Africa : Beyond the “ new ” dependency : A political economy

Scholars seek to articulate plausible explanations for the current world situation where the vast majority of countries are underdeveloped while a relatively small portionthe Western countries, are rich. From the classical Marxist analysis emerged the neo-Marxists, encompassing the Third World scholars theorizing on the persistence of this division and development alternatives. Their central argument is ‘development of underdevelopment’ which forms the main strand of the dependency theory. However with the emergence of Brazil and China as global giants and the pervasive economic in-roads to Africa, a shift on Africa’s dependency on the global north seems inevitable. Is a “new dependency” emerging or is Africa developing and catching up to rise beyond a new dependency? This paper seeks to engage in the ongoing perennial debate on Africa’s dependency. It presents a critique of the dependency theory and argues that an inevitable economic growth of China will not only upturn the regional presence of America in Africa but will create a “new” relationship through Chinese soft technology-the new media and globalization. However the crux of the argument is whether this will in turn develop Africa or foster a new dependency within the global South. To interrogate these assumptions, this paper adopts international political economy (IPE) approach as a methodology to examine China/Africa relationship using post colonial tools of analysis.


INTRODUCTION
No issue is more central in the ongoing debate on Africa's development than Western economic imperialism.The end of the cold war and triumph of capitalism has vitiated the interest of America in Africa.This shift is understandable as the emerging industrialized nations of Brazil and China takes toll in the international system.This informs an analysis of new forms of dependency in the global South which perhaps is already constraining the economic adjustment and the democratization process in Africa.In a recent article Missing in Africa, How Obama Failed to Engage an Increasingly Important Continent.Todd Moss ex-rays the level of America's policy shift from Africa.According to Moss, "U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has, to her credit, visited fifteen African countries on four separate trips.But her presence has been overshadowed by President Obama's absence.Obama has set foot on the continent just once: for a mere 20 h in Ghana in July 2009 where he gave a speech on democracy that resulted in no substantial action.The president's Kenyan heritage inspired unreasonably high hopes for a robust Africa policy; but his administration has failed to meet even the lowest of expectations.Even Obama's most vocal supporters quietly admit that he has done much less with Africa than previous presidents have" (Moss, 2012:1).Whereas America's presence in Africa is dwindling, Chinese presence on the other hand is rapidly on the increase.In a recent article How China Sees America, The Sum of Beijing's Fears Andrew J. Nathan and Andrew Scobell argue that; "Great power" is a vague term, but China deserves it by any measure: the extent and strategic location of its territory, the size and dynamism of its population, the value and growth rate of its economy, the massive size of its share of global trade, and the strength of its military.China has become one of a small number of countries that have significant national interests in every part of the world and that command the attention, whether willingly or grudgingly, of every other country and every international organization.And perhaps most important, China is the only country widely seen as a possible threat to U.S. predominance.Indeed, China's rise has led to fears that the country will soon overwhelm its neighbors and one day supplant the United States as a global hegemon" (Nathan and Scobell, 2012:1).
Africa which covers 20.4% of the global land area, contains about 13% of the world's population, but generates only 1.7% of the global gross domestic product (GDP).Differences among the countries are considerable.Population ranges from 0.2 million in Sao Tome and Principe to 148 million in Nigeria, while GDP per capita ranges from US$282 in Democratic Republic of the Congo to US$ 28,923 in Equatorial Guinea.The greatest difference among countries is in their size, ranging from 460 km 2 in Seychells to 2,375,000km 2 in Sudan (inclusive of South Sudan) (UNECA, 2009).This brief overview on economic structure of Africa is frontal in studying Chinese/African relationship.
Although studies on Africa's economic development have been examined from divergent perspectives, the common thesis has been the "development of underdevelopment" which is a major tenet of the dependency debate, necessitated by the twin concepts of imperialism and colonialism.
This has been plausible in post-colonial discourse on globalization from post colonial perspective and in a period of rapid urbanization and derailed industrialization in Africa."But widespread perceptions of China as an aggressive, expansionist power are off base.Although China's relative power has grown significantly in recent decades, the main tasks of Chinese foreign policy are defensive and have not changed much since the Cold War era: to blunt destabilizing influences from abroad, to avoid territorial losses, to reduce its neighbors' suspicions, and to sustain economic growth.What has changed in the past two decades is that China is now so deeply integrated into the world economic system that its internal and regional priorities have become part of a larger quest: to define a global role that serves Chinese interests but also wins acceptance from other powers" (Nathan and Scobell, 2012:1) However scholars like Raphael Kaplinsky had been skeptical on the corresponding industrialization of Sub Saharan Africa despite China's imposing presence.A common thread has been inequality fostered by globalization.Babara Weinstein in her paper, Developing Inequality, had argued that, "Despite ongoing debates about how to determine a global standard of living, most scholars of globalization would agree with political theorist Charles R. Beitz that "we live in a world whose massive inequalities dwarf those found within the developed societies…This is most conspicuously true of inequalities in standards of living-measured, for example, in average per capita purchasing power, life expectancy, and under-five child malnutrition (Beitz, 2001: Weinstein, 2008).
James Ferguson in Decomposing Modernity: History and Hierarchy After Development, explores a myriad of contradictions embedded in Western claim on modernity and globalization, "It is perhaps appropriate to begin by going back to the days when people thought they knew what they meant by modernity: the years following World War II, the days of de-colonization and "emerging nations", modernization theory and "nation-building".At the end of empire, a story about the emergence of "new nations" via processes of "modernization" or "development" provided a new grid for interpreting and explaining the world's inequalities.As the "backward nations" advanced, in this optic, a "modern" form of life encompassing a whole package of elements --including such things as industrial economies, scientific technologies, liberal democratic politics, nuclear families, and secular world views -would become universalized.In the process, poor countries would overcome their poverty, share in the prosperity of the "developed" world, and take their place as equals in a worldwide family of nations" (Ferguson, 2006, p.2).He further argued that; "this vision, so crudely sketched here, amounted to a powerful political and economic charter.What the world understood as a collection of national societies, global inequalities could be read as the result of the fact that some nations were further along than others on the ladder to a unitary "modernity".In this way, the narrative of development mapped history against hierarchy, developmental time against political economic status.The progressive nature of historical time being taken for granted, nations could anticipate their inevitable, if gradual, rise in the global order through a natural process of development" (Ferguson, 2006, p.2).
Weistein equally reinforces "the Eurocentric assumptions that underpin development" when she observe that; "Deconstructing the Eurocentric assumptions that underpin the concept of the periphery or of underdevelopment is a worthy pursuit, but it does not necessarily help us understand how, historically, those images and ideas got translated into economic advantages for some, and disadvantages for others.By failing to address the history of economic inequality, we thus run the risk of having a great deal to say about the genealogy of race, class, and gender discourses that undergird hegemonic power, but of having very little to say about the material disparities that are probably the most distressing consequences of the hierarchies they produce (Weinstein, 2008).
It is pertinent to study the prospects of the Chinese model either as an alternative development approach to Africa or otherwise.In this context, we seek to explore discursive analysis of these trends both from the perspectives of global north and south to be able to draw a valid inference in China/Africa relationship within the global context essentially on emerging new dependency debate.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This paper seeks to present a systemic account of dependency in Africa from the post-colonial perspective.The study seeks to interrogate the normative assumptions made about how, why and what concepts such as 'new dependency' 'globalization' and 'underdevelopment' might mean in post-colonial Africa on the assumption that the concepts had to be meaningful to be able to prompt positive actions in both the global North and South.An insight in the nature and structure of international economic relationship of Africa in an era of emerging global giants namely; Brazil and China have been phenomenal in understanding the global hegemonic powers of the industrialized nations vis-a-vis the vulnerable African states.However this paper focuses on China/Africa relationship in the context of globalization and economic integration.The paper argues that globalization will be meaningless in the face of underdevelopment and poverty.
