A Call for ‘Inductive’ Modernization in West Africa’s Development:

Focus on Animal Traction Technology in Selected Countries of West Africa

Christopher Ayegba Ekeyi
Post-Graduate Student of the Department of Sociology, Faculty of the Social Sciences,
University of Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Email: chrisekeyi75@yahoo.com Tel: +234(0)803-640-3302
Abstract

Technology has often been linked with modernization and has been regarded as the driving
force in development. At the basics, development is described as the ability of a people to
manipulate and circumvent the challenges imposed by their immediate to efficiently and
judiciously exploit the resources available to them for improving their living standard. In other
words, the progress of any group of people is primarily tied to its ability to make the most of
advantage of natural, social and physical wherewithal that can be drawn upon when needed.

This paper seeks to expose readers to the monumental disservice importation of technology, as
colonialism and post-colonial relationships with the developed world has engendered, as well as
the role of our educational institutions, which unfortunately has also fallen prey to the caprices
of academic imperialism. The writer thus concludes by affirming that the present region’s (and
indeed the entire Africa) ‘underdevelopment’ can be traced historically to the truncation of the
evolution of our indigenous technological knowledge (ITK) and that remedial actions would
mean retracing our steps to our traditional technology as the foundation upon which our
modern (western) institutions of learning can build upon through further improvement-based
researches and inventions. This approach he termed Inductive Modernization.

Key words: Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS), Indigenous Technological Knowledge

(ITK), Technology, Modernization, Development, Animal Traction, Ox-drawn
Plough, Inductive Modernization

Introduction

Modernization is only effective if it evolves in response to the challenges posed

by the environment. This is because societies actually develop when they
interact with their social and physical environments. When doing this, they
identify impediments that stand against their survival and devise means of
overcoming these impediments by developing relevant ideas, schemes,
technology etc (Olutayo and Omobowale, 2007:312).

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The history of the West African region is not any different from the general history of the third
world, except that hers is worse, deeper and paradoxical. Despite about 50 years of
development efforts, many people in region are worse off today than they were in the 1960’s:
in many areas life expectancies and literacy levels are on the decline, and individual’s economic
prospects have plummeted. The 1990’s are widely regarded a lost decade for West Africa.
(Westerhout: 2004).

The sub-Saharan Africa is today synonymous with the word ‘wretched’ and its allied descriptive
words such as poverty, high mortality rates, low life span, rooftop illiteracy level, social and
gender inequality, corruption, poor governance, ethnic and religious violence amongst many
others. How did we find ourselves in this quagmire we seem to be wallowing in? Why should the
region, one of the most naturally endowed in the world, be so poor, marginalized, exploited and
out-of-shape to be so assigned the most derogatory and least beneficial role in the global
division of labour?

The answers to the above are obvious to everyone though opinion may differ is some aspects.
Internal and external factors have been cited by several scholars as responsible for our current
misfortune, with empirical and theoretical facts to explain the view points. The focus of this
paper is not to unravel again, the several viewpoints on this matter but rather narrow the
searchlight to an aspect of the foregoing discourse on Africa’s development that is believed to be
crucial to the subsistence of the people of the region-Agriculture. By exploring Animal Traction
technology in agricultural development, we hope to open up a new leeway for progressive and
ever-expanding venture into the call for indigenous modernization in Africa’s quest for
development.

Overview of Region’s Historical Path in Development

Pre-colonial Africa’s Civilization and Technological Exploits

“Every continent independently participated in the early epochs of the extension

of man’s control over his environment – which means in effect that every
continent can point to a period of economic development. Africa, being the
original home of man, was a major participant in the processes in which human
groups displayed an ever increasing capacity to extract a living from the
natural environment” (Rodney, 1973: 4).

It must be noted that Africa and West Africa specifically, has an enviable history of civilization
and advanced social, economic and political systems for manipulating, exploiting and
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controlling her natural environment. The Sahel region of the Sudan, that is the region
immediately south of the Sahara desert in central and western Africa, saw four of the greatest
African empires. The largest and longest lasting was Ghana, followed by Mali and its successor,
Songhay. These empires had all the trappings and paraphernalia which competed favourably
with empires in Europe at that time. More so, early Sub-Saharan Africans developed metallurgy
at a very early stage, possibly even before other peoples. The Iron Age itself came very early to
Africa, probably around the sixth century BC, in Ethiopia, the Great Lakes region, Tanzania, and
Nigeria. Not only did we make giant stride in iron smelting technology, great indigenous
‘scientific’ strides were also recorded in the area of agricultural seedlings, particularly
agriculture of high-yield crops such as yams, bananas, and plantains. The spread of agriculture
led to the explosive growth of village life and subsequently urban towns all throughout Africa
(Hooker, 1996).

