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28 DPMF Occasional Paper No. 13As is clear, internal and external visions of African development haveexisted since the early years of independence. These visions have,however, differed fundamentally in terms of the development strategiesthey advocated. And the present dominance of the external vision ofAfrican development simply reflects the reality of Africa’s weakness andthe strength of external powers.4. ConclusionThe first major OAU Initiative on Economic Development started with theMonrovia/LPA in 1979/80. Before then, the OAU was mainly concernedwith inter-state relations and the politics of decolonisation. At this point,two simple questions arise with regard to these initiatives. Firstly, whywere/are OAU Initiatives different from those driven by the externals?And secondly, why do African Heads of States subscribe to radicaldevelopment approaches at the OAU level, but fail to implement these atthe national level? The answers to these questions are complex, but canpartly be found in the following explanations:(i)(ii)During the first 15 years of independence, there was a strongpresence of former colonial powers in African countries, be thisin terms of technical personnel, aid and strong political tiesbetween former colonial governments and the African politicalleadership. The influence of the metropolitan governments ontheir former colonies and their economic policies wasessentially direct. By the end of the 1970s, as Africa was facinga serious economic crisis, the direct influence of former colonialpowers began to weaken, or rather to change form.In the 1960s, African economies were doing quite well. Theygenerally had relatively plentiful foreign currency reserves andthe emerging class of African businessmen accumulating wealththrough the state institutions was very optimistic about thefuture. This emerging class favoured the pursuance of policiesrecommended by colonial advisors and the continuity ofeconomic structures that prevailed under previous colonial rule,without any radical change. Where some African governmentstried to adopt some radical approach to development and tochange the existing economic structure through nationalisationand diversification of external economic links, there was
Abdalla Bujra. Pan-African Visions of Development 29immediate and strong media reaction, diplomatic isolation andeconomic pressure to halt such “move to the left” which wasessentially perceived as economically disruptive. Such reactionwas witnessed in Tanzania, Guinea Conakry, Ghana (underNkrumah), Congo Kinshasa (under Lumumba), Benin, Somaliaand Uganda (under Obote I).(iii) The second half of the 1970s saw the economic crisisintensifying all over the African continent. There were seriousrumblings among the population and especially the military. Inmany countries, the military took power and this led to aworsening of the economic and political situation. In responseto this, the OAU began to take up economic development aspart of its mandate and soon initiated discussion ondevelopment issues. Similarly, the UNECA began to be moreactive than before in tackling development issues. As mentionedin earlier sections of this paper, these changes took place in thecontext of the strong ideological debate of the 1970s regardingalternative paths of development for Africa. The OAU’slanguage and perspective absorbed some basic ideas of theongoing debate, which tended to reinforce strong feelings ofcontinental nationalism, at the root of the OAU’s very existence,and leaned towards alternatives to existing developmentapproaches. African political leaders themselves found it easierto accept such alternative approaches to development becausethey saw on the ground, in their own countries, the drawbacksof approaches inherited from former colonial powers.(iv) Yet, at country level, most political leaders found it extremelyhard to debunk or reject prevailing economic policies because(a) the cost of disruption resulting from such change was toogreat, (b) the power of the emerging African economic elitewithin the existing political and administrative structures wastoo strong and favoured continuity of previous policies,including rent seeking behaviour and artificial shortages fromwhich some elite groups gained economically, and (c) the powerand influence of the externals was also very strong and, alliedwith some local groups, threatened to disrupt the economies ofAfrican countries in the event continuity was questioned. As aresult, it was easier for Heads of States to continue with theinherited economic policies and strategies at the country level
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