Africa’s Revolt Against Developmentalism
by Kemi Seba
Kemi Seba explains why Africa must reject imposed models and chart its own course.
The concept of developmentalism—so highly praised by the Western-sponsored African tyrants Patrice Talon, Alassane Ouattara,1 and others—constitutes the backbone of neocolonialism. This notion is an ideological construction born after 1945 to organize the Global South according to the interests of the powers of the Global North.
This concept serves to legitimize a systemic dependence of our peoples on their world, through debt, structural adjustment programs, and their so-called aid. Developmentalism imposes the idea that the West is the standard by which humanity is measured, and that there is no salvation outside this civilization.
Yet there exist endogenous paths of betterment for our societies, based on the principles of community economies, and even of endo-solidarism.2 Julius Nyerere spoke of the concept of Ujamaa.3 The application of his ideology was far from perfect, yet it is in this direction that further work must be done. The point is not to pretend that everything is fine in our countries, because that is false. We must improve, but through our own paths. We will never be able to rise up by submitting the future of our peoples to the dictates of the Bretton Woods institutions.4
Development destroys the anthropological foundations of Africa. Principles such as the extended family, the community, and the rooted economy are viewed as archaic in order to impose consumerist individualism. It is a programmed uprooting.
The African must reject this. When Patrice Talon, Ouattara, or others showcase gleaming buildings—playing on the materialist weakness that affects too many of our own—you should ask yourself who these infrastructures truly serve, if not an African comprador bourgeoisie which, as its name implies, advances outside interests far more than those of its own people at home.
(Translated from the French)
Translator’s note (TN): Patrice Talon is the president of Benin (in office since 2016), widely criticized by anti-neocolonial activists for his pro-Western economic alignment. Alassane Ouattara is the president of Côte d’Ivoire (in office since 2010), often described as a key figure in pro-French, IMF-aligned governance in West Africa.
TN: Endo-solidarism is an African concept referring to forms of solidarity that arise from within a society itself, grounded in its own cultural and communal structures. It contrasts with externally imposed development models and emphasizes self-sustaining, indigenous modes of social and economic cooperation. The prefix endo- comes from the Greek endon, meaning “from within,” underscoring that this solidarity originates inside the community rather than from outside influences.
TN: Julius Nyerere (1922-1999) was the first president of Tanzania and a leading African thinker who developed the concept of Ujamaa, a model of African socialism based on extended-family communalism, rural cooperation, and self-reliance. The idea emphasized community ownership, collective decision-making, and development rooted in indigenous social structures rather than Western economic models.
TN: The Bretton Woods institutions are the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, created at the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference to oversee global financial stability and development lending. In Africa they are often criticized for promoting structural adjustment programs that deepen dependency rather than fostering genuine sovereignty.