the emergent. His categorization connotes that cultures contacts result in the transformation of traditional values, adoption of foreign values and the emergence of new values that are neither completely traditional nor modern. Related to this is the issue of literacy which has been used to underrate Africans. While extension of public schools in Europe rapidly increased literacy rate to over 90 percent (Massey 2002) African societies largely lack comparable figures till date.
Over reliance on literacy as a yardstick for underrating Africa without recourse to the power of indigenous wisdom can be described as an imposition of Western oriented elite hegemony, which relegates indigenous values and constitutes enormous barrier to African development. A popular version of the barriers is poverty. Literacy levels have affected social mobility of many Africans since certificates became necessities for survival.
This situation has produced disillusionment, aggravates development challenges and threatens African social order. A close examination extant policies in Nigeria showed evidence of hopelessness, a highly dependent mentality and lack of efficacy (Ukaegbu 2007). A government policy to revitalize the railway system was initially assigned solely to Chinese companies; the Nigerian engineers protested before they were included. Nigerians studied abroad and enthusiastically returned home to contribute to national development. However, the present crops of Nigerians in Diaspora and those struggling to leave the country have deviated from the legacy of their predecessors. Their deviation can be attributed to policies failures and disarticulation of development initiatives.
4. Development Ideologies and Politics of Disarticulation
Different ideas about development persist with ideological shifts in paradigms. Within the dominant ideological divides of the Western and the eastern blocs, modernisation perspectives became popular since the 1950s (Ukaegbu 2007) and was followed by ascendancy of dependency paradigm and neoliberalism. These theories were extensively discussed in literature and need not be repeated here. None of these theories specifically focused on Africa . However, the theories represent ideological bases of Westernization and globalisation with detrimental implications for African development. It is obvious that using non-African ideologies only to drive African development is inadequate. This submission opens a space for understanding parameters of development in the discourse of disarticulation.
Given the per capita income estimates of different countries in the 1960s, African future was bright (Maddison 1995). Comparably, Africa grew more rapidly than Asia in 1950 and largely decolonized in the 1960s with tremendous potentials for rapid development (Collins and Bosworth 1996). Subsequently, however, the teething development in Africa was disarticulated when changing indigenous structures became contaminated. Collier and Gunning (1999) adduced for this disarticulation various reasons such as political instability, growth of dictatorship and socio-economic doldrums in Africa . They bipolarized different explanations offered for the causes of African underdevelopment into external and internal matrix with the belief that domestic policies, largely unrelated to trade, are the main obstacles to African development.
The external matrix centers on policies engineered for Africa through financial institutions of the United Nations, while the internal matrix features African environment. Generally, policies imposed on Africans have been dysfunctional as microeconomic variables show how the policies damaged the growth of firms and infrastructure (Gwin and Nelson 1997). The World Bank (1998) showed that Africa had the worst policy environment in the world. Scholars and analysts emphasized the centrality of environmental factors in the explanation of African underdevelopment (Hoeffler 1999; Diamond 1998; Wood and Mayer, 1998; Sachs and Warner 1997; Grove 1991). They cited adverse climatic conditions like declining rainfall in the semi-arid areas and the prevalence of landlocked countries in Africa as chronic disadvantages. Given the lack of irrigation, the unpredictability of rainfall implies high risks in agriculture and households entrapment in low-income (Dercon, 1997).
Other scholars discussed African high natural resource endowments per capita as a factor of underdevelopment with the claims that high levels of exported natural resources would lead to an appreciation of the exchange rate and decline of manufacturing value added (MVA) especially in the context of rent seeking (Wood and Mayer 1998; Collier and Hoeffler 1998). Collier and Hoeffler's (1998) findings showed that a dependence on natural resources strongly increased the risk of civil war, which has been a widespread phenomenon in Africa . However, the resource curse argument has been debunked with a fact; the discovery of natural resources is not always a curse to countries (Salti 2007). Some countries ( Alaska , Canada , Norway , the United States , and the United Kingdom ) fared well despite the abundance of their natural resource endowments (Moene and Torvik 2002; Røed-Larsen 2002). Empirical findings showed that a resource boom would be a blessing if the government had substantial non-resource revenues and a curse if resource rents largely constituted government revenues (Robinson et al 2003).
