Engendering Development: Any Lessons for Africa from the BRICS Countries?

Abstract

The imperialist balkanization of Africa among leading European powers (1884–1885) in Berlin sets the geopolitical, power and structural coordinates for the development of underdevelopment in Africa. Sachs (Introduction. In The Development Dictionary a Guide to Knowledge as Power, ed. W. Sachs. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1992:1) notes that “development provided the fundamental frame of reference for that mixture of generosity, bribery and oppression which has characterized the policies towards the South”. The modernization theories of development in the decades after independence in Africa resulted in unqualified failure. Hence, the call for the obituary of development (Sachs, Introduction. In The Development Dictionary a Guide to Knowledge as Power, ed. W. Sachs. London: Zed Books Ltd., 1992) and question on the continued relevance of capitalism in Africa. The rise of BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as the “postal boy” of capitalism has brought about renewed optimism as to the possibility of capitalist development in the global south. The chapter examines the relevance of the BRICS as developmental model for Africa with specific reference to its impact on the people in terms of poverty, equality, employment and self-sufficiency. The implications for state and institutional capacity in Africa, class contestations, nature of accumulation and relations within the world system are also interrogated. The sustainability and empowering potentials of the BRICS development model are used as basis of drawing lessons for Africa.