The understanding of the development of underdevelopment in contemporary Africa is made plausible with the international political economy (IPE) approach.Hellen Milner has argued that International political economy is a growth industry.Beginning its boom after the oil crises in the 1970s shook both world markets and states, the field now encompasses not only a great deal of political economy but of comparative and international politics as well.The end of the Cold War also helped shift attention to the field's main focus: how markets and states affect one another (Milner, 1998:1) .Equally Michael Veseth contend that International Political Economy (IPE) is the rapidly developing social science field of study that attempts to understand international and global problems using an eclectic interdisciplinary array of analytical tools and theoretical perspectives.IPE is a field that thrives on the process that Joseph Schumpeter called "creative destruction."The growing prominence of IPE as a field of study is in part a result of the continuing breakdown of disciplinary boundaries between economics and politics in particular and among the social sciences generally (Veseth, 2004).
Within the context of global North/South divide, Immanuel Wallerstein's systems analysis specifically underscores the structure of contemporary international system (Wallerstein et al 1990).This study will not treat Africa as a homogenous bloc rather it adopts both analytical and secondary sources of data to examine country specific and regional factors embedded in understanding the 'new' dependency' in Africa.It examines the processes of interaction between economic, political and social factors in a given social formation.

Conceptual clarifications
In this context, this paper will briefly examine main concepts that will guide our analysis namely; dependency, globalization, and new dependency.
The dominant theme on Africa's underdevelopment agenda like other Third World economies is the global asymmetrical economic relationship between the underdeveloped and developed economies which resulted dependency in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
At the end of World War II, the modernization school emerged to tailor the 'periphery" economies in line with the developed Western model.However, scholars from countries targeted by this modernization school of development started to develop their own theories, partly as a result of 'sub-optimal' results of policies based on the modernization theories, as well as concluding that imperialism in general "has actively underdeveloped the peripheral societies" (Martinussen, 1997:86;Keet, 2002) they are living in.Critique on the modernization school first arose in Latin America as a response to the bankruptcy of the program of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA).In short, the Amadi 193 ECLA promoted protectionist policies together with industrialization through import subsidies, which, in practice, resulted in a brief economic expansion in the 1950s followed by economic stagnation (unemployment, inflation, declining terms of trade, etc.) (So, 1990:91;Keet, 2002).Overall, the failure of the ECLA and the resulting decline of the modernization school theories, together with the crisis of orthodox Marxism, gave rise to what is now referred to as Neo-Marxist Dependency Theories (Keet, 2002).A new version of Leninist political economy thus concentrates on the relations of production or labour process present in the capitalist societies and especially on the changes that have occurred in those relations since the writings of Marx and Lenin (Howlett and Ramesh, 1992).
There are two dependency theory traditions (Dos Santos, 2002).The first is the Marxist influenced by Paul Baran and Paul Sweezy, and developed by André Gunder Frank with important ramifications in the works of Samir Amin, Theotônio dos Santos, Arghiri Emmanuel, and Aníbal Quijano.The second dependency tradition is associated to the Structuralist school that builds on the work of Raúl Prebisch, Celso Furtado and Aníbal Pinto at the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).This structuralist approach is best represented by Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Enzo Faletto and by the subsequent contributions from Peter Evans, Osvaldo Sunkel and Maria da Conceição Tavares.Other schools of thought were heavily influenced by dependency theory and expose, in some respects, very similar views, in particular, the world-systems theory of Immanuel Wallerstein and his followers (Topik, 1998) An analysis of globalization within the production process is found in the interaction of capital and labour in production of surplus value which is termed the "labour process approach".The labour process indicates the means by which raw materials are converted to products having use -values, which may be exchange for each other as commodities.Following Lenin and Gramsci, labour process theorists argue that two and possibly three major changes to the organization of work had occurred in more recent times.The first change was the dismantling of the craft system of production of individual goods by skilled workers and the introduction of unskilled mass production techniques.The second was the introduction of assembly lines to speed up production even more.These two developments in the labour process are known respectively as Taylorism and Fordism after the two individuals most responsible for their implementation in the United States: Frederick Winslow Taylor in the steel industry and Henry Ford in the automobile industry (Howlett and Ramesh, 1992).
Pioneering work in this field was undertaken by Harry Braverman in his work Labour and Monopoly capital.Baraverman notes that capitalism is founded on the ability of capitalists to extract surplus labor from production activities and that in the process of development of capitalism, any vestiges of worker control over production that might give them the ability to regulate how much surplus value is produced have been removed.The primary technique that has accomplished this has been the gradual transfer of knowledge over the production process from workers to managers.As Braverman argued that the capitalist mode of production systematically destroys all-around skills where they exist, and brings into being skills and occupations that correspond to its needs.Technical capacities are henceforth distributed on a strict "need to know" basis.The generalized distribution of knowledge of the productive process among all its participants becomes ,from this point on ,not merely "unnecessary", but a positive barrier to the functioning of the capitalist mode of production (1974, p.82, Howlett andRamesh, 1992).
Although many original labour-process theorists limit their analysis to the examination of changing modes of organizing production in various countries, later theorists have expanded these insights to a general theory of global economic development based on the concept of a regime of production or of regulation.This analysis, popularized by Michel Aglietta, Alain Lipietz, and others associated with the French research CEPREMAP, is often referred to as the Regulation School (Howlett and Ramesh, 1992).
In search of development alternatives, Third World scholars in the 50s began to tilt towards a seeming Leninist development leaning in analyzing Third World underdevelopment.In the post World War I Leninist analysis, with its emphasis on the exploitative aspects of European imperialism, featured prominently in the liberation movements of many African and Asian nations (Nkrumah, 1965;MaoTse Tung, 1961;Fanon, 1965 in Howlett andRamesh, 1992).Also similar inclination is found in Nyerere's Tanzania.It also had a major impact in long independent Latin American countries in the post world war II era as theorists worked at understanding why those countries had failed to develop in the same fashion as other independent countries.
The Latin American theorists focus on the Leninist insight that imperialism had perpetuated the uneven development of metropolitan and peripheral countries, as surplus earned from the peripheral countries accrued to metropolitan nations.They argue that despite their political sovereignty Latin American nations became tied economically to metropolitan nations through foreign ownership either of companies or the capital and technological resources required for industrial development.This places peripheral countries in a position of dependency vis-a-vis advanced industrial nations, and dependency theorists argue, results in a kind of truncated industrial structure in these countries.They usually refer to this as a process of "underdevelopment" (Furtao, 1964;Frank, 1970;Cardoso, 1972;Howlett and Ramesh, 1992).As Andre Gunder Frank explains in his book Latin America: Underdevelopment or Revolution (1970).The now developed countries were never underdeveloped, though they may have been underdeveloped.It is also widely believed that the contemporary underdevelopment of a country can be understood as the product or reflection solely of its own economic, political, social and cultural characteristics or structure.Yet historical research demonstrates that contemporary underdevelopment is in large part the historical product of past and continuing economic and other relations between the satellite underdeveloped and the now-developed metropolitan countries.Furthermore, these relations are an essential part of the structure and development of the capitalist system on a world scale as a whole (p.4).
