ABSTRACT
This chapter revisits the challenge of underdevelopment in sub-Saharan Africa. It examines how underdevelopment in Africa has been debated in academic discourse and identifies little attention that has been placed on examining the impact of Africa's absence, inaction, or oversight during significant continental and global changes. The chapter coins the term ‘strategic errors’ to describe several oversights countries in the region have made during important turning points such as the Industrial Revolution, the independence process, and the technological revolution. It argues that most of the theories explaining underdevelopment in the continent focus on the consequences of Africa's absence in major global events. These approaches have ended up providing prescriptions for what and how external actors can support the continent. In conclusion, this chapter suggests a series of internal measures that can help address the ‘strategic errors’ that have left the continent vulnerable for a long time.