Furthermore, According to Ahmad Kani, a professor of History, documentary evidence suggests

that earlier in 17th century West Africa, some scholars, popularly regarded as Ulamas in Kanem
-Bornu were highly skilled in the science of magic squares. By the 18th century, the Borno
kingdom became the most important center of learning of Mathematics in the Central Sudan
attracting peoples from adjacent areas linking this at times to the occult sciences. Also scholars
of Hausaland and Borno were also consulting Coptic Solar Calendars in determining their
economic activities. The recovery of a book written probably in Egypt on agrarian activities,
from Bauchi in 1973 points to the fact that some aspects of the agricultural sciences were being
diffused in this area. The book, which is copied in a Sudanic script, contains mathematical
charts dealing with agronomic activities such as the right time of harvest; the various directions
of the wind, time of germination; and the seasons during which insects appear. A conversion
table to lunar months is also made at the beginning of the book as a guide for the users of the
chart (Kani, 1992).

Philip Shea, on the variety of traditional Nigerian textile, described it as been rivaled only by the
technologies indigenously produced to produce the impressive fabrics. The technologies have
been developed over many centuries, and they have varied from area to area within the country
as well as over time. Impressively, new technology is often welcomed and employed alongside
older technologies. Very seldom have older technologies been discarded altogether and this is of
considerable assistance to the historian of textile technology. He then further proceeded to

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encourage more attention to be paid to technological and economic aspects behind the
production of these materials (Shea, 1992).

In traditional African socio-economic settings, low-energy technology such as cooperative and

exchange work groups are important and adopted for meeting seasonal bottlenecks and for
providing the careful disciplined cultivation that intensive agriculture requires. For example,
through this strategy, the kofyar of Plateau state of Nigeria now devote 50% of their labour to
the production of cash crop and they purchase considerable quantities of manufactured goods
and medical services. The adaptation of these people (kofyar of Plateau State) to their
environmental challenges is a clear indication of Africa’s ability to evolve its own adaption
strategies and technology, a pointer to the superiority of indigenous technological development
(Netting et al, 1989).

Still in Nigeria, appropriate technology for selection of growth of desirable strains of micro-
organisms was developed over many centuries through systematic practical experience. This was
used in the production popular ingredients and drinks such as dawadawa (local African
seasoning), palmwine and burukutu beer, a locally brewed alcoholic drink (Okagbue, 1993).

The Col0nial Economy and the Indigenous African Technology

The monumental damage colonialism, the introduction and subsequent internalization of the
western ideologies (economical, political, cultural and social), has done to our socio-economic
and political systems cannot be quantified (Kloby, 2004: 213). Most alarming is the relegation of
our indigenous technological knowledge (ITK) to a position of obscurity in our socioeconomic
life-worlds, and most regrettably, in our subconscious minds. This is particularly painful in the
light of the fact that technology is the engine room of development, the platform upon which
true societal progress is premised; absence of which a people stands the risk of extinction.
Africa’s technological evolution was drastically cut short and replaced with an imported
technology that first served the interest of the colonialist and later became an exclusive reserve
of an ‘irrelevant’ few in the post –colonial African states.

The colonial policy was fundamentally premised on increasing agricultural products to meet the
needs of the industries in the west. To this end, cash crops like cocoa, cotton, groundnuts,
timber, coffee, Palm oil etc became vital and their production greatly encouraged to the
detriment of the local food crops, for whom indigenous technology was most suited (Olutayo et
al, 2007: 305). The preference for cash crops over food crop somewhat resulted in the gradual
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loss of significance of our local technology as many farmers shifted focus to the cultivation of
cash crops, except in the cultivation of those cash crops with which local technology was still
applicable such as groundnut and perhaps cotton. Thus like the biblical ‘666 mark of the end
time’, cash crop cultivation became an inevitable recourse to survival and a means of remaining
relevant in a capitalist colonial economy.

