ABSTRACT
As both a discipline and a discourse, economics has continued to resist engaging with postcolonialism over the course of its history as an intellectual domain because of the mistaken impression that relegates postcolonialism exclusively to the study of culture and politics. Despite the considerable influence across many fields, including the social sciences, cultural studies, geography, and anthropology, postcolonialism has been consciously evaded by economists as if that aspect of human experience in their purview is not affected by the continued legacies of colonialism. To understand how the economic conditions of Africans illustrate their history with the West during colonialism and after, it is important that we first establish the initial transfer of geographical and economic surplus from Africa to the West as the foundation for the continent's postcolonial conditions. Also, this chapter will discuss underdevelopment in postcolonial Africa and how West African countries can be transformed through regional integration, agricultural development, industrial revolution, and women's empowerment.
