Producing without reaping: The paradox of our underdevelopment

By Joseph Mihangwa, This Day

It is a paradox that the so called “underdeveloped” countries are the ones with the greatest wealth of natural resources, and yet the poorest in terms of consumer goods and services presently provided by and for the citizens.  And in explaining this, some neo-economists want it to sound as if there is something God-given about this situation like in the Biblical literally context that “the poor are with us always”.
 
Certain “lost” economists have even gone to the extent of invoking the Bible:  “For unto everyone that hath shall be given and he shall have abundance; but from him that shall be taken away even that which he hath” (St. Mathew XXV: 29).  And if we can ask:  But why should that one “hath” be taken away from Africa, always?
 
Nevertheless, the profound reasons for the economic backwardness of any given African nation, Tanzania inclusive, lie in the relationship between our countries and certain developed countries, and in recognizing that it is a relationship of exploitation and plunder.
 
One such means by which a nation exploits another is through trade.  It is generally accepted that, when the terms of trade are set by one country or economic community in a manner entirely advantageous to itself, then the trade is detrimental to the trading partner.
 
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Indeed, foreign investment is the cause and not the solution to our economic backwardness.  It is the paradox of our underdevelopment in that under crushing tears for want of life, survival and better life, we are made to produce without reaping.  What is being produced is reaped and consumed by the “affluent”.
 
The other factor responsible for our underdevelopment is the restrictions placed upon our capacity to make the maximum use of our economic potential, which is what development is all about.  In a way, our economies are integrated into the very structure of developed economies, and which ensures that our poor countries are dependent on big capitalist countries.
 
More particularly, the backwardness of underdeveloped countries can never be adequately tackled without reference to neo-colonialist and neo-imperialist repercussions.
 
The main purpose of this type of colonialism is the expropriation of profits, produced by our labour, out of our resources, to the so-called “mother country”.

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