Colonialism therefore, inhibited the development of indigenous technology in Africa to a large

extent. Colonial domination brought with it a shift into a cash crop economy and de-stabilized
some of the existing processes of technical growth. Africa became a dumping ground for
manufactured goods in the west such as cheap mass-produced textile, glass and iron products.
Indigenous manufacturing capability was deliberately undermined to facilitate European
exports. Captive markets were created. There were deliberate laws aimed at suppressing African
indigenous technological development. Those most affected by these policies include the
metallurgists (blacksmiths and whitesmiths) and the indigenous medicine practitioners, thereby
eroding completely the system of internal self reliance (Emeagwali, 1992).

By this, the people were made to feel inferior, thereby leading to subordination of self to the
whims and caprices of the capitalist economies. Thus, by no choice of ours, Africa was
incorporated into a capitalist system of division of labour, a system replete with stiff
competition; with Africa copiously disadvantaged, having been economically short changed
through unequal trade relations and colonialism (Offiong, 1980).

The Global Capitalist System and Division of Labour: Effect on Africa’s Technological Identity

The incorporation of African countries into a global capitalist system and the subsequent
assigning of the role of producer of raw or primary products marked an epoch in Africa’s
development history in which our heritage, identity and originality was finally taken away from
us. The global economic system in which Africa became located is designed to usurp and exploits
one for another, the weak for the strong, the have-not for the have, by allocating roles designed
to keep the former perpetually subjugated to the caprice of the latter. According to Immanuel
Wallerstein, the current capitalist world economic system has a division of labor that
encompassed several nation states, with three major labour groups namely the core, periphery,
and semi-periphery. The core dominates the world economy and exploits the others. The
periphery provides raw materials, and the semi-periphery is a mix of the two (Ritzer, 2007:201).

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In our traditional role of producers/exporters of primary products and importers/consumers of
finished products, we were made to believe that the only way to increase production is the
importation of western agricultural technology. This is not restricted to the agriculture sector
alone but was the case in most sectors of the economy, with the oil sector experiencing the most
intrusion of western domination, having assumed a frontline position in foreign exchange
earnings for oil producing countries of West Africa. As much this dominance is glaring and
painful, the focus of this paper is not on the oil industry, being a peculiar case of a strange
entrant into Africa’s indigenous economy, unlike agriculture, an activity the indigenous people
have mastered so well, being an integral aspect of our history and existence.

Indigenization of Technology: The Animal Traction Story

Overview of Animal Traction in West Africa

Interestingly, Animal Traction, the case study of this paper, was not in use in most parts of West
Africa before the colonial era, and was introduced by the colonial government to encourage
farmers in the savannah hemisphere of the region in the production of cash crops such as
groundnuts and cotton. In Nigeria for example, the use of ox-drawn plough was first
demonstrated in Daura in 1922, and serious attempts to introduce "mixed farming" started in
northern Nigeria in 1926. Mixed farming involved both animal and crop production and the
animal wastes were used as manure to maintain the fertility of fields. Due to the success of this
new method of farming the number of mixed farmers rose steadily from three in 1928 to over a
thousand by 1936 and by 1956, the number of mixed farmers in northern Nigeria had risen to
over 15,000 (Gwani, 1998). Unfortunately, post-colonial governments have not paid sufficient
attention to the development of this technology in terms of further research and documentation
(bako et al, 1998).

In other countries of the region, the introduction of Oxen-drawn tractors was between 1905 and
1945. In most parts of the French West Africa (Cote D’ Ivoire, Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso,
Cameroun, Senegal), private companies were engaged by the colonialists to train and provide
the necessary extension services to farmers. As a result of the extension services provided, the
number of Guinean farmers using work oxen, for instance, increased from 24 in 1919 to 790 in
1924. By 1928, over 4000 farmers were already using the work oxen to cultivate their lands, with
a total of 24,000 hectares of land being plowed with animals. As at 1986, about 100,000 draft
oxen are being used in Guinea (Starkey, 1986:100). Similarly, animal traction was introduced in
Sierra Leone in the 1920s, and expanded rapidly till the 1950s when it started decreasing in

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popularity and usage amongst farmers. This decline lasted till the 70s when renewed efforts
were jump-started through a research, development and equipment evaluation programme
through the establishment of the Njala University College in 1979 and in 1980 through the
Koinadugu Integrated Agricultural Development Programme (KIADP). Over the years, the
number of oxen pairs in Sierra Leone and especially in Koinadugu region has steadily increased
(Bell et al, 1986).