In his monograph, The Crisis and Challenges of Underdevelopment in Africa, Nigerian political scientist Henry Alapiki ,observed that, -The argument is that any regularized and repetitive exchange of material goods which substantially affects the welfare of a population or the maintenance of a power structure constitutes part of a single world system network.(Alapiki 1995) The agrarian question has predominantly been a raging debate on Africa's underdevelopment, seeking to find answers to the questions of why capitalism could revolutionalize agriculture in Europe but could not do the same in Africa (Rodney, 1972:239).However, Laclau made a clear distinction between "involvement in the world capitalist economy" and the "capitalist mode of production" (Laclau, 1971:37-38;Cliffe, 1976).In explaining the patterns of Africa's rural peripheries and destruction of the natural economy and mode of production (Preobrazhensky, 1965in Cliffe, 1976 :114), lists several of the mechanisms through which this primitive accumulation takes place, he differentiates between the various political and the various economic means.The political means operating especially through colonialism, includes taxes, seizure of land and livestock, conversion of conquered peoples to slaves, compulsion of peasants, conquest of trade routes, and state loans, such a list certainly corresponds very much to Africa colonial experience (Cliffe, 1976;Preobrazhensky, 1965;Rodney, 1972;Amin, 1973).The economic means are accumulations by way of economic channels, in particular a market system of "unequal exchange" whose exact mechanisms have changed over time but which have involved basically the "exchange of quasi -equivalents, behind which was hidden the exchange of a smaller for a larger quantity of labour" (Preobrazhensky, 1965;Cliffe, 1976).Side by side with the establishment of a capitalist mode, a contradictory set of forces operated against neighboring indigenous modes; on the one hand and, their production of commodities for sale was held in check so as to eliminate any productive alternative to labour migration (Arighi, 1970;Cliffe, 1976), but, on the other hand the tenacity of the destruction of the indigenous mode had to be halted before the point where it ceased to provide for the reproduction of the labour power itself (Cliffe, 1976).
The neo-Marxists' view on primitive accumulation is apt here; this so called primitive accumulation which is postulated by Marx and his followers as the necessary "pre-condition" for industrial development is quite different from capital accumulation or formation in the usual sense.It was defined by Marx as the historical process by which the basic condition of the capitalist system was achieved, which is the polarization of the market between owners of the means of production and 'free' laborers, freed both from 'feudal' bondages and from all property in the means of production by which they realize their labour (Marx, 1896;Crouznet, 1972).In this respect, "the expropriation of the agricultural producer, of the peasant, from the soil, is the basis of the whole process": and this was achieved by the sixteenth-and eighteenth-century enclosure which, either by "forcible means" or by a "Parliamentary form of robbery", conquered the field for capitalist agriculture and created for the town industries the necessary supply of a 'free and outlawed proletariate' (Marx, 1896;Crouznet, 1972).However, Marx stressed a different aspect of primitive accumulation, which is closer to the literal meaning of the expression: the looting and exploitation of colonies in America and the East Indies, the slave trade, 'commercial wars' between European Powers, the protectionist system, the creation of the National Debt and of the "modern mode of production'-all factors which focused into 'a systemic combination' in late seventeenth-century England.They increased and concentrated capital, especially merchant capital, and as they relied upon 'upon brute force' and robbery, or at least' 'the power of the State', capital came into the world 'dripping from head to foot, from every pore, with blood and dirt' (Crouzet, 1972:57).This 'economic plunder' and its effects on Africa has been evaluated in the writings of Walter Rodney, in fact analyzing the impact of slavery and slave trade as inherent in the underdevelopment of Africa , Rodney writes; The process by which captives were obtained on African soil was not trade at all, it was through warfare, trickery, banditry and kidnapping.When one tries to measure the effect of European slave trading on the African continent, it is very essential to realize that one is measuring the effect of social violence rather than trade in any normal sense of the word (Rodney, 1972:109).
Recent conceptualizations on dependency had begun to look beyond claims on the West as solely responsible for Africa's underdevelopment in a world scale.In his book "How the Negro Underdeveloped the Negro", Nigerian economist Willie Okowa argued that; On its part "new dependency" is an emerging social science discourse seeking to understand the impact of globalization and technological development of the industrialized West on the periphery economies.In this context, two agencies were established in 1944 to advance the new development project.The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was designed to help countries tackle balance of payment problems and stabilize their economies by providing them with short-term credits.The World Bank (or International Bank for Reconstruction and Development) offered credits for long-term investment in productive activities.The two agencies formed the axis of the international financial institutions that were tasked with bringing the development project to a successful conclusion (Omar, 2012).With the end of the cold war and the fast disappearance of national boundaries following regional economic integration fostered by neo liberal ideologies, new dimensions of imperialism are fast emerging through new global trade regimes, technological advancement takes toll following the emergence of Brazil, China and India as the world's fastest emerging markets.Economic integration and regional constellation have taken Africa further away from core development imperatives.A new dependency emerges.Conceptually the emergent "new" dependency is a condition of economic vulnerability and asymmetry created by the economic and technological advancement of the global north via globalization.
However within the global South, the imposing presence of Chinese redefines the understanding of the purport of "new dependency' especially in Sub Saharan African region.It is this later concept that will guide our notion of "new dependency' in this paper.
Mostly fostered by industrialized nations with technological advancement, the 'new' dependency "integrates' the poor African nations into the 'wider global system".
As a post colonial Western construct, industrialized nations resort to strategies to teleguide the development of the periphery.As the industrialized nations advance technologically, globalization takes new dimensions and critical shifts accompanied with new trends which have effects on the periphery.The "prevailing' dependency is institutional, teleguiding the domestic and foreign economic policies of Third World nations.Through neo liberal policies, global institutions (World Bank), corporatism, multilateral agencies (IMF, WTO), hegemony and global trade regimes which intensifies regional integration and global North /South polarity (institutional dependency).
The 'new' dependency is a new stage in capitalist exploitation.It is more aggressive, direct, compulsive and persistent.Imposing Western values and disarticulating pristine African cultural norms with unit level capitalist exploitation.New dependency imposes unsustainable consumption pattern and lifestyle on the periphery nations through highly advanced technology, such as the global satellite system, the internet, the new media, the iphone, iPod and blackberry (individualistic dependency).The new dependency is both institutional and individualistic.It is a condition of economic and technological dependency to 'keep' the poor nations "in check' for self reliant development.It is brain washing, vitiates self esteem and repressive to interrogation of the status quo.In this new order China assumes a lead in the global South with soft technology.
In this context, two key perspectives on globalization could be identified, namely; the pro and anti globalization debates.The globalization debate and its ingredients are broad and controversial.We will take only a few arguments.In the face of these raging arguments, most Third World scholars have argued from the anti globalization perspectives."A dangerous assumption in conceiving globalization and industrialization as leading to development is to believe that the 'developed' nations would want the developing ones to catch up and develop just as they did and would do anything to ensure this.This is dangerously taken for granted and it is better to note that globalization entails an extensive power play among nations as one ultimately wants to outdo the other, and if possible exploit the other for self benefits.According to Ritzer (2003:194) and Akanle and Akinpelu (2010:25) globalization focuses on the imperialistic ambitions of nations, corporations and other entities and their desires -indeed, their need to impose themselves on various geographical areas".Events at the WTO suggest that the developed nations are not in a hurry to facilitate the development of the developing ones.Infact, Wolfang Saches had argued in The Development Dictionary that, "The idea of development stands like a ruin in the intellectual landscape.Delusion and disappointment, failures and crimes have been the steady companions of development and they tell a common story: it did not work.Moreover, the historical conditions which catapulted the idea into prominence have vanished: development has become out-dated.But above all, the hopes and desires which made the idea fly are now exhausted: development has grown obsolete" (Saches, 1992).
