The Political Economy of the African Crisis Through the Lenses of Bade Onimode

Abstract

This chapter examines the contributions of Bade Onimode to the understanding of the political economy of the African crisis. Onimode drew attention to the need for African scholars and third world scholars in general to be suspicious of Western economic theories. For him, every theory “derives its content and relevance from the reality of the specific form of the social organisation of economic behaviour in the society it seeks to explain.” Thus, theories that seek to explain the economic realities of a society must evolve from a critical study of the structures and workings of that society. Theories must be historically determined, not imported from elsewhere. Onimode was conversant with the underlying dynamics of Africa’s crisis. Onimode in his works not only challenged the dominant neo-liberal development agenda of his time, but he was also one of the solution finders.