Page 48 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 4

AFRIKONOMICS
ECONOMY ECONOMY

Theory Part 1

Mfuniselwa Bhengu

Men are shaped by the economy and society they are born into.
Dalton, 1975

A universal civilization requires a universal power, and therefore, for
an African civilization to have universal power, it would have to have
a strong African-oriented economic philosophy, rooted in an African
idiom. We believe that Africa has a relatively strong universal power,
but still economically weak.
(Huntington (1996).

Introduction

economic development. Econom- ability to guide themselves, make
Afrikan-oriented Ekonomic ic growth and development need their own decisions, and protect
System to be a substantiation of a peo- their interests. It’s their reference
The ancient Afrikan economic ple’s beliefs and values. point to the past and their anten-
system was widely anchored on This conflicting situation created nae to the future.
the principles of economic de- a need, particularly during the
mocracy. The basic premise of post-apartheid era, to look at a In Afrika, profit was not appropri-
this notion is the study of econom- possibility of an alternative eco- ated by a single individual or by
ic processes in relation to the so- nomic paradigm, that would be corporate owners, as in the West.
cial and cultural contexts in which grounded and rooted on African Nor was it appropriated by the
they occur. After viewing the ethics, values and culture. By state, as in the East. In indigenous
principle of self-interest against the way, culture gives a people Afrika, profit was shared between
its historico-cultural background, self-identity and character. It al- the owners and the workers. It is
one considers this link in the Af- lows them to be in harmony with in this sense, therefore, that we
rican context, and argues that, their physical and spiritual en- pursue humanistic perspectives,
although they cannot be taken as vironment, to form the basis for which centres upon human per-
the sole factor, people’s cultural their sense of self-fulfillment and son and around human welfare,
beliefs and values are crucial for personal peace. It