Clearly, underdevelopment of resources endowed African countries can be linked to the question of resource rents and the question of the Western interests in Africa . Several studies discussed how African resources were siphoned to develop the West (Afigbo 2007; Dike 2000; Osoba 1987; Onimode 1982; Rodney 1982; Ake 1981). Imposition of European power led to abolition of slave trade followed by the triumph of European socio-economic interests over African social institutions and the establishment of structures that channel African resources to the West. Over three centuries of the slave trade from West Africa to the New World produced an economic umbilical cord that linked Africa to the West and its abolition has made human socio-economic situations worse in Africa (Afigbo 2007). Reconciling the ideological differences in the above views, the Western powers and contemporary African leaders are active players in the politics of turning African resources from arena of blessings to a stage for curse against Africans.
Additionally, Easterly and Levine (1997) argued that African heterogeneity has hindered the development of an interconnected economy compared to other poor regions. In contrast, Collier and Hoeffler (1999) found that African problem was not ethnic diversity but lack of democracy. In another study, a key finding was that ‘African governments have typically been less democratic and more bureaucratic than their Asian and Latin American counterparts' (Collier and Gunning 1999:6). These scholars argued that domestic policy factors such as poverty and poor public service delivery would be much more difficult to correct than exchange rate and trade policies. Similarly, Bloom and Sachs (1998) contended that low life expectancy and high population growth largely account for African underdevelopment.
Poor leadership is a key disaster in the explanation of African underdevelopment. Sadly, Africa is saddled with inept leaders, who are lackeys of the Western powers (Vakunta 2006). African countries facing the challenge of reversing economic failure lack significant role models within the continent unlike classical models of good leadership experienced in East Asia and part of Latin America . The fact that the Confucian East Asia fully modernized without being thoroughly westernized (Tu 2000) indicates that cultural heritage of a society can produce development. Africa , a largely heterogeneous and culturally nuanced continent, cannot be an exception.
5. Values Revival for Redeeming Disarticulated Development
Values revival manifests within indigenous perspective and social movement for the actualization of indigenous knowledge in globalisation discourse. Various developmental problems such as poverty, landlessness, dispossession, violence and genocide were found with indigenous people during critical examination of globalization , resistance to domination, and cultural revitalization (Fenelon and Murguia 2008; Lauderdale 2008). The problems generated protests and social movements among different indigenous people. For instance, American Indians (Lakota, Navajo, and Wampanoag), Latin Americans (Mapuche, Guarani, and Miskito), the Adevasi in India, the Middle East Kurds and Pashtun and several groups in Africa and southeast Asia demonstrated classical models of indigenous struggles (Fenelon and Hall 2008).
A crucial feature of indigenous peoples is their substantive reliance on the interrelatedness of nature. It is believed that indigenous knowledge can provide some inclusive and more equitable approaches towards ameliorating developmental problems. Two models advanced in this direction are indigenous revitalization and resistance to state domination and the forces of globalization. Recent studies in South Africa and Nigeria respectively discovered the role of indigenous knowledge and its potential contributions in traditional agriculture, food security, poverty eradication, and employment generation (Nwonwu 2008; Iyoha et al 2007 ) . This discovery shows that indigenous knowledge is a viable option for Africans in their pursuit of productivity and improved living standards. A recent study showed that traditional products such as brooms, mats, woodcraft and beer enhanced the livelihood security of the poorest households in South Africa (Shackleton et al 2008).
Contrary to Western beliefs, the pre-colonial African societies did not condone violence, war, robbery, rape, stealing, materialism, theft, or sex the way they manifest in contemporary societies (M'Baye 1982). Even in African societies with relatively nude members, rape incidents were rare due to strong traditional taboos and sanctions against sexual transgressions. The elderly were respected as moral leaders, moving library and providers of wisdom needed in the society. Indigenous African leaders ensured human security and development of their societies. The Bantu of Southern Africa, the Tale of Northern Ghana and the Bini and Igbo of Nigeria are typical models of African societies that providing checks against shedding of human blood in the process of discouraging murder (Ojo 2006; Schofield 1996). African societies regulated the use of weapons and prohibited wastage of human lives even in certain wars (Baiden 1986).