Much has not changed in Sub Saharan Africa since the 1960s, Amadi 195 especially the globalization of political structures, the rapid urbanization of Africa, the increased presence and power of transnational corporations and neo-liberalism as an, if not the most, important factor shaping these times.Recent works by Amin (2001;2002) and Surin (1998) indicate a mixture of Dependency School theory as well as acknowledging the importance of the worldsystem, most notably the unsustainable, destructive forces of financial markets on Third World countries (i.e. about the generation of 'surplus' money not via labour and capital, but from money; and its volatility) (Keet, 2002).According to Anup Shah, while the world is globalizing and the mainstream media in many developed nations point out that economies are booming (or, in periods of downturns, that the current forms of 'development' and economic policies are the only ways for people to prosper), there are an increasing number of poor people who are missing out on this apparent boom, while increasingly less people are becoming far more wealthy (Shah, 2005;3).In "The Complexities and Contradictions of Globalization" James Rosneau tries to delineate "globalization" from "localization" ,when he argued that; "Globalization is rendering boundaries and identity with the landless salient ,while localization, being driven by pressure to narrow and withdraw is highlighting borders and intensifying ,the deep attachments to land that can dominate emotion and reasoning.In short globalization is boundary broadening and localization is boundary-heightening.The former allows people, goods, information, norms, practices, and institutions to move about oblivious to or despite boundaries.The boundary-heightening processes of localization are designed to inhibit or prevent the movement the movement of people, goods, information, norms, practices and institutions.Efforts along this line, however can be only partially successfully.Community and state boundaries can be only partially successful (Rosneau, 1997, p. 22).
With the disappearance of boundaries between "economically viable" and "economically vulnerable societies", which of the two is advantaged?This further interrogates the real development purport of globalization and integration.Walden Bello argues that we need to de-globalize or "change the rules of the global economy", that we need to re-embed the market in society so that it operates to strengthen local and national economies, and so that it is "governed by the overarching values of community, solidarity, justice, and equity".He points out that "the forces representing human solidarity and community" must provide alternatives quickly in order to "convince the disenchanted masses" that there are humane and just alternatives to corporate driven globalization.Otherwise he worries that "corporate rate-driven globalization" will embitter many, and the vacuum will be "filled by terrorists, demagogues of the religious and secular Right, and the purveyors of irrationality and nihilism' (Bello, 2003:1;Davidson et al., 2005).
The late entry of the Third World into the 'international system' has been largely argued to have perpetuated the Third World's 'vulnerability and weakness' which has increasingly become a dominant theme in contemporary international political economy of the Third World (Ayoob, 1995;Adibe, 1994;Mazuri, 1995).Two fundamental factors lie at the root of the Third World character and provide much of the explanation for the split nature of the Third World societies; for their distinctive developmental problems, needs, and trajectories, and for their feeling of acute vulnerability vis-à-vis the international establishment composed of the advanced, industrialized states of the global North.These are first, the stage of state making at which Third World states currently find themselves and, second, the timing of their entry into the international system as full, formal members of the system of juridical sovereign states (Ayoob, 1995).

Prevailing dependency
As earlier argued, prevailing dependency is institutional and systemic Immanuel Wallerstein provides a lucid analysis of this phenomenon in his systems analysis in expatiating on the feature of the world system.The key features of the prevailing dependency include, imperialism, Aid, Modernization, structure of the international trade regime, global hegemony and the multilateral agencies.A brief discourse on this argument is pertinent.
Imperialism: The world system is built on global asymmetry between the North and South.This fosters core/periphery tension as argued in the views of Gunder Frank.Imperialism has increasingly underdeveloped Africa through the Breton Woods institutions and related agencies.
Aid: Despite the argument put forward in Jeffrey Sachs' The End of Poverty and Paul Collier's The Bottom Billion aid has not faired any better in Africa.The rejection of aid by China and Korea has been an issue in understanding the economic growth of both nations.While most Third World countries that acquiesce to aid remained plunged into debt crisis.In his essay, The African Crisis: Drought and Debt, Henry F. Jackson argued that; "The foreign debt of African nations has increased so rapidly in recent years that threats of bankruptcy hover across the continent, raising the prospect that Africa's most serious crisis will be triggered not by drought, but by debt.The debt problem is not only slowing economic growth and increasing poverty; it is fomenting political upheaval by forcing these nations to neglect social and economic development in order to make debt payments.People in many countries are the most basic public services as their governments devote dwindling export earnings, their main source of income, to economic and political survival" (Jackson 1985,p.1)In the case of Structural Adjustment (SAPs) its failures and impoverishment of Africa has been explored from various perspectives.Anup Shah provides one of the most influential arguments on Africa's dependency necessitated by the contradictions of SAPs when he contends that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank -prescribed structural adjustment policies have meant that nations are lent money on condition that they cut social expenditure (such as health and education)in order to repay the loans.Many are tied to opening up their economies and being primarily commodity exporters in such a way that poor countries have found themselves in a spiraling race to the bottom as each nation competes others to provide lower standards ,reduced wages and cheaper resources to corporations and richer nations .This has increased poverty and dependency for most people.It also forms a backbone to what we today call globalization.As a result it maintains the historic unequal rules of trade (Shah, 2006:1-2).Analyzing the abysmal performance of SAPs in Africa the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, recounts, "Despite many years of policy reform, barely any country in the region has successfully completed its adjustment program with a return to sustained growth.Indeed the path from adjustment to improved performance is, at best, a rough one and, at worst, disappointing dead-end.Of the 15 countries identified as 'core adjusters 'by World Bank in 1993, only three (Lesotho, Nigeria and Uganda) are now classified by the IMF as "strong performers' (Ayodele & Cudjoe, 2005:p5) Also the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) like other Western aid based projects has received serious criticisms from scholars of both developed and developing economies, "In September 2000 at the UN, the largest ever gathering of heads -of -state unanimously adopted the Millennium Declaration, committing to reach eight goals by 2015.Known as the Millennium Development Goals, these are the yardstick by which current international development efforts are to be judged.A flury of studies also estimated that, if the MDGs were to be reached, global aid levels would have to rise by $50 billion per year" (Clemens and Moss, 2005:1)."Sub Saharan Africa, most dramatically, has been in a downward spiral of AIDS, resurgent malaria, falling food output per person, deteriorating shelter conditions, and environmental degradation, so that most countries in the region are on a trajectory to miss most or all of the Goals…..The region is off-track to meet every MDG" (UN Millennium Project, Investing in Development, Main Report, 2005;Easterly, 2008).
Like all aid based development strategies, the failures of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs) will undoubtedly have unwholesome consequences to the peripheral economies (Clemens and Moss, 2005;Easterly, 2008), Infact Clemens and Moss argue that the studies suggesting $50 billion more is needed each year are frequently misinterpreted and contribute to an excessive-and unhelpful-focus on aid.All of the studies have significant problems with the methods used to arrive at the bottom line .The more careful ones with caveats, but these tend to get lost advocates or the media get hold of them.More importantly, by putting a price tag on outcomes, cost estimates inadvertently create an illusion that any goal can be met, if only the right amount of money can be mobilized among development experts, however ,it is widely accepted that resources are not the sole-and perhaps not even the most important -constantraint to meeting the MDGs.No amount of aid will make Africa grow at 7%.A huge literature looks at the link between aid and economic growth, and the results are not overly promising.venthose studies that do show aid can cause growth (for example, certain kinds of aid or that given to countries with good policies, also show very sleep diminishing returns to additional aid.That is, even if aid boosts growth a little, more aid cannot make Africa grow like China (Clemens and Moss, 2005:2).