It must be noted (as earlier stated) that the introduction and the popularization of the ox-drawn
technology by the colonialists in the various colonies was primarily with the objective of
increasing the production of cash crops meant to service the industries of the west. Also, the
decline in the use of oxen-drawn tractors as would be further discussed is amongst other factors,
traceable to declining interest in the cash crops in the international market and the emergence
of oil as the major export for oil producing countries of West Africa.

Causes of the Decline and Rise in the Popularity of the Animal Traction in the 1960s/ 1970s and
1980s

By the turn of 1940s, animal traction was well in use in the savannah regions of West Africa.
However, the elite decision makers who took over governance from the colonialist generally felt
that animal traction was old-fashioned and absolutely incapable to drive the volume of export it
wanted to promote (Starkey, 1986). Thus many national agricultural policies were taken in favor
of the motorized tractorization to the detriment of the animal traction. Governments in most
West African countries embarked on massive importation of tractors from the west, with a view
to giving access to farmers to use these tractors at subsidized rates. Unfortunately, these policies
recorded a lot of failures across most of countries of the region, as access and usage was marred
by fuel crisis, spare parts problems, and the inability of the farmers to gain access to these
tractors due to the strenuous bureaucratic process (which was completely alien to the local
farmers) and of course, the corrupt and sharp practices introduced by those put in charge. These
completely discouraged the farmers.

By late 1970s, agricultural planners noted that most farmers in the region still use hand
cultivated techniques, with a growing number of those who had reverted to animal traction
owing to the difficulties associated with accessing the government owned tractors. Over the
years, these tractors were left to rot and decay, due to lack of use and serviceable spare parts, for
those requiring repairs. Of course, this twist of events in these former African colonies is not far-
fetched from the turn of events in the Great Britain and France. In Great Britain for example,
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there was a massive change from the use of animal traction to motorized tractors, which caused
a sharp fall in the number of farmers using the oxen-drawn ploughs from 11 million in 1910 to
just about 650,000 in 1945. The psychological effect of these changes directly or indirectly
affected policies in West Africa, considering the fact that most of the educated elite, most of who
took over governance from the colonialists were educated in either Britain or France (Starkey,
1986).

Other adduced factors responsible for the decline in the popularity of the animal traction
scheme were the declining fortunes of agricultural raw materials for export and the oil boom (for
oil producing West African countries). Food and cash crop production levels dropped and
accrued oil export revenues allowed for a massive importation of agricultural products. Rural
migration to urban areas intensified and the resultant labour force depletion further affected the
much needed agricultural production (Bako et al, 1986).

However, in the 1980, there was a new interest in promoting the development of animal traction
and many writers and development specialist made reference to how grievous it was to have
abandoned animal traction. By 1986, in almost all countries of West Africa, animal traction was
being encouraged by government departments, parastatals, agencies and non-governmental
agencies. In Nigeria for example, the Agricultural Development Projects across the north
massively promoted and encouraged the use of animal traction. The Institute for Agricultural
research, Zaria also conducted series of research on the possible scale up of the technology to
promote food production and reduce poverty amongst the peasant farmers. In Sierra Leone, the
Njala University College and the Koinadugu Integrated Agricultural Development Programme
(KIADP) were established to conduct research, development and equipment evaluation for
promoting the scheme (Corbel, 1986). This sudden fallback position of the African countries is
attributable to the oil glut experienced in the 1980s by the oil producing West African countries
and continued fall in prices of agricultural exports, coupled with the inability of domestic food
supplies to keep pace with demand, leading to spiraling import and inflation (Netting, 1989).

Interestingly and painfully though, many governments are not ready to embark on a large scale
popularization of the animal traction, as the tradition of motorized tractor importation is still
tenaciously upheld. Today, government ministries and parastatals in West African countries are
replete with tractors, imported with tax payers’ hard earned money and left to rot in the tropical
sun and rain of the region. While the farmers, for whom these tractors are meant for (as
claimed) still wallow in abject ignorance, struggling to cultivate their lands with minimal

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available labour (mostly women and children), with the virile population (youths) massively
migrating to the urban areas in search of greener pastures. Obviously, some people’s parochial
interests is being fed fat from these irrelevant and wasteful importations of tractors and are
therefore ready to ensure policies in this regard, are in their favour irrespective of its
insignificant impact on the majority of the people.

