ABSTRACT
The notion of ‘African perspectives’ on development refers to three things. First, it refers to the attempts by a number of Marxist-influenced African leaders, from the 1960s onwards, to pursue models for the development of their nations that were qualitatively different from those that were being promoted by the international community. Second, it refers to the arguments of a number of ‘postcolonial’ scholars who argued that historical processes of European extraction from Africa were the cause of the continent’s ‘underdevelopment’ in the first place. Finally, it refers to more recent attempts by development agencies to understand how specifically African knowledge and perspectives might forward development agendas and goals. To understand how these three elements emerged at the times they did, it is necessary to locate them within the broader trends in development theory and practice from which, and into which, they emerged.