The Structure of International Trade also provides critical appraisal of dependency.There are also theoretical disputes concerning the nature of the mechanism by which metropolitan countries dominate the affairs and development of countries on the periphery-a significant debate that influences political practice in many developing countries looking to promote indigenous economic development (Howlet and Ramesh, 1992).One of such 'economic domination' plays itself out in the structure of international trade and accompanied restrictions with unequal trade regimes by the WTO (Emmanuel, 1972;Wallerstein et al 1990Wallerstein et al , 2002;;Amin, 2001;Grynberg, 1998).The implicit dynamics of this economic domination could be gleaned from the prevailing neo liberal order specifically globalization and integration in a period of rapid urbanization in Africa provides profound determination to study African's response to the emerging order.

Urbanization or modernization of poverty?
Recent studies and literature argue that Africa is one of the most rapidly urbanizing regions in the world next to Latin America.As Africa is "urbanizing", is it accompanied with industrialization and technological development?A recent study "Urban Poverty and Fresh Water Commodification in Africa" A case of Sustainable Consumption?, provides a lucid understanding of Africa's urban poor, "unclean water, along with poor sanitation, kills over 12 million people each year, most in developing countries.As population and demand for natural resources continue to grow, environmental limits will become increasingly apparent.Water shortages are expected to affect nearly 3 billion people in 2025, with sub-Saharan Africa worst affected (Amadi, 2011;Hinrichsen and Robey, 2002).
Urbanization has fostered dependency in Africa as the urban centers rely heavily on western values and lifestyles including unsustainable consumption pattern.With Africa's soaring population, what has happened to the urban and rural poor?The rural population is growing at a rate of 2.5% per year, while the urban population is experiencing 5 to 10% growth per year.Africa's urban population was 373 million in 2007 and will reach 760 million in 2030 (UNECA, 2009).Increasing numbers of the poor will be city dwellers and Sub Saharan Africa has the third largest number of slum dwellers.Following South and East Asia, the urban population growth is not absorbed by the largest cities but by the intermediate cities (towns less than 500,000 inhabitants), (Ibid) Africa has some of the world's highest level of urban poverty, reaching over 50% of the urban populations in Chad, Niger, and Sierra Leone.Countries of North Africa and the Near East have urban poverty levels near or below 20%.In Asia the highest percentages are in India, at 30% and Mongolia, at 38%.In Latin America and the Caribbean, levels of urban poverty vary widely, from 8% of the urban population in Colombia to 57% in Honduras (Amadi, 2011;World Bank, 2002).
However, Africa is relatively well endowed with natural resources and produces about 10% of the worlds energy supply.With 13% of the world's total population, Africa consumes only 5.5% of the world energy, and it generates only 3.1% of the world's electricity.The per capita energy consumption of 0.5 tones of oil equipment, far lower than the world average of 1.2 tones of oil equivalent per capita makes the continent lag behind all others in energy use (UNECA, 2008).Africa is endowed with abundant water resources, which accounts for about 10% of global freshwater endowments.Freshwater resources across Africa are however unevenly distributed, its commodification thus intensifies impoverishment (UNECA, 2009;2011).Currently about 14 countries in Africa, mostly located in the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa, are subject to water stress or water scarcity (UNECA, 2009;Amadi, 2011).

Industrialization and new dependency
Absence of Industrialization is among the peculiarities of Africa.This has fostered dependency as Africa is a "dumping" ground for finished products.Industrially Africa lags behind other regions in almost all its industry -related indices.The contribution of manufacturing output to total national income is generally low, with the share of manufacturing value added being at an average of only about 9% (UNECA, 2009).In the context of global market system, African industrialization is also marginally constrained by non-tariff restrictions, and progress during the URAs was limited.Overall 26.6 and 25.5% of all imports in the EU and USA respectively were subjected to NTB in 1986; post-UR coverage is 19.1 and 16.8%.Among the NTB protection, coverage by quantitative restrictions was 19.5% in the EU and 20.4% in the USA in 1986; they were to 13.1 and 10.9% by the UR negotiations.Its coverage on textile, which is an important industrial product for several African countries, increased from 74.9 to 75.4% on the EU market.It fell in the USA from 84.1 to 68.3% but still quite high.For example, NTB coverage for SSA average in the EU and US markets are 13.1 and 19.7%.In the case of manufacturing exports, the SSA average is 5.6%.The industrialization of Africa is even more constrained by non-tariff measures (NTMs) such as safeguards, SPS, and TBT, which are increasingly being used as surrogate for protection (Meyn, 2007;Nguyen and Soludo, 2008;Stevens et al., 2008).

Regional integration and new dependency
With constellation arising from regional economic integration, is Africa faring any better?Has the emergence of African Union (AU) and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) improved the lots of Africa?These have equally been frontal in analyzing the impact of economic integration to the development of Africa.Ordinarily, economic corporation amongst African countries ought to have intensified socio-economic well being of the region.Contrary to popular perception, critics have identified a myriad of factors militating against this, first is the neocolonial influences which creates regional divide along neo-colonial lines between former British and French African colonies (Pfaff 1995).African regional economic drive has neither demonstrated relics of effective Amadi 197 development nor the practical features of regional economic integration including common currency, on tariff barriers etc.The growing internal crisis, wars, religious and ethnic insurgence in major African countries like Nigeria, Rwanda, Sudan, South Sudan Somalia, Ethiopia, Chad, Burundi, etc and the insurrection from the north African fringe including Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and Libya which portend semblance of failed states in Africa (Mazuri, 1995), equally threatens sustainable development and points to the failures of regional economic integration of Africa.

The new economic order and new dependency
The global economic order and prevailing trade regimes have intensified global economic asymmetry.With the new global order and information communication revolution (ICT), has Africa experienced technological advancement to meet the challenges of the changing times?
Poor leadership and lack of effective resource management has destabilized regional cohesion and internal economic structures of most African States.For instance Africa's relative poor solid waste management poses great challenges to the political economy and development of Africa, much of this shortcoming is replicated in industrial pollution and toxic wastes which are deleterious to human health.Especially in the coastal regions in Africa through the activities of multilateral organizations, effective environmental health has been weak in Sub Saharan Africa.The problem of solid waste management is a growing source of concern in African urban centers driven by population growth, industrialization and rising standards (UNECA, 2009).There is severe deforestation in Africa.From 1990 to 2005, deforestation took place at a rate of 0.7% per year versus 0.2% at the global level (UNECA, 2009).
From economic perspectives, regional integration in Africa has not meaningfully evolved the "real" features such as common currency, structural economic harmonization, free trade, liberalization, deregulation, export promotions, etc.
Despite all these, Sub Saharan regional trade restrictions and related inhibiting factors threaten regional integration in Africa amid imperialism.

ICT revolution
In 2003 the global system of mobile telecommunication GSM was brokered in Nigeria.Today an average Nigerian, literate semi literate or illiterate knows what a GSM phone is.This however has eased communication.However if according to the World Bank modest report that an average African subsists below $2 Dollars per day.How do millions of poor Africans using the GSM phone recharge their phones?
Again, the internet system and web services are on the increase in Africa, despite access to censored western information, there is still a wide development gap between Africa and the West.Africa is currently undergoing a crisis of identity.This crisis of identity via imposition of western values, through eBook, ecommerce, etc intensifies technological divide.Evidence has shown that there is a further development gap.

