A Critique of Post-Colonial Theory in Post-Colonial African States

This article provides a critical analysis of post-colonial theory and further highlights different aspects from different Afrocentric scholarly reviews about post-colonial African states that provide oppositional literature to Western thinking by criticising colonialism and how it has negatively impacted the political, social, and economic growth and development of post-colonial African states. The aim of this article is to contribute critically to the ongoing debate on post-colonial theory by examining the strongpoints and weaknesses of the paradigm. Methodologically, this article is imbedded in critical research theory as an ontological assumption. This implies that this article grapples with issues of power relations about scientific knowledge, development and unevenness. This also includes the relationship between the powerful and powerless, between the global North and the global South. Our line of argument is that the subversion of the Western canon on issues of development is useful and needed. Nonetheless, it also tends to be informed by populism and opportunism as opposed to the liberation of the majority of people in post-colonial states. We also note that one of the gaps in the scholarship of post-colonialism is the recognition of the failure of African leaders in post-colonial states to promote development for the majority, including their erosion of good governance and state institutions.