Causes Of Underdevelopment In Sub-Saharan Africa

1 Introduction

The sub-Saharan Africa region has been suffering during the past few decades, mainly due to severe corruption, political instability and civil wars. As a result, unemployment, poverty and underdevelopment prevail all over sub-Saharan Africa. Although some countries like Angola, Ghana or South Africa have experienced economic as well as social development, a vast portion of the countries remain underdeveloped and poor.

The aim of this paper is to exemplify the main causes of underdevelopment in sub-Saharan Africa. I argue that the main reasons causing this underdevelopment are inefficient political as well as economic institutions and corruption.

This paper will be divided into the following parts. Firstly, the paper describes

Most of the African countries were trapped by a set of political and economic institutions that mainly hindered their economic development. The main reasons for this hindrance can be explained by the absolutist and patrimonial forms of government as well as the decentralized polities in many of the region’s countries. (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2010)

Due to slavery and later on colonialism, a very contradictory institutional dynamic started to emerge which than excluded many African states from taking advantage of innovation in economic institutions and furthermore from technological inventions. Therefore, there has never been a real chance for a complete institutional reform. In the 1960s, Africa was left with structures of colonial rule like dual-economies, which meant that in many states two distinct types of economies existed with a capitalist based manufacturing sector and labor intensive agricultural sector. These structures provided political incentives which led to inefficient property rights as well as absolute countries whose leaders are seen as selfish individuals with the only goal to enrich themselves, rather than providing goods to the public. Moreover, as reflected in weak policy formulation, ineffective public administration and corruption, it is obvious that Africa still has severe

The indigenous culture and the efficient bureaucracy in pre-colonial Africa were wiped out by the Western structures imposed by colonial empires. For instance, the French and the British introduced the indirect rule, a system of government where local traditional leaders retained certain administrative, legal, and other powers under the governance of the colonial empires. For the European powers indirect rule came at low cost because it was cheaper to give authority to a traditional local ruler than to train own officials to govern the colonies. Furthermore, the system of indirect rule had little effect on local culture and it did not disrupt local customs and institutions. However, this system came with consequences for the local societies. The indirect rule was actually a fraud as administers of the European powers made all major decisions and moreover it kept the old African ruler in power. This authority was than misused for private gain without taking into account any ethical