Africa/China relationship
Global perspectives on Chinese role in Africa have been profound and complex.For instance, the current Chinese soft power which forms its central foreign policy drive has been phenomenal in its rapid economic growth as a global giant."In 2007 the first public pronouncement was made on the use of soft powers in Chinese foreign policy practice, when the then General Secretary Hu Jintao gave a keynote address on the importance of culture as a foundation for creativity and national cohesion (Lye, 2010;Wu, 2012).The government realized that competing for global influence required facilitating understanding of Chinese culture.In the same year, a political report by Hu mentioned the term soft power or ruanshili for the first time (Bandurski, 2011;Wu, 2012).In early 2010, the People's Daily published an article in which Premier Wen Jiabao announced that China would engage more actively in foreign cultural exchanges; the article also mentioned that soft power had become a key concept in government sessions (People's Daily, 2011;Wu, 2012).As the China Daily noted, media which target overseas audiences, would receive more investments over the next 10 years to open and support new stations and to 'present a true picture of China to the World' (China Daily, 2011).According to Joseph Nye, the easiest way a state can achieve its objectives is: • if it supports institutions that influence the behaviour of other states [or people] to the ways of the dominant state -thus saving the need for coercive tools such as economic and military power; and • to create global norms that are not foreign to its own society, ensuring it is unlikely to need to change (Nye 1990cited in Wu, 2012).
China's approach to soft power is slightly different to that of Nye.As Kurlantzick explains, like its East Asian neighbors, China's understanding of soft power is broader than Nye's original concept, which looked at harder forms of influence that excluded investment, development aid and diplomacy (Kurlantzick, 2006).also looks beyond the international appeal of multilateral participation, business influence, values and culture.Its soft power is about not only promoting international status but also making Chinese values and culture attractive to a public grown weary of traditional ideology.Therefore China needs to inspire its own public before it can offer anything beyond economic growth to the world (Glaser andMurphy, 2009 cited in Wu, 2012).
In his article What Does the Rise of China Do for Industrialisation in Sub-Saharan Africa?Raphael Kaplinsky argues that China's rapid growth and deepening global presence in Africa creates a major challenge for the conventional wisdom of industrialisation as a core component of development strategy.These challenges are expressed through a combination of direct impacts (expressed in bilateral country-to-country relations) and indirect impacts (reflected in competition in third country markets).In current structures, these impacts are predominantly harmful for SSA's industrial growth, as expressed through its recent experience in the exports of clothing to the US under AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) (Kaplinsky, 2008, p7).
According to Jianbo and Xiaomin (2009), as the statistics indicate, since the first Ministerial Conference of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in 2000, China has canceled debt totaling 10.9 billion Yuan (US$1.4 billion) owed by the heavily indebted poor countries and the least developed countries in Africa that have diplomatic relations with China.At present, China is fulfilling its pledge of canceling debt of another 10 billion yuan owed by some African countries.These facts provide evidence that China is determined to help African countries to realize their common development.The essence of friendly Sino-African relations, "mutual help" and "win-win", lay not only in helping and supporting each other on the world stage but more importantly, win-win cooperation for economic and social development lays a solid foundation for furthering development of future relations.At the Beijing Summit of FOCAC in 2006, China and African countries pledged to establish a "new type of Sino-African Strategic partnership" on the basis of "political equality, mutual trust, economic cooperation, win-win, and cultural exchanges (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).
In Sino -Africa trade relations; "these increasing frictions in Sino-African trade impacts the mutual benefits brought forth by the economic and trade cooperation between the two sides.Since 1965, China had maintained a surplus position in the trade with African countries.In the 1980s the trade imbalance got even worse.In 1987, China's exports to Africa amounted to 854 million dollars, which was 5.53 times the imports (China's imports from Africa only amounted to 155 million dollars) (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).
In recent years, the Chinese government has taken many measures to increase imports from Africa and the trade imbalance between the two sides has been gradually relieved.In 2006, Sino-African trade amounted to $55.5 billion and China's trade deficit amounted to $2.1billion; in 2007, Sino-African trade amounted to $73.57 billion and China attained a favorable balance of $1.01billion.Although the volume of trade between the two sides is marching towards balance on the whole, China still maintains trade surplus to some degree with most African countries apart from some energy exporters such as Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Sudan, Libya, Mauritius, Gabon, Chad and Nigeria.Another concern of African countries is that the mass flow of China's cheap goods, especially textile products, into African markets may impact the growth of their manufacturing and lead to enterprise bankruptcy and unemployment.Countries including South Africa and Egypt have begun to adopt anti-dumping measures against Chinese products (especially textile products).For example, by the end of December 2007, the South African authorities have initiated 41 anti-dumping investigations on Chinese exports, 4 of which took place in 2007.South Africa is among those nations that most frequently subject Chinese exports to anti-dumping investigations (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).
In recent years, Chinese enterprises are increasingly undertaking large-scale projects in construction, mining and chemicals, such as the investment in oil in Sudan by China Petroleum, copper mining in Zambia by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Group Corporation and so on (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).
the views of Mohan and Power (2008;p. 23), "the role of China in Africa must be understood in the context of competing and intensified global energy politics, in which the US, India and China are among the key players vying for security of supply.Contrary to popular representation, China's role in Africa is much more than this however, opening up new choices for African development for the first time since the neo-liberal turn of the 1980s.As such it is important to start by disaggregating 'China' and 'Africa' since neither represents a coherent and uniform set of motivations and opportunities.This points to the need for, at minimum, a comparative case study approach which highlights the different agendas operating in different African states.It also requires taking a longue durée perspective since China-Africa relations are long standing and recent intervention builds on cold war solidarities, in polemic at least.It also forces us to consider Chinese involvement in Africa as ambivalent, but contextual".
A lack of social responsibility on the part of some Chinese enterprises in Africa damages China's national image.First, some enterprises ignore production safety.The Chinese government encourages enterprises to embark on resource development and large-scale infrastructure construction in Africa (Giles and Power, 2008).
In recent years, Chinese enterprises are increasingly undertaking large-scale projects in construction, mining and chemicals, such as the investment in oil in Sudan by China Petroleum, copper mining in Zambia by China Nonferrous Metals Industry Group Corporation and so on.(Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).These are fields of great danger.What is more, some enterprises attach little attention to production safety.This, as a result, leads to frequent accidents.On April 20, 2005, a gas explosion at Chambishi copper mine in Zambia caused 50 deaths.This accident caused great concern to the Zambian government, civil society and international society and triggered a strike of the African employees and even a riot.The local labor union imputed the accident to the Chinese investor's carelessness, for the related workers did not possess the relevant technical ability/training and were not prepared or equipped to deal with dangerous materials.Second, Chinese enterprises are criticized for not creating enough job positions.African countries are also unsatisfied with the fact that in Africa the Chinese government and enterprises employ a large number of Chinese laborers in China-invested items or items Chinese enterprises successfully get bids for (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).African countries and civil society groups critique Chinese foreign investors for not helping them increase local employment and develop human resources.Third, Chinese enterprises are criticized for bringing few benefits to local communities.At the seminar of "Afro-Chinese Relations: Past, Present and Future" held in South Africa in November 2005, Daniel Deng, the archbishop in Southern Sudan, aired his grievance against issues of social responsibility of Chinese enterprises in Southern Sudan.He urged that "the Chinese oil companies should enhance protection of environment in Southern Sudan, increase communications with local citizens, protect their interests and improve their lives" (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).Fourth, Chinese enterprises are blamed for not taking enough efforts to protect Africa's environment and its resources.For example, Chinese enterprises exploit and purchase timber in Africa.They also help the Sudanese build the Merowe Dam and plan to build the Mpanda Nkuwa Dam in Mozambique.In African perspectives on China in Africa, a book published by the African Fahamu Foundation in 2007, China was sharply criticized for its lumbering and building dams in Africa (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).