At this juncture, I wish to state that this paper is not in any way targeted at discrediting the use
of mechanized tractor. My position is that to keep importing tractors in large quantities for
people who cannot (and may not) gain access to it due to its lack of affordability as well as the
protracted bureaucratic bottlenecks and corruption issues in the government process is
tantamount to flushing down the toilet drain, hard earned public money. Instead, bulk of these
funds can be used to promote massive animal traction scheme, through researches into breeding
and cross breeding of the oxen with a view to extending the application of the technology to
humid regions of West Africa by massive breeding and development of trypano-tolerant breeds
such as the N’dama commonly used in Sierra Leone (Reynolds, 1986). Researches and technical
studies can also be encouraged and funded in the institutions of learning to develop and
improve on the available tractors and other allied equipment such as planters and weeders
(Lekezime, 1986). This technology, apart from its advantageous adaptive features, is also quite
affordable and acceptable to these farmers.

Alternative Policy Action: A Call for Inductive Modernization

“To begin with, the world stands at a crossroads, in search of new human
centered visions of development in health, in preserving and conserving
biodiversity, in human rights, and in alleviating poverty. All the agencies of the
United Nations are seeking for paradigms of sustainable human development
that build on knowledge resources that exist in communities. As a continent,
Africa is seeking its renaissance and seeking to establish its own term of
development” (Hopper, 2002:2-4).

Before going in-depth into any discourse on the proposed alternative plan of action, a quick look
at the various interplay of theoretical models that had hitherto informed decision making in the
West African region will help better understand and appreciate, the proposed approach.

The first in the list of theories that had played vital roles in the region’s development is the
Modernization Theory. This theory is the oldest of theories that was propounded and
popularized by Walt Rostow, to assist the third world development effort. The theory, which

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proposed a process of transformation in the third world through a liberalization of the third
world economies to allow technological transfer, borrowing of capital, attitudes, values from the
developed to the third world countries, formed the basis upon which colonial meager
development efforts were premised, and continued to influence decision making even after
colonialism (Pieterse, 1996: 551). The sudden interest for mechanized tractorization and the
subsequent fall in the popularity and use of the ox-drawn ploughs are fallouts of the influence of
modernist ideology on most decision makers of the emergent independent states of the region.

As an antithetic to the modernization theory, the dependency theory emerged to shape the
thinking of a few African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana. Dependency theory traced
the history of third world (and of course West Africa’s) development to external factors such as
slave trade, colonialism, and neo-colonialism (Frank: 1967). Their position arose from what
they identified as a failure of modernization theory to correctly explain the problem of
underdevelopment. We can rightly deduce that the emergence of the world capitalism in the
West Africa region explains the reasons for the position of the region, because the system
conditions the economies of the nations and makes them dependent on the system. There was
therefore a call for restriction on liberalization as proposed by modernization theorists in order
to give impetus for local industries to flourish. However, this proved impossible as the Multi-
national companies operating in the various third world countries (including west Africa)
further entrenched themselves in the production of domestic commodities, thereby making it
difficult for locally owned industries to compete, leading to further dependence (Olutayo,
2003:115).

Closely related (indeed a meta-theory) to the above theoretical model is the World System
Theory. Immanuel Wallenstein, in his analysis of the World Capitalism, divided the nations of
the world into three major groups of Periphery, Semi-periphery and the Core (earlier mentioned
in the paper) (Elwell, 2007). According to him, most countries of the West African region
(except Nigeria) no doubt belong to the Periphery group who are more or less producers of
primary products for the core and the semi-periphery and are therefore, heavily dependent on
them. Countries that fall within the semi-periphery, such as South Korea and Taiwan in East
Asia, Mexico and Brazil in Latin America, India in South Asia, and Nigeria and South Africa in
Africa, are particularly important to the theory because they promote the stability and
legitimacy of the three-tiered world-system (Gerrefi and Fonda, 1992: 423).