Unexpectedly, attempts made to cleanse the entire African environment and make it receptive to Western civilisation have been yielding results since 1885. The yielded results include the wholesale colonization of Africa , Western interference with indigenous African environment and severe degradation of African culture and civilization (Afigbo 2007). The African mind was high jacked in these contexts. The following scholarly remarks deserve attention:
With the conquest and partition of Africa by the European powers and its forcible incorporation into a world exchange system, the possibility of an autonomous development of intellectual activity in Africa was cut off as surely as the guillotine severs a head from the body (Freund 1984: 2).
Against the foregoing discourse African values that need resuscitation include African social security system, African indigenous knowledge, African social control mechanisms, and African communal approach to development.
5.1 African Social Security System
Social security is about human protection and support against poverty, unemployment and crimes. African societies provide avenues for solving these individual and collective problems especially through the applications of indigenous knowledge of kinship system and extended family networks. The kinship system in Africa guaranteed stability and prosperity. Various kinship groups in Africa provided solutions to individual and collective problems (Bassani 2008; Nauck and Klaus 2007; Okediji 1972). Within the context of effective kinship structure, cases of poverty, unemployment and crimes were relatively low. However, with the advent of Westernization, traditional structures that kept people together were weakened but many Africans especially the less privileged still adhere to traditional values.
5.2 African Indigenous Knowledge
Kings, chiefs, elders and priests remain principal elites in African political and cultural cleavages. These elites, custodians of culture and teachers of local history, provide training opportunities for people across different age groups (Njoku 2006; Fafunwa 1982). Development will be marginal if the indigenous knowledge associated with traditional training opportunities are not utilised. However, Mascarenhas (2004) perceived the challenges in promoting indigenous knowledge for development.
African professionals, scholars, researchers, policy makers and activists attempting to understand or promote indigenous knowledge run the risk of a cool reception, ridicule or even outright opposition, because indigenous knowledge could be an obstacle to many vested interests (Mascarenhas 2004).
The above remark shows likely obstacles against the rejuvenation of African values. The aforementioned people possess the needed capacity for the rejuvenation of African values. Their credentials can be harnessed in the movement for actualization of indigenous leadership and protection of the African society. Thinking beyond the likely obstacles is required to rescue Africa from its present position in the global system as demonstrated below.
Finally as African increasingly gets entrenched in the global system, it may be profitable for Africa as well to go back to its roots to resuscitate the “social value” in African family system. Unless this is achieved, African development may prove elusive while individual Africans contribute directly or indirectly to the further development of nations in other continents (Balogun and Olutayo 2006: 88).
There are indications that Africans have not been completely snatched from their roots as the belief in traditional power is still deeply rooted in many African societies where acquisition of western education did not obliterate the high degree of respect, which Africans had for custom and tradition (Njoku 2006; Kohnert 1996) . However, the motivation to join the league of the western-educated elite and obtain positions of power and prestige, with all the attendant material wealth accruing to such positions, seem to have an adverse effect on loyalty to traditional values (Obidi 1993). Earlier study (Nduka 1980) reported that adherence to indigenous values such as respect for elders, communalism, and the dignity of labour were eroded with the introduction of the western concept of individualism.
Although the Christian ideas of the western world emphasize simplicity and humility which are in harmony with traditional values the accompanying western ethics of materialism is in many ways functionally incompatible with those ideals. In contrast, people who have acquired little or no western education especially those in occupational group of artisans and semi skilled workers share world views and reactions to indigenous moral values. These people generally have more regard for indigenous moral values such as respect for and obedience to elders.
5.3 African Social Control Mechanisms
Using indigenous methods of social control, different groups contributed immensely towards maintenance of social order in Africa . Presently, some indigenous methods such as vigilante and community based tools of criminal investigation remain the viable alternative to the Western methods of policing, which have been found to be weak in African societies (Ajayi 2008). The Nigerian Obudu Youth Movement is a case of successful indigenous approach in the mastery of criminal justice and social security. The Obudu Youth Movement, a modern equivalence of traditional social control, was formed in 2000 principally to take central position in the management of the Obudu society (Ajibade 2006). The movement constitutes traditional militias and vigilante groups, which facilitate security responsibilities of police and judiciary in southeastern Nigeria .
The groups constructed non-charms oriented traditional lie detector, which is believed to be an effective instrument for torture and confessions and usually monitored cases referred to the police to prevent miscarriage of justice. The democratic and periodic change in leadership makes the Obudu Youth Movement different from other militia groups such as the OPC, the Bakassi Boys and the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force (Ajayi 2008; Ajibade 2006). The movement has successfully complemented traditional positions of elders in its struggle for stability in Obudu communities.