The negative appraisals and opinions of some academics toward Sino-African relations further worsen the public opinion environment China is faced with.They assert that China helps Africa only to scramble for strategic resources for its own domestic economic development; that China's exploitation of African resources is neocolonialism; that China's trade with Africa is typical mercantilism; that the increasing amount of Chinese commodities in Africa weakens the ability of African countries to adjust their economic structure and to improve their industry; and that China only focuses on economic gains and ignores democracy and human rights in African countries (Jianbo and Xiaomin, 2009).
Despite the claims laid by China on 'economic and official development assistance' to Africa the complexities and contradictions of the Chinese 'non interference' in Sudan is subject of scholarly curiosity.In a recent study, Daniel Large argued that, the core Chinese foreign policy principle of non-interference has recently come under increasing and more visible strain in China's relations with Sudan.Non-interference has been central to Beijing's relations with different governments in Khartoum since 1959.From the mid-1990s, however, the Chinese role in Sudan has become more embedded and consequential.Today China faces the challenge of accommodating its established policy of noninterference with the more substantive and growing complexity of Chinese involvement developed over the past decade in Sudan, amidst ongoing conflict in western Darfur and changing politics after the North-South peace agreement of January 2005 (Large, 2008;pp. 93-106).
Activists exploited the increasing media attention to criticize China's disregard for human rights and, in particular, its links with Sudan.Since 2004, the world had become increasingly aware of the genocide in Darfur.Western activists highlighted China's passive role in the conflict and how its closeness (based on diplomatic, arms and oil support) to the Sudanese government directly fuelled the conflict (Budabin, 2008) Equally, the violence at the aftermath of Kenya's 2007 elections puts the Chinese foreign policy in Africa to a test, Lindsey Hilsum's article China Faces Reality in Africa provides an insight in this analysis, "When violence broke out in Kenya after the December 2007 elections, the Chinese believed that they had understood the problem.'Western-style democratic theory simply is not suited to Amadi 199 African conditions, but rather carries with it the root of disaster,' said a comment piece in the People's Daily, the newspaper of the Communist Party.'The elections crisis in Kenya is just one example.'The analysis revealed more about China than about Kenya.China's long-held policy of 'non interference' is simply a pledge to support those in power in any given country, however venal or corrupt they may be.The idea of an opposition is an anathema to the one-party state, where communist ideology has given way to authoritarian capitalism, the notion that economic growth depends on stability, and stability requires repression" (Hilsum, 2008 pp. 137-140).Again, is the Western skepticism and criticism of the genuine intentions of Chinese presence in Africa; "the Western media's treatment of China and its expanding role in Africa is one of the most obvious examples.Common themes in Western media coverage are China's negative impact on Africa and its dealings with corrupt governments.Regular report on China as a monolithic entity, criticise China's colonial ambitions and emphasize present circumstances -with little socio-historic explanation of the China-Africa relationship.For instance, The Guardian released a cable quoting a US official who described China in Africa as 'a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals' (The Guardian Dec 8, 2010).An opinion piece in the New York Times described China as a 'rogue' donor, which like Iran and Venezuela has 'the cash and the will to reshape the world into a place very unlike the one where we want to live' (Wu, 2012, p. 7).

Critique of the dependency theory
Amid divergent theoretical clarities and conceptualizations, political economy and underdevelopment interface have been an issue of increasing scholarly debate among scholars of both developed and developing economies.In fact to a large extent intellectual dissonance has emerged among Third World scholars as they began to refute earlier claims and assumptions that imperialism and colonialism are precursors of Third World underdevelopment.Nigerian economist Willie Okowa comes the closest in this line of argument (Okowa, 1995).Although there are differences between the leading scholars in the classical dependency theories, the most important thing to remember is that these theories attempt to describe underdevelopment and dependency from a Third World point of perspective, most of them tried to identify external factors to explain the backward economies, think unequal exchange imposed 'other' countries, and their polar theoretical structure is core versus periphery (Keet, 2002).However, the dependency Problematique as some scholars argue have been multidimensional irrespective of the scholarly utility of its proponents.Although disputes over these and other issues remain unresolved ,dependency theory itself has been challenged from within the Leninist tradition by many analysts who feel that its insights rely far too heavily on critiques of trade and international relations and that it ignores significant changes in global industrial organization.There are disputes, for instance, concerning the empirical question of whether or not industrialization is proceeding at all in many peripheral countries or whether these countries are "sliding backwards" (Warren, 1973;Smith, 1979;Howlett and Ramesh, 1992:73).
A protagonist of the dependency critique from the Third World perspective especially on Sub Saharan Africa, argues that if leader after leaders in black Africa behaves in an incompetent, irresponsible and corrupt manner, the logical conclusion is that the tendency for incompetent, irresponsible and corrupt leadership is a dominant one in our cultural heritage.Blaming the imperialists serves as an emotional balm but does not help us at all.Why are we having competent, development conscious leaders in, for example, South East Asia where American and Japanese imperialism are concentrated?(Okowa, 1995).
Another critique of dependency is its over emphasis on international trade and market relations, imperialism and colonialism as solely responsible for Third World under-development.This for instance has been followed by divergent views on alternative routes to Africa's development.As Okowa (1995) argue, that the conceptualization of development and underdevelopment as seen by both the traditional or mainstream school of thought and the neo-Marxist school suffer from severe conceptual inadequacies because both view the symptoms rather than the real problems of underdevelopment (Okowa, 1995:16).
Some dependency theorists follow an orthodox Leninist line, arguing that the mechanism of control is the multinational corporation based in the metropole.Multinationals transfer surplus from the periphery to the metropole through unequal trade relations: companies use their market dominance to buy resources at below market value in the periphery and sell processed goods back to the peripheral country at inflated prices (Prebisch, 1968;Wallerstein 1972;Amin, 1974;Arrighi, 1978 in Howlet andRamesh, 1992).
Other reason is that at least part of the blame for underdevelopment lies in peripheral countries themselves .They point to the nature of the social formation present in many of these countries as the problem.That is, they argue because of colonization and prohibitions on indigenous economic activity enacted and enforced by imperial military authorities, many developing countries had their economies disrupted and transformed into capitalist forms of economic activity, but this happened without the growth of an indigenous capitalist class as had occurred in the course of the capitalist transformation of the economies of the metropolitan nations (Dos Santos, 1974;Frank, 1975).
Instead, peripheral countries developed only a small bourgeoisie involved in trade relations with the metropole (Frank, 1965).This comprador fraction of the colonial capitalist class relied upon its connections with the metropole to build up its wealth and power and continues in the post colonial period to resist any local efforts to severe links with the former imperial power.While multinational corporations remain the primary vehicle linking metropolitan and peripheral countries, in this view the social and political structure of peripheral countries facilitates, if not actively promotes, dependent relationships (Poulantzas, 1974;Murray, 1978;Howlett and Ramesh, 1992).This "connection with the metropole" manifests mainly with corruption.In fact Africa's emergent elite have been accomplices of global corruption including African leaders involved in corruption abroad.The list is endless (Okowa, 1995).
Regional domination within the internal colonies have been identified as a factor of "development fragmentation" as Fernando Cardoso argues that in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India, and some others, there is an internal structural fragmentation connecting the most "advanced" parts of their economies to the international capitalist system .Separate although sub-ordinated to these advanced sectors, the backward economic and social sectors of the dependent countries then play the role of "internal colonies" (Cardoso, 1972:90).
