How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

“There was a period when the capitalist system increased the well-being of significant numbers of people as a by-product of seeking out profits for a few, but today the quests for profits comes into sharp conflict with people’s demands that their material and social needs should be fulfilled.”

Rodney positions himself as an opponent of capitalism, a stance he maintains throughout his book. The capitalist mode of production primarily benefits the owners of the means of production who amass wealth through exploitation. Capitalism spurred European development during the trading and colonialist eras, which led to job opportunities, higher wages, and a better quality of life in Europe, even for the working class. These benefits, however, did not last because they were the by-products, not the aims, of capitalism.

“Obviously, underdevelopment is not absence of development, because every people have developed in one way or another and to a greater or lesser extent. Underdevelopment makes sense only as a means of comparing levels of development. It is very much tied to the fact that human social development has been uneven and from a strictly economic viewpoint some human groups have advanced further by producing more and becoming more wealthy.”

This quote stresses the comparative nature of development. It also underscores Rodney’s novel approach to the topic. Scholars used to view development from a strictly economic perspective. Rodney’s approach is more expansive, taking politics and culture into account. His approach calls attention to the myriad ways Africa developed in its early history, during the trading era, and under colonial rule.

“The interpretation that underdevelopment is somehow ordained by God is emphasized because of the racist trend in European scholarship.”

Racism has historically permeated much of the scholarship on African development. Most early scholars working on African development were either European or wrote from a Eurocentric perspective, presenting Africans as primitive and backward. Many looked to religion to explain and justify African underdevelopment, and determined that God had ordained that Africa remain poor and underdeveloped.