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The Neoclassical Theory which later came on the scene in most of the 1970s and 1980s was the
brain child of the IMF and the World Bank and was particularly initiated to create the conducive
environment that will facilitate the introduction of external capitalist policies into third world
countries meant to further tighten its grip on the third world economies through the lures of
external ‘development driven’ loans. Like the modernization theory, it advocated, laissez-faire
trade policies (e.g. low tariffs, few import controls, and no export subsidies), a free labor market,
stable real exchange rates, competitive market structures, wage restraint, and a limited, non-
interventionist role for the government in the economy. Neo-classical economists also tend to
defend traditional notions of comparative advantage in which resource-rich third world
countries are encouraged to concentrate on exports of raw materials and labor-intensive
manufactures, and to jettison any attempts or aspiration of promoting industrialization through
policies that seek to improve a country's position in the existing international division of labor
(Gerrefi and Fonda, 1992: 422). Riding on the wings of this ideology, the Structural Adjustment
Programme (SAP), another baby of the IMF and the World Bank, which was introduced to help
invigorate the economies of the Region (supposedly), ended making “babies” of these
economies. It is on record that the region is yet to recover from the economic, political and
psychological blow the SAP has dealt us.

The above theoretical explanations point to one single truth- that there is no singular, one-size-
fits-all approach to Africa development. Combinations of both internal and external factors are
interplaying to cause the present misfortune of the region. The colonization, incorporation and
eventual positioning of the region into a lopsided capitalist system is not any less inimical when
compared to the lack of political will, monumental corruption and parochial attitude
demonstrated by past and present leaders of the regions. Both have served, in their own capacity
to contribute to the present woes of the region. That is why this present initiative is seen as the
most sought after light at the end of the tunnel, after decades of wallowing in the dark.

In the light of the foregoing, an agenda for alternative development is very crucial at this point
in time, in the checkered history of the West African region and indeed the entire Africa.
Posterity should not look back with disappointment at this present generation. The onus lies in
our ability to look inwards (inductively) for alternatives to Africa’s development aspiration. This
search for alternative approach is essentially due to several factors chief of which include the
reconfiguration of the meanings and priorities of development and the means of realizing them

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in the light of the past shortcomings and failures of development as well as the discovery of vital
areas of development that had been previously neglected (Fernando, 2003:54-55)

One of such neglected area of development is the Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS).
According to E.M Igbokwe (2001:67), Indigenous Knowledge System (IKS) is the first form of
knowledge system that existed, and upon which the modern knowledge is built. Therefore, every
society, nation state or village community has her own indigenous knowledge system that is
peculiar to that state and which is determined by socio-economic and ecological factors. Like the
developed ‘first world’ societies, whom we seek to model after, the foundation and the starting
point of a viable journey towards self realization and reliance is to begin to appreciate our
indigenous knowledge on socio-economic and technological systems that sustained (and still
sustains) the traditional communities prior to modernization. It is therefore crucial for state
institutions to begin to develop understanding of the relationship between development and the
series of suppressed IKS, and how the knowledge of our indigenous societies should form the
bedrock for subsequent modernization.

Modernization, I must affirm here is not the total refusal of external suggestions (including the
importation of such suggested technologies where necessary). But the assertion is that we must
receive these ideas first as “suggestions”, put them through thorough analysis with an objective
intention, devoid of any form of close-minded interest, with a view to determining their
applicability vis-à-vis our social and political backgrounds as Africans, the depth and width of its
impact on the people and most importantly, ensure that it does not in any way serve to
undermine certain traditional African values that is fast disappearing in the shadows of
modernization. I am of the opinion that modernization has led to the eroding of some
"indigenous" cultures and this need not be so. The implication is that we should treat
generalized diagnoses of third world development with care. We also must be careful before
accepting generalized remedies (Bebbington, 1993:276).

Inductive modernization therefore refers to an approach to development that recognizes and

consciously takes recourse to and adopts our home-grown traditional socio-economic and
political systems in development efforts. I asserts that the existence and survival of the peoples
and nations that forms the West African region is premised on the ability of the people to evolve
a system (social, political, economic and technological) that enabled them to successfully exploit
their God-given resources for their continued existence and such systems should not be
completely thrown into the bin of forgetfulness but instead, protected, preserved and adopted as

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the filter for accepting or rejecting external ideology and technology, in spite of growing
globalization and its neo-liberal proclivities.

Globalization does not mean gullible openness, accepting anything hook-line-and sinker. It
should involve weighing the options vis-à-vis its implications for our existence as a people.
According to Aka and Coulibaly (2007: 57 & 59), while openness refers to the extent to which a
country trades with the world, globalization, which is a broader concept, means growing
integration of the world’s economy accelerated by the movement of people and capital,
knowledge, technological advances and communication. Their overall position from the
empirical analysis of Ivoirian economy is that while the short run effect of openness was good
for Africa in the 1960s, the long run effect in the years following the 1960s had been very
negative. They also hinted that globalization (if wisely managed) can lead to positive results in
the long run for Africa.