A major area where African values remain indispensable is security witnessed in the activities of various vigilante groups in Nigeria .
Vigilante groups have organised at a variety of levels from lineage to ethnic group, in a variety of locations from village ward to city street, and for a variety of reasons from crime fighting to political lobbying (Pratten 2008: 1).
National and international human rights groups have, however, raised concerns about perceived involvement of vigilante groups in extra judicial executions and ethno-religious clashes. Using the state security apparatus, governments have contested the vigilante groups' right to judge and punish perceived criminals. This contestation introduces another question of disarticulation that must be addressed in the movement towards ensuring lasting development in Africa . Rather than wasting state resources in the criminalization of vigilante groups their activities can be harmonized and sanitized to produce an effective base for community policing. This assumption fits the following submission:
While vigilantes provide a compelling but interpretively layered script within popular Nigerian discourse, their practices need to be related to cultural logics and social imperatives of vigilantism as both counterpoint and complement to the ‘police failure' thesis (Pratten 2008: 12).
5.4 African Communal Approach to Development
Experiences in African societies show that communal efforts can still boost African development. Different communities in Kenya produced a workable model popularly known as the “Harambee”. The Harambee created avenues for community empowerment through voluntary donations and collective mobilisation of resources and Kenyan government employed it as a core development policy. The following remark shows the public discourse on the relevance of Harambee in Kenya .
you and I must work together to develop our country, to get education for our children, to have doctors, to build road, to improve or provide all the day to day essentials in the spirit of Harambee (Kenyatta 1968:217).
The cooperation of members of various communities was massive and unprecedented. Consequently, what was perceived as a right step in facilitating development became contaminated as each ethnic group wants its member to be in the parliament to manipulate the Harambee for members' benefits (Wanyonyi 2004). Replicas of the Harambee in different African societies include Ujamaa in Tanzania as well as “Agbajo Owo”, “Ekiti Parapo” and “Ndigbo” among the Nigerian Yoruba and Igbo.
6. Conclusion
This study raised different issues with important implications for the theory of African development. Considering the centrality of Africa in the primacy of human evolution and development of global capitalism, it is obvious that the persistence of underdevelopment in Africa is a product of values degradation perpetuated by a coalition of internal and external hegemonies. Findings of this study mirrored the earlier call for rigorous studies on how to re-build Africa (Joseph 2006). Africans have long established modalities for sustainable development within the limits of available resources in their environments. However, mass adoption of Western values without corresponding attention to African indigenous knowledge has resulted into gross neglect of African values which hitherto guaranteed social order.
Urgent revival of African values will redeem the situation. Principles of inclusion and exclusion must be adopted in reviving the values. In this light, indigenous standards must be retained and linked with acceptable global best practices. Essentially, undesired harmful traditional practices should be substituted with accommodation of positively rewarding Western values. African values such as extra judicial killings, use of charms to cause affliction and violence against women and children (Owumi 2005; Mbiti 1969; Schapera 1963) lack merit for revival and should be expunged. These practices and others that are clearly antithetical to social justice must be allowed to die.
African values such as communal economy, collectivistic orientations and good leadership should be placed at the centre of social discourse and utilised for African development. This is in recognition of the fact that the influence of traditional value will not disappear. In African societies where the majority lack opportunities for rapid social mobility, development policies that will not rapidly and positively transform the society are not needed anymore. There is urgent need for African leaders to radically shift away from promoting externally driven policies that are detrimental to local initiatives. Making policies that can activate valuable traditional practices top priorities will drive development forward in Africa .
Traditional intellectualism and its links with the larger society must be resuscitated and merged with Western education as the new fountains of wisdom. Kanza's (1971) notion that the longed-for African revolution must be the re-conquest of the right to think is relevant and must be a guiding principle in reviving African values for development. Africans must combat endemic corruption through inculcation of moral values such as truth, integrity, loyalty, respect, honesty, trustworthiness and patriotism. Fundamentally, African poverty will be tackled if education is combined with practical skills acquisition in different occupations.
