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Architects of poverty: why African capitalism needs changing

Article in Review of African Political Economy · March 2012

DOI: 10.1080/03056244.2012.661125

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Philani Moyo
Fort Hare University
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Architects of poverty: why African

capitalism needs changing
a
Philani Moyo
a
University of Fort Hare, South Africa
Version of record first published: 27 Mar 2012.

To cite this article: Philani Moyo (2012): Architects of poverty: why African capitalism needs
changing, Review of African Political Economy, 39:131, 203-205

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 Review of African Political Economy
Vol. 39, No. 131, March 2012, 203 –205
BOOK REVIEW
Architects of poverty: why African
capitalism needs changing, by Moeletsi
Mbeki, Johannesburg, Picador Africa,
2009, 196 pp., R135 (paperback), ISBN
9781770101616
Downloaded by [University of Fort Hare Library] at 05:50 10 April 2013
Moeletsi Mbeki’s book is a critical contri-
bution which seeks to disentangle some of
the reasons Africa remains less developed
(while Asia forges ahead), or, in his
words, why ‘Africa is marking time at
best, and, at worst, marching backwards’
(p. 3). While he acknowledges that
reasons for Africa’s limited progress on
the development stakes are very complex
and stretch through various historical
epochs, Mbeki identifies a number of
them for critical reflection. His point of
departure is that ‘the problem with Africa
is that it is still locked in the mercantile
stage of capitalism’ (p. xi). The continent
is failing to modernise, and failing to indus-
trialise and achieve post-industrial status.
Africa’s political elite (the powerful) –
who are meant (ideally) to drive Africa’s
development – seem not to learn (or care)
that mercantile capitalism is a road to
nowhere. This mindset of the political
elite has its roots in the nature of narrow
African nationalism; itself one of the
causes of Africa’s economic problems. It
is so because, despite narrow African
nationalism’s parade (or pretension) as a
broad-based movement fighting for every-
one’s liberation, the movement was in fact
a small grouping of Westernised black
elites who fought ‘for inclusion in the colo-
nial system so that it, too, could benefit
from the spoils of colonialism’ (p. 6). Con-
sequently, newly independent African
ISSN 0305-6244 print/ISSN 1740-1720 online
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03056244.2012.661125
http://www.tandfonline.com
states were not economically transformed,
instead colonial economic inequalities
such as those implicit in the exploitation
of resources and of the black masses were
entrenched by the new black ‘liberation’
governments. This is a compelling argu-
ment by Mbeki, however, not all will
agree or find his assertion that liberation
struggle leaders were an elitist, self-
centred, conspicuous-consumption class
entirely convincing. Such an argument
unfairly disparages a genuine liberation,
racial equality and democratisation agenda
that motivated and inspired many African
nationalists to resist colonialism.
Admittedly, Mbeki’s incisive criticism
of postcolonial Africa’s ruling political
elites in pushing their countries’ economies
backwards will find many backers, with the
IMF and the World Bank – the main prota-
gonists of this argument – part of that line
of thought. He makes the point that Africa’s
ruling political elites – in collaboration
with Western powers – have massively
mismanaged Africa’s economic surplus.
They exploit their strong position in
relation to the private sector, undertake
half-hearted, loss-making industrialisation
projects and transfer vast amounts of econ-
omic surpluses generated by agriculture
and extractive industries to developed
countries as capital flight (p. 9). Through,
for example, taxation systems, political
elites also use their control of the state to
extract surplus or savings from peasants
and divert these to finance their own con-
sumption and to strengthen the repressive
instruments of the state. Multinational cor-
porations – including the mighty Western
oil companies – partly fuel political elite
 204 Book review
corruption and consumption through bribes
and huge payments into foreign private
bank accounts. This elite and state con-
sumption is import driven; hence it is not
a catalyst for local productive investment.
Nigeria, Libya, Algeria and Angola (all
oil rich) are graphic illustrations of how
surplus is misappropriated to fund elite
conspicuous consumption while the rest
of the population languishes in poverty. In
other parts of the world such elite excesses
would be resisted and the perpetrators
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removed from power; but part of the
problem in Africa is that there is a leader-
ship crisis: Africa has failed ‘to produce
the type of leaders required to take society
forward in an ever-changing global
environment’ (p. 34).
Quite rightly, Mbeki is careful not to
paint a misleading picture of investment
flows in and into Africa. He correctly
observes that there continues to be new
investment in petroleum, other extractive
industries, mobile telecommunications and
in some tourism and retail infrastructure.
An interesting development is the entrance
of new investors from South Africa, Maur-
itius, and corporations from Asia and Latin
America. While this is encouraging, the
problem is that most of these new invest-
ments are not in manufacturing, suggesting
that local manufacturing and productive
capacity remains under funded with
obvious negative consequences for the con-
tinent’s development agenda.
Given this myriad of problems, Mbeki
asks pertinent questions: How can Africa
meet its development challenges in
current political circumstances? Is a new
middle class emerging in Africa that can
provide the leadership required to drive
the continent’s industrial and agrarian revo-
lutions in the face of foreign interventions
that foster the continent’s traditional role
in the world economy as a source of raw
materials and cheap labour? He justifiably
observes that one of the key factors which
will determine the continent’s path and
level of development is the degree to
which it is able to reassert control of its
own political, economic and social policies
from foreign multinational corporations,
multilateral financial institutions, foreign
state and non-state players such as donors
and creditors (pp. 144– 145). This has to
be done in conjunction with market struc-
tural transformation that reforms the
nature of Africa’s current integration in
world markets so as to create enabling con-
ditions for Africa to exploit world markets
to develop its own industries. At the same
time, policies that promote investment in
social capital (health, education, housing
etc.) and capital accumulation must be pro-
moted throughout Africa as has been done
with phenomenal developmental success
in Mauritius. There must also be a practical
shift in the way economic surplus is spent
in Africa: it should be directed towards pro-
ductive investment rather than financing
elite private consumption and the running
of largely unaccountable states. While
acknowledging that the New Partnership
for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Peer
Review Mechanism can partially address
some of the worst excesses of political
elites, Mbeki is sceptical of its capacity to
drive economic development. Frankly, it
would be too optimistic to expect NEPAD
to regenerate and spearhead Africa’s devel-
opment. Its poor delivery record since
inception needs no emphasis.
Reforming Africa’s ‘style of democ-
racy’ does not escape Mbeki’s scrutiny.
He observes that if Africa is to develop, it
needs a new type of democracy – a democ-
racy that will empower the region’s private-
sector producers (including peasants), and
restore the growth of an independent and
productive middle class as well as facilitate
the development of autonomous civil-
society institutions (p. 160). There are
foundations of this new type of democracy
being laid in Southern Africa; e.g., a young
promising democracy in South Africa, the
emergence of the Movement for Multi-
Party Democracy (MMD) in Zambia and
a bruised, battered Movement for
 Review of African Political Economy
Democratic Change (MDC) in coalition
government with its nemesis ZANU-PF
in Zimbabwe. These are promising
democracy-oriented political develop-
ments, but they are happening at a small
scale. For widespread ‘democratic’ political
change to occur there is need for a complete
change of mindset among Africa’s political
elite. They have to stop being ‘parasitic on
the limited productive capacity in their
countries’ and develop a sense of
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205
ownership of their countries rather than
viewing them as ‘cash cows that enable
them to live extravagantly on imported
goods and services as they attempt to
mimic the lifestyles of the colonialists’
(p. 174).
Philani Moyo
University of Fort Hare, South Africa
Email: pmoyo@ufh.ac.za
# 2012, Philani Moyo