Africa and the Global System Disaster

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Periodical article

Title:	Africa and the Global System Disaster
Author:	Amin, Samir
Year:	1995
Periodical:	African Development Review
Volume:	7
Issue:	2
Period:	December
Pages:	35-50
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Subsaharan Africa Africa
Subjects:	political economy economic development industrial development Development and Technology Economics and Trade
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8268.1995.tb00070.x
Abstract:	This article reviews the modernization project on which every country in Africa embarked in the 1960s. The author describes the post-World War II period, and notably the period 1955-1975, as the period of 'development ideology' or the period of the Bandung National Bourgeois Project, referring to the Bandung Conference. He characterizes the modernization project of the Bandung period as an attempt to build capitalism without capitalists and argues that its achievements have been very unequal. Using the capacity of the new industries in the periphery to be competitive on global markets as a criterion, he distinguishes four categories of 'achievement': successful industrialization, unsuccessful industrialization, successful growth within the old division of labour, and unsuccessful growth. Most sub-Saharan African countries appear to fall within the last category. The author concludes with an outline of new strategies for transforming the world system in order to make a new departure for Africa possible. Ref., sum. in English and French.