Of African Development, Culture and the African Intellectuals (original) (raw)

In Francis Offor and Ademowo, A.J (Eds.) (2014) Humanism and Existential Predicaments: Essays in honour of Olusegun Oladipo. Ibadan: Hope Publications

There is consensus among scholars and policymakers on the role of culture in development. In this work, we examined the African development question, its bane and how culture could be used as a catalyst. We started by examining the ‘blame-the-west’ arguments in the works of Walter Rodney, David Tam West and George Ayittey on Africa’s plight. We however observed that the attempt to develop Africa should go beyond the ‘blame-game’, blaming anyone or group, to being insightful on how development can best be achieved. Using Olusegun Oladipo’s ‘cultural renewal’ as set out in his magnum opus, Philosophy and Social Reconstruction in Africa, as a foil, we suggested that, far from the blame-game that is rife in post-colonial Africa, the task before the African intellectuals, now, should be how to place the object of scholars-policymakers’ consensus, which is culture, at the center of the quest for African development.