7. References
Afigbo, A. 2007, Africa and the Abolition of the Slave Trade , Keynote Address Delivered at the International Conference Organized by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Ghana, 8-12 August 2007, pp. 1-21
Ajayi, J.O. 2008, The Oodua People's Congress and Crime Control in Lagos State , PhD Thesis, Ibadan : University of Ibadan , pp. 1-250
Ajibade, B. 2006, Anti-Bullet Charms, Lie-Detectors and Street Justice: the Nigerian Youth and the Ambiguities of Self-Remaking , Paper Presented at the International Conference on Youth and the Global South: Dakar , Senegal , 13th-15th October 2006., pp. 1-30
Ake, C. 1981, Political Economy of Africa, London : Longman, pp. 1-87
Baiden, G.T. 1986, Niger Ibos . London : Macmillan, pp. 1-451
Balogun, S.K. and Olutayo, A.O. 2006. Globalisation and the African Family System, Psychopathologie Africaine , XXXIII, 1:77-91.
Bassani, C. 2008, The Influence of Financial, Human and Social Capital on Japanese Men's and Women's Health in Single and Two-Parent Family Structures, Soc Indic Res , 85:191-209.
Bloom, J. and Sachs , J. 1998, Geography, Demography and Economic Growth in Africa , Brookings Papers in Economic Activity, 2:207-95.
Botwe-Asamoah, K. 2002, Kwame Nkrumah's Politico-Cultural Thought and Policies: An African-Centered Paradigm for the Second Phase of the African Revolution , New York : Routledge, pp. 1-236.
Collier, P. and Gunning, J.W. 1999, Why Has Africa Grown Slowly? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 13(3):3-22.
Collier, P. and Hoeffler, A. 1998, On the Economic Causes of Civil War, Oxford Economic Papers, 50:563 -73.
Collier, P. and Hoeffler, A. 1999, Loot-Seeking and Justice-Seeking in Civil War , Washington DC : Mimeo, Development Research Department, World Bank, Vol. 5, Issue 4, Article 1, http://www.bepress.com/peps/vol5/iss4/1 .
Collier, P and Gunning, J.W. 1999, Explaining African Economic Performance, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XXXVII, (March 1999), pp. 64-111.
Collins, S. and Bosworth, B.P., 1996, Economic Growth in East Asia : Accumulation versus Assimilation, Brookings Papers in Economic Activity, 2:135-203.
Dercon, S., 1997, Wealth, Risk and Activity Choice: Cattle in Western Tanzania , Journal of Development Economics, 5531:1-42.
Diamond, J., 1998, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies, New York : W.UT. Norton & Co, pp. 1-480
Dike, K. O. 2000, Trade and Politics, and the Restoration of the African in History, History in Africa , 27: 229-248.
DiMaggio, P.; John, E. and Bethany, B. 1996, Have Americans' Social Attitudes Become More Polarized? American Journal of Sociology, 102:690-755.
Easterly, W. and Levine, R. 1997, Africa 's Growth Tragedy: Policies and Ethnic Divisions, Quarterly Journal of Economics. CXII (1203): 12-50.
Ekeh, P. 1983, Colonialism and Social Structure , Ibadan : University Press, pp. 1-56
Fafunwa, A.B. 1982, African Education in Perspective, in A. Babs Fafunwa and J.U. Aisiku (eds), Education in Africa: A Comparative Survey , London: George Allen & Unwin, 1-270
Falola, T. 2002, Africa: Colonial Africa, Volume III, 1885-1939 , Durham : North Carolina Press, pp. 1-480
Fenelon, J.V. and Hall, T.D. 2008, Revitalization and Indigenous Resistance to Globalization and Neoliberalism, American Behavioral Scientist , 51(12):1867-1901.
Fenelon, J.V . and Murguía, S.J. 2008, Indigenous Peoples: Globalization , Resistance, and Revitalization, American Behavioral Scientist , 51(12):1656-1671.
Frank, A. G. 1969, Latin America : Underdevelopment or Revolution, Monthly Review Press, p. 13.
Frank, A.G. 1966, the Development of Underdevelopment, Monthly Review 18: 17-30.
Freund, B. 1984, the Making of Contemporary Africa , London : Macmillan, pp 1-333.
Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P. (eds.) 1974, Colonialism in Africa, 1870-1960 Vols. 1-5, Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-244
Grove, A.T . 1991, "The African Enrolment," in Rimmer, Douglas ( ed ) Africa 30 Years On, London : James Currey .
