Power: The Curse Haunting So-Called Developing Nations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2016
Originally Published In
Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies
Volume Number
39
Issue Number
1
Abstract
I will begin this discourse by means of the following analogy: We, as a family, are in the process of replacing windows in our house and the only way we can afford to do this is by replacing them one-by-one. Our neighbors are in the process of rebuilding their house and they have the financial means to demolish the old and build an entirely new house. Our projects start at the same time and our neighbor’s house is rebuilt in a matter of months; we, however, can only afford to replace one window per month since we only get paid a monthly salary on which we depend to pay bills and invest in projects such as the window-replacement project we are currently undertaking. One day, our neighbors who have been following the slow progression of our work, but ones whose history of greed and self-centeredness has been known to us for generations, come by and ask why it is that we opted to replace the windows one-by-one. We answer that it is not an option, but it is what we can afford; otherwise, we would replace all of them at once. They offer to lend us the money to finish our project so we can have this done at once and avoid the situation of getting to a point in which while the last windows are being replaced, the first ones are breaking again...
