3 - National Development Paths in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

This chapter describes national development paths in sub-Saharan Africa. The readaptation process of African social formations includes a series of transitional phenomena that obviously operate within the framework of domination, characteristic of the current phase of development of the international capitalist system. The chapter describes the fundamental aspects of political and economic underdevelopment in sub-Saharan Africa. The problem must be understood within a historical perspective, which shows the way these social formations were gradually integrated into the capitalist system, first through trade, later by direct domination, and most recently via the penetration of international financial capital. The phases of the integration of African economies correspond to specific stages in the development of the capitalist system and, therefore, every one of them modeled the essential characteristics of these countries as dependent formations. However, the final form of dependence only appears once the region has been truly integrated as a periphery within the international system.