Gwin, C. and Nelson, J. 1997, Perspectives on Aid and Development, Washington DC : Johns Hopkins for Overseas Development Council, pp. 1-98.
Hendrickson, J.M. 1989, ‘Rights in Traditional African Societies', in J.A.A. Ayoade and A.A.B. Agbaje (eds.), African Traditional Political Thought and Institutions, Lagos : Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization, pp. 19-43.
Hoeffler, A. A. 1999, Econometric Studies of Growth, Convergence and Conflicts , D.Phil. Thesis, Oxford University .
Houtondji, P.J. 1986, “the Masters Voice: Remarks on the Problem of Human Rights in Africa”, in Paul Ricceaur (ed.) Philosophical Foundations of Human Rights, Paris : UNESCO, pp. 319-332.
Huntington, P. 1996. The Clash of Civilization and the Remaking of World Order, New York : Touchstone, pp. 1-143
Inglehart, R. and Baker, W.E. 2000, Modernization, Cultural Change, and the Persistence of Traditional Values, American Sociological Review , 2000, 65: 19-51.
Iweriebor, E. G. 1997, the Age of Neocolonialism in Africa, Ibadan : African Book Builders, pp. 1-153
Iyoha, F.O. ; Adejumo, G. O. and Adeniji, A. 2007, Impact of Core Values on Motivating Future Employees: An Empirical Investigation of University Undergraduate , IFE PsychologIA, 16(1):16-35.
Joseph, R. 2006, Misgovernance and the African Predicament: Can the Code Be Broken ? Ibadan : Faculty of the Social Sciences, pp. 1-86
Kanza, T. R. 1971, Evolution and Revolution in Africa , London : Rex Collins, pp. 1-241
Kenyatta, J. 1968, Suffering without Bitterness, Nairobi : East African Publishers, pp. 1-348.
Kohnert , D. 1996, Magic and Witchcraft: Implications for Democratization and Poverty-Alleviating Aid in Africa , World Development , 24(8 ): 1347-1355.
Lauderdale, P. 2008, Indigenous Peoples in the Face of Globalization, American Behavioral Scientist , 51(12):1836-1843.
Lehmann, H. 1987, Ascetic Protestantism and Economic Rationalism: Max Weber Revisited After Two Generations, Harvard Theological Review , 80 (3):307-320.
Lerner, D.l. 1958, the Passing of Traditional Society: Modernizing the Middle East . New York : Free Press.
M'Baye, K. 1982, ‘Human Rights in Africa ', in the International Dimension of Human Rights . Paris : UNESCO, pp. 583-602.
Maddison, A., 1995, Monitoring the World Economy. Paris : OECD, pp. 1-384.
Mascarenhas, A. 2004, Knowledge , Indigenous Knowledge, Peace and Development, Indilinga: African Journal of Indigenous Knowledge Systems , 3 (1):20-34.
Massey, D. S. 2002, A Brief History of Human Society: The Origin and Role of Emotion in Social Life, American Sociological Review , 67 (1):1-29.
Mbiti, J.S. 1969, African Religions and Philosophy, London : Heinemann Educational Books, pp. 1-290.
Mcphee, A. 1979, an Economic Revolution in British West Africa, Second Edition, London : Frank Cass.
Mehlum, M. and Torvik, R. 2002, Institutions and the Resource Curse, University of Oslo , Department of Economics, Working Paper No. 29.
Murove, M.F. 2005, The Incarnation of Max Weber 's Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism in Post-Colonial Sub-Saharan African Economic Discourse: The Quest for an African Economic Ethic, Mankind Quarterly , 45(4):389-407.
Nauck, B. and Klaus, D. 2007, the Varying Value of Children: Empirical Results from Eleven Societies in Asia, Africa and Europe , Current Sociology , 55(4): 487–503.
Nduka, O. 1980, Moral Education in Changing Traditional Societies of Sub-Saharan Africa, International Review of Education, 26:153-170.
Njoku, R. C., 2006, African Cultural Values: Igbo Political Leadership in Colonial Nigeria , 1900-1966, New York : Routledge, pp. 1-251
Nkrumah, K. 1966, Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism, New York : International Publishers, pp. 1-280
Nwonwu, F. 2008, Using Indigenous Knowledge in Traditional Agricultural Systems for Poverty and Hunger Eradication , Africa Insight, 37 (4): 47-60.
