The Failure of Leadership in Africa's Development

This book argues that the poverty and underdevelopment of Africa are the result of poor leadership, which is demonstrated in the historical indifference of a long succession of Africa’s ruling classes to scientific and technological progress.

This book examines the standard scholarly explanations of the cause of Africa’s underdevelopment and argues that the traditional scholarly explanations — colonial and neo-colonial expropriation, racial assumptions, nor geographical theory — are plausible as the main cause of Africa’s underdevelopment. Rather, the book contends, the chief cause of the continent’s underdevelopment is the failure of leadership in a long succession of Africa’s traditional ruling classes. This failure of leadership, the book shows, was demonstrated most clearly in the historically traceable indifference of a long line of Africa’s monarchs to scientific and technological progress. This indifference set the stage for the subsequent conquest, expropriation, and technological stagnation of Africa. The book concludes by recommending a blueprint for the continent’s future development.