Political Economy

What book could you read over and over again?

Walter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. It’s a book on the political, economic and history of the African economy. Read it in my first year of university and still occasionally read it again. I have recommended this free book to all concerned and hopefully some WordPress subscribers will take some interest and read the book as well.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) by Walter Rodney argues that Africa’s poverty is not natural but a direct result of deliberate exploitation by European powers. Through slavery and colonialism, Europe systematically drained Africa of resources and human capital to fuel its own industrial growth, turning Africa into a dependent exporter of raw materials. 

Key Arguments:

• Active Exploitation: Rodney argues that Africa developed Europe at the same rate that Europe underdeveloped Africa.
• The Slave Trade: This removed millions of people during their most productive years, breaking the continent’s demographic and economic development.
• Colonial Infrastructure: Infrastructure built by colonial powers was designed exclusively for extracting resources, not for creating internal African economic growth.
• Economic Dependency: Colonialism restructured African economies to rely on exporting raw materials and importing finished goods from Europe.
• Pre-colonial Development: Before European intervention, African societies were developing independently and were not inherently “backward,” but rather forced into a disadvantaged position within the global capitalist system. 

Rodney challenges the notion that colonialism was a civilizing mission, demonstrating that it was an economic system that systematically destroyed or hindered African development to benefit European capitalism.