Obidi, S. S., 1993, A Study of the Reactions of Secondary Grammar School Students to Indigenous Moral Values in Nigeria , The Journal of Negro Education , 62(1):82-90.
Ojo, E. O. 2006, Human Rights and Sustainable Democracy in Nigeria (1999 - 2003), Journal of Social Sciences , 13(1):15-29.
Okediji, F. O. 1972. “Sociological Aspects of Rehabilitation of Beggars” in Okediji, F. O. (ed.) Rehabilitation of Beggars in Nigeria, Ibadan : University Press, pp.24-37.
Onimode, B. 1982, Imperialism and Underdevelopment in Nigeria : The Dialectics of Mass Poverty, London : Zed Books, pp. 1-258.
Osoba, S.O. 1987, “The Transition to Neo-Colonialism” in Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonbere (eds.) Britain and Nigeria : Exploitation or Development? London : Zed Books, pp. 223-248.
Owumi, B. E. 2005, African Values/Beliefs and the Polemics of Developing Traditional Medicine in Contemporary Times , Ibadan : Faculty of the Social Sciences, pp. 1-69
Pratten, D. 2008, Introduction: the Politics of Protection; Perspectives on Vigilantism in Nigeria , Africa , 78(1):1-15.
Robinson , J., Torvik, R. and Verdier, T. 2003, the Political Economy of the Resource Curse, CEPR Discussion Paper No. 3422.
Rodney, W. 1982, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa , Washington DC : Howard University Press, 1-286.
Røed-Larsen, E. 2002, Escaping the Natural Resource Curse and the Dutch Disease: Norway 's Catching up with and Forging Ahead of Its Neighbors, http://www.emlab.berkeley.edu/users/webfac/cbrown/e251 , 14 April 2006.
Sacks, J.D. and Warner , M. 1997, Sources of Slow Growth in African Economies, Journal of African Economies, 6:335-76.
Salti, N. 2007, Oil Greasing the Wheels: When Do Natural Resources Become a Blessing? http://w ww.GDN.org/2007Medal , 22 August 2008.
Schapera, I. 1963, Government and Politics in Tribal Societies, London : C.H. Watts and Co. Limited.
Schofield, J. 1996, Silent Over Africa – Stories of War and Genocide . London : Harper Collins.
Shackleton, S.; Campbell, B.; Lotz-Sisitka, H. and Shackleton, C. 2008, Links between the Local Trade in Natural Products, Livelihoods and Poverty Alleviation in a Semi-Arid Region of South Africa, World Development , 36(3 ): 505-526.
Thiongo, N. W. 1989, Decolonizing the Mind , London : Heinemann
Tu, W. 2000, “Multiple Modernities: A Preliminary Inquiry into the Implications of East Asian Modernity,” in L. Harrison and S. Huntington (eds.), Culture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress , New York : Basic Books, pp. 256–67.
Ukaegbu, C. C. 2007, Leadership Fatalism and Underdevelopment in Nigeria : Imaginative Policymaking for Human Development, Philosophia Africana , 10 (2): 161- 182.
United Nations 1980, Pattern of Urban and Rural Population Growth , New York : United Nations Department of International Economic and Social Affairs.
Vakunta, P. 2006, the Trouble with Africa , CODESRIA Bulletin, 3&4: 32-35.
Wanyonyi, P. K. 2004, “Harambee Self Help in Kenya : An Interplay between the Global and the Local” in Tade Akin Aina, Chachage Seithy L. Chachage and Elisabeth Annan-Yao (eds) Globalisation and Social Policy in Africa Dakar : CODESRIA, pp. 311-325.
Weiner, M. ed. 1966, Modernization: The Dynamics of Growth. New York : Basic Books.
Wirsing, R.L.; Logan, M.H.; Micozzi, M.S.; Nyamwaya, D. O.; Pearce, T.O.; Rensaw, D.C. and Schaeffer, O. 1985, The Health of Traditional Societies and the Effects of Acculturation, Current Anthropology , 26(3):303-322.
Wood, A. and Mayer, J., 1998, Africa 's Export Structure in Comparative Perspective , UNCTAD.
World Bank 1998, Assessing Aid: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why, Policy Research Report, Oxford : Oxford University Press.