Our Institutions of Learning as Melting Points of Inductive Modernist Ideas

The situation in our institutions of learning as currently observed is that of subordination to the
ideologies of the developed capitalist societies, assuming roles of promoters rather than filters
and modifiers of western modernist ideologies, thereby perpetuating the death of indigenous
knowledge system. Curriculum of learning in our educational institutions no longer has any
positive and progressive reference to the home-grown knowledge or technology used in our
indigenous mode of production but are rather referred to as ‘primitive’ and irrelevant to our
aspiration for accelerated development. According to Prof. Catherine Odora Hopper, holder of
the DST/NRF South African Research Chair in Development Education at the University of
South Africa – Pretoria:

“Part of the legacy of colonialism and the science that accompanied it, that still
lingers in academic practice in general is that non-western societies and the
knowledge that sustains them are taken as obsolete. In the rush towards
modernity, we the ‘newly modernized’ have not wanted to give those, on whom
we have imposed the signifier of obsolescence, a voice” (2004: 4).

The painful repercussion of the above has been the relegation of our indigenous knowledge and
technology to a position of obscurity, in our socioeconomic life-worlds, and most regrettably, in
our subconscious minds. In a related discourse (Academic Dependency and the Global Division
of Labour in the social sciences), Syed Alatas referred to the phenomenum of academic

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subordination as Academic Imperialism. He described it as a process which began during the
colonial era and continued after colonialism, indirectly through the instrument of political and
economic imperialism (Alatas, 2003: 600).

However, with strong will and determination on the part of the political class (as demonstrated
in the call for these papers), our institutions of learning can begin to assume their rightful place
as melting points for the promotion and modernization of African indigenous Technological and
general knowledge to compete favourably in this globalized world. This should begin with a
revisit to our current curriculum of learning which is grossly deficient in subject, courses and
topics specifically designed to socialize subsequent generations of Africans in the customs and
tradition of the African people. Furthermore, our institutions of learning can serve as research
centres from which further studies can be carried out with a view to improving the design,
applicability and efficiency of our technological knowledge such as the animal traction
technology. As Gloria Emeagwali, a Professor of African History surmises:

“The need for the inclusion of AIK (African Indigenous Knowledge) in the
curriculum goes beyond the above issue ... We have elsewhere identified several
strategies of disinformation embedded in eurocentric, colonial and post-colonial
education, including the selective omission of non- European achievements,
inventions and technologies; the distortion of data; surreptitious naming; and
several other strategies of colonization and re-colonization. The recognition and
appreciation of IKS (indigenous Knowledge System) is a source of healing of
therapeutic import, in the context of unhealthy imbalances, distortion,
trivialization and neglect, as inflicted by eurocentric education and governance.
Tapping into the intellectual resources associated with IK (Indigenous
Knowledge) is not only cost effective but also relevant and indispensable, for
environmentally and ecologically sensitive activity” (Emeagwali, 2003).

Conclusion

It is my candid opinion that West African countries (and indeed the entire Africa’s)
‘underdevelopment’ can be traced historically to the truncation of the evolution of Africa’s
indigenous technological knowledge. According to Peter Drucker, the famous American
Management Consultant, “Company cultures are like country cultures. Never try to change
one. Try, instead, to work with what you've got”. Instead of working with what we have, with a

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view to developing it and make it globally attractive and competitive, what we have instead done
is to jettison our culture for a completely alien one.

If allowed to develop through the agency of our institutions of learning and development, our
indigenous technological and general knowledge would have evolved into a socio-economic and
political system that is original, with minimal foreign inputs (accommodated only as an add-on).
This because this evolution would have occurred in an atmosphere in which the people (as
situated agents) would be actively involved in the generation, acquisition and classification of
knowledge in a cultural, economic and socio-political contexts that are products of local and
non-local processes (Bebbington, 1973: 275). The remedial actions would mean retracing our
steps to our indigenous technological and general knowledge as the foundation upon which our
modern (western) institutions of learning can build on through further improvement-based
researches and inventions.

The success or otherwise of the above suggestions depends squarely on the level of sincerity and
political will demonstrated by the region’s leaders. These problems are secondary in the sense
that their solution is only possible, in the first instance, if governments in the various countries
of the region are willing and able to undertake the crucial decisions and actions that they and
they alone, have the power to take (Kennedy, 1994: 192).

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