Although there are differences between the leading scholars in the classical dependency theories, the most important thing to remember is that these theories attempt to describe underdevelopment and dependency from a Third World point of perspective, most of them tried to identify external factors to explain the backward economies, think unequal exchange imposed from 'other' countries, and their polar theoretical structure is core versus periphery.Proposed solutions include a socialist revolution together with a partial or complete de-linking from the international system (Keet, 2002).Ironically "socialist revolution" arguably may not be a solution as socialism itself has collapsed from its internal contradictions.
For instance Tanzania's socialist experiment, Ujamaa received much Western support .Western aid donors, particularly in Scandinavia, gave their enthusiastic backing to Ujamaa, poring a estimated $10 billion into Tanzania over a period of 20 years.Yet between 1973 and 1988, Tanzania's economy contracted at an average rate of 0.5% a year, and average personal consumption declined by 43%.Today Tanzania's largely agricultural economy remains devastated.Some 36 million Tanzanians are attempting to live on an average annual per capita income of $290-among the lowest in the world.Other African countries that received much aid between 1960 and 1995 are Somalia, Liberia and Zaire-slid into virtual anarchy (Ayodele & Cudjoe, 2005).
Again, Third World nations could not be categorized as one homogenous group and, at least, their individual (colonial) heritage and social structure ought to be taken into account, therefore elaboration on and expansion of the relatively closed concepts of the classical Neo-Marxists was required (Keet, 2002).Okowa (1995:20) reinforces this position as he argues that underdeveloped societies do not define a uniform political economy structure.They of course have commonalities in terms of their economic, political and social structures: commonalities which differentiate them from the developed countries.Yet they also exhibit major differences in their economic, political and social structures.
Regional constellation has been weak to forge a collective strategic development plan for Africa.AU and NEPAD have been feeble in this direction.Similar regional blocs have failed..Africa remains largely poor and agrarian with primary products and agriculture contributing the bulk of the resource base.
The aim, therefore, from the brief critique is to conceptualize a set of discourses, that inform certain practices that produce perceptible effects in economic, technological, social and cultural spheres in Africa's economic liberation and sustainable

AND DISCUSSION
Globalization has fostered global inequality.According to Weinstein, "contrary to what one might think, these inequalities are mostly greater today than 50 or 100 years ago, and there is reason to believe that the gap will continue to grow" (Weistein, 2008;Beitz, 2005, p.179) "To make matters worse, while globalization has not helped to equalize standards of living, it has created material longings that are very more likely to go unsatisfied.In the words of historian Achile Mbembe contemporary African experience involves "an economy of desired goods that are known, that may sometimes be seen, that one wants to enjoy, but to which one will have material access (Ferguson, 2006, p.179).
Many people recognize globalization as the understanding that the world is becoming a more interconnected place; that ideas, technology, events, and people move porously through state, national, and regional boundaries.But for those scholars who are focused on sustainable economic development, globalization is much more than that.Globalization erodes territorial boundaries, foster global inequality (Weistein, 2008) addresses the concerns around modernization, and derives a large amount of theory from post colonization (Ferguson, 2006).According to Arturo Escobar "Development was and continues to be for the most part a top-down, ethnocentric, and technocratic approach, which treated people and cultures as abstract concepts, statistical figures to be moved up and down in the charts of progress" (Escobar, 1995, p. 44).
The modern globalizing world intensifies global polarity-North/South divide (Wallerstein, 1975).Globali-zation is elitist, its benefits are for the few capitalist and highly industrialized nations.Majority poor nations are forced to suffer in deteriorating economic conditions.This is creating a crisis of development in the underdeveloped regions.In other words, statuses and conditions of peoples and nations may change over time due to globalization, but not necessarily in a sustainable manner.
From this standpoint, it is clear to see the value post colonization theory has on the formation and evolution of globalization and economic development of Africa.
As individuals, we must be sure not to simply write off globalization as a positive evolution-many countries and peoples are suffering because of it.It is therefore necessary to review methods and outcomes from colonization through post-colonization theories to develop a set of discourses and course of action that will allow for different (and more positive) outcomes.
China's economic progress and imposing presence may not possibly transform the economies of Africa yet we should not dismiss the possibilities of economic development through such relationships.It takes new nationalism and commitment to radical change and embrace of new trends.
Dependency and modernization are seemingly elusive in development discourse, yet Africa should not be passive by-standers.A search for alternative strategies such as developing a road map for self-reliant economic development is necessary.First they should achieve economic dependence through a boost on home grown development strategies rather than rely on Aid or the so called "Official Development Assistance" if sustainable economic development should be achieved.

Conclusion
In the face of ongoing discourse, modern globalization policies and programmes have failed to improve the situation of the largest part of humanity.These failures are crucial to policymakers and development practitioners and indicate the urgent need to embark on a critical and informed rethinking for Africa to understand the defects inherent in the discourse on globalization and to present viable alternatives beyond the 'new dependency' Globalization is a polemical issue that continues to be the subject of unending debates, with some critical approaches defending its effects.In its current form and practice, it has proved to be inimical to the vulnerable majority especially in the poor sub Saharan African countries.
The issue of new dependency in relation to sub-Saharan Africa is a topic that spurs sentiments as seen in the ongoing debate.Beyond the notion of dependency as a development purport, Africa should rise beyond the Amadi 201 challenges in the context that African leadership and governance should interrogate the status quo through value re-orientation and radical approach to development.There is no short cut nor 'hand out' from a third party.Development is participatory, direct and inclusive, external factors may not institutionalize the much needed sustainable development in Sub Saharan Africa.
In addition to historical reasons advanced by scholars like Walter Rodney, Babara Weinstein, James Ferguson and others, Africa should grapple with imminent dangers of poverty as the world is advancing, a resort to indigenous strategies and long term development perspectives is pertinent.
Globalization has permeated the interest of strong States over the weak States, with increasing trade regimes propagated by the World Bank led institutions through WTO and IMF.These have deleterious effects for African and indeed Third World development, no passive attempt could be effectual in redirecting the poverty situation of Africa.
Dependency theorists have not been confrontational in facing the core development challenges of the Third World.They have merely focused on identifying the division of the world into core and periphery, where the level of analysis is the Third World nations.Yet frantic efforts have not been made in real development terms.
Early dependency theorists focused on the general pattern of dependency as an economic phenomenon due to colonization and unequal exchange, whereas later scholars of the Dependency School investigated the historical-structural nature of dependency of peripheral countries, emphasizing the state and class conflicts (hence a socio-political phenomenon) and asserting that dependency and development can co-exist by so-called 'associated-dependent development' (Keet, 2002), much of this has not been put in practice.Again, Africa's vulnerability is still pervasive, poverty is still on the increase.Economic conditions in Africa and other Third World economies have not improved.Structural changes have been limited.African economies remain insufficiently diversified.Agriculture remains an important sector in much of Sub-Saharan Africa.It provides 57% of all employment, though only about 17% of the GDP.The agro industrial sector is still at such a low level development that it is unable to act as a driver for the agricultural sector.Interestingly the economic conditions and conceptual realities created by the world system, undoubtedly intensifies the North/South divide and underwrite the economic status of the developing economies, Sub Saharan African countries must strive relentlessly if sustainable development is anything to go by in the foreseeable future.
With the prevailing structure of the global economy North/South divide pervades.Should Africa de-link and re-link as argued by scholars like Gunder Frank, or should Africa 'confront imperialism' since they are not yet