Abstract
This article examines the African debt crisis. It focuses on factors leading to the accumulation of the debts and their impact on the debtor nations.
The significance of the study lies in the fact that the African debt burden presents a gruesome picture of hopelessness. This is reflected by the continent’s massive debt of $230 billion, equivalent to almost three times the continent’s annual export earnings. This is expected to jump to $550 billion by the year 2000. Africa’s crushing debt burden has become one of the most important factors constraining recovery and development. As the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates, one thousand people die each day in Africa because of the debt crisis.
The analysis shows that due to the multifaceted nature of the causes of the debt crisis, both creditors and debtors should agree on the options for dealing with the crisis. It further shows that there is the urgency for Africa to tackle its numerous sociopolitico-economic problems. Africa can make real economic progress only when it begins to get on top of its debt crisis.
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Notes
West Africa, (7 March 1988): 412.
West Africa, (8 February 1988): 215.
Penelope Hartland-Thunberg, “Sources and Implications of the Global Debt Crisis,”Washington Quarterly 9 (1985): 105–108.
Patrick Decoodt, “The Debt Crisis of the Third World: Some Aspects of Causes and Solutions,”Columbia Journal of World Business (Fall 1986): 4-7.
Jeff Haynes, Trevor W. Parfitt and Stephen Riley, “Debt in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Local Politics of Stabilization,”African Affairs 86 (1987): 350.
Samir Amin,Neo-Colonialism in West Africa (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1974), pp. 29–30.
John Clark,For Richer, For Poorer: An Oxfam Report of Western Connections With World Hunger (1986) quoted in WestAfrica, (29 June 1987): 1250.
Peter C.W. Gutkind and Immanuel Wallerstein,Political Economy of Contemporary Africa (London: Sage Publications 1985), p. 36.
Pradip K. Ghosh, ed.,Developing Africa (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984), p. 53.
Ibid. p. 60.
Jock A. Finlayson and Mark Zacher, “The GATT and the Regulation of Trade Barriers: Regime Dynamics and Functions,”International Organisation (July 1981): 690-715.
Ibid., p. 716.
Antonio-Gabriel M. Cunha, “African Debt: A Light at the End of the Tunnel?”,Africa Report (May– June 1987): 26.
Susan George,A Fate Worse Than Debt, quoted inWest Africa (7 March 1988): 413.
Ibid.
Rupert Pennant-Rea,The African Burden (New York: Priority Press, 1986): 18.
West Africa, (3 October 1988).
Ibid.
Joshua Greene, “The Debt Problem of Sub-Saharan Africa,”Finance and Development (June 1989): 10.
J.C. Sanchez Amau,Debt and Development (New York: Praeger, 1982), p. 10.
Hartland-Thunberg, “Sources and Implications of the Global Debt Crisis,” p. 107.
Green, “The Debt Problem of Sub-Saharan Africa,” p. 10.
Robert Pollin, “The Abyss of Third World Debt,”Monthly Review (March 1989): 58.
Peter T. Bauer, “Accounts Receivable,” in Herbert M. Levine,World Politics Debated (New York: McGraw Hill, 1987): 221.
Polin, “The Abyss of Third World Debt,” p. 56.
Ibid.
Hartland-Thunberg, “Sources and Implications of the Global Debt Crisis,” p. 106.
Ibid.
Ibid.
Ibid., p. 107.
Pollin, “The Abyss of Third World Debt,” p. 57.
Patrick Decoodt, “The Debt Crisis of the Third World: Some Aspects of Causes and Solutions,”Columbia Journal of World Business (Fall 1986): 4.
See for example, Bahram Nowzad and Richard C. Williams, “External Indebtedness of Developing Countries,” Occasional Paper, No. 3 (Washington, International Monetary Fund, May 1981); E. Brau and R.C. Williams, “Recent Multilateral Debt Restructurings with Official and Bank Creditors,” Occasional Paper, No. 25 (Washington, International Monetary Fund, December 1983).
Robert Heller and E. Frankel, “Determinants of LDC Indebtedness,”The Columbia Journal of World Business (Spring 1982): 28-34.
Robert E. Looney, “Impact of Military Expenditures on Third World Debt,”Canadian Journal of Development Studies 8 (1986): 8.
West Africa, 25 May 1987): 1008.
Pennant-Rea,The African Burden, p. 31.
Decoodt, “The Debt Crisis of the Third World: Some Aspects of Causes and Solutions,” p. 5.
Ibid.
Pennant-Rea,The African Burden, p. 18.
Ibid, pp. 18-19.
Pollin, “The Abyss of Third World Debt,” p. 58.
West Africa, (29 June 1989): 1237.
Bauer, “Accounts Receivable,” in Herbert M. Levine,World Politics Debated, p. 222.
West Africa, (1–7 May 1989): 684.
Africa Recovery, (2 December 1988): 23.
The Atlanta Constitution, (1 December 1987): 30.
Salim Lone, “Why Africa’s Crisis Continues,”Africa Recovery, 2, no. 4 (December 1988): 20.
Africa Recovery, 2 (December 1988): 23.
West Africa, (3 October 1988).
Africa Recovery, 2 (December 1988): 22-23.
Ibid.
West Africa, (25 May 1987): 1009.
Clark,For Richer, For Poorer, p. 1250.
Antonio-Gabriel M. Cunha, “African Debt: A Light at the End of the Tunnel?” pp. 26-27.
West Africa, (3 October 1988).
Salim Lone, “Why Africa’s Crisis Continues,” p. 20.
West Africa, (17–23 October 1988): 1942.
Nuru Adio-Saka, “Commuter’s Nightmare”West Africa (5–11 June 1989): 917.
West Africa, (12–18 June 1989): 956.
Susan George,A Fate Worse Than Debt, quoted inWest Africa (7 March 1988): 412-413.
Ibid.
West Africa, (8 February 1988): 215.
Pennant-Rea,The African Burden, p. v.
Pollin, “The Abyss of the Third World Debt,”Monthly Review, p. 58.
Hartland-Thunberg, “Sources and Implications of the Global Debt Crisis,” p. 98.
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Danso, A. The causes and impact of the african debt crisis. Rev Black Polit Econ 19, 5–21 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02899929
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02899929