The term "Third World" was first used Alfred sauvy an economist and a demographer in an attempt to describe various economic situation of different nations. He classified the planets into three worlds ;The First (USA, Japan and the Western Industrial Democracies, the first countries to develop industrial economies and liberal democracies) world, The Second World (the bloc of former communist nations, that included the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe…), and The Third World. The concept "Third World" have gained attraction from scholars, and thus have different definitions.
Munroe (2001), Third World nations refers to people who were not allowed to participate or benefit from the industrial revolution despite the fact that the sweat and blood of these people became the human slab on which the foundation of the Industrial Revolution was laid. Though the third world countries during the colonial epoch were exploited for the industrial revolution but they didn't benefit from it, thus they are classified as underdeveloped or more recently developing nations.
Kwame Nkrumah (1965), former president of Ghana in his work: Neo-Colonialism: The Last Stage of Imperialism observed that: The Third World Countries would not make a forward march towards economic independence until neocolonialism or neo-imperialism was vanquished. To give credence to this assertion, decades after political independence for most of the Third World Countries, they have remained perpetually dependent. What is Dependency?
Dependency refers to a situation in which a certain group of countries have their economy conditioned by the development and expansion of another economy, to which the former is subject. Dependency refers to the situation that the history of colonial imperialism has left and that modern imperialism creates in underdeveloped countries.
Underdevelopment is consequence of the Industrial revolution. Prior to this time levels of development was relatively equal, except for little variations. There was no naked exploitation of one nation by the other. Some countries have been experiencing development for over 250years (since industrial revolution). In one of his works Paul Baran asserted that the search for external outlets to invest economic surplus is the cause of underdevelopment. Economic surplus is the difference between a country's production and consumption. A country can choose to save it or invest it, this investment thus leads to exploitation.
Underdevelopment is not absence of development, nor the absence of human and natural resources. It means the inadequate or insufficient level of development in the Third World as a result of the exploitation or
the under-utilisation of their human and material resources, or a combination of both factors.
Africa's underdevelopment can traced back to 15th century with our first with the Europeans, though the continent was developing at a slow before then, but it was developing. This was when slave trade and other forms of barter trade started. In the second half of the 19th century, Europe had laid claim on virtually all part of the continent (Berlin Conference nov 1884- feb85). This was how the problem started.
They colonized Africa, in the course of doing so we started producing what we don't eat and eat what we don't produce. And at the end they granted us clientele sovereignty or fake independence, with the intention of making liberated African states client states, knowing that African countries won't be able to survive alone, and this led to imperialism cum neo-colonialism.
Another reason for underdevelopment in Africa is the issue of debt. Bretton Woods Conference marked a very disastrous beginning in Africa. Though the IMF and World Bank were created in this conference to stabilize exchange rate and eradicate poverty during the post World War II, but they've also played a great role alongside London and Paris Creditors in causing of debt crisis in Africa. Before African countries started receiving loans in 1970s, the total debt was $1 2.5 billion but today Africa's debt is over $250 billion. All thanks to the high interest rate, and ineffective and ineffecient servicing of the debt.
Though dependency is basically only about external factors militating against development in Africa in particular and Third World Countries in general, but there also exist internal factors such as political instability, corruption, one party system/tyranny, absence of the rule of law and so. All these however needs to be tackled before any attempt can be made to tackle the external factors.
The only way Third world can achieve development is to “delink” their economies from their source of exploitation and underdevelopment which is the International Capitalist Economic System, and chart a new path to development which should be built on socialist principles rather than on the foundation of exploitation of one country by another which capitalism advances.
Kwame Nkrumah once asserted "The Third World Countries would not make a forward march towards economic independence until neocolonialism or neo-imperialism was vanquished". To give credence to this assertion, decades after political independence for most of the Third World Countries, they have remained perpetually dependent.
By Ohuche Stephen Chijioke, a Political Sciencist from Olabisi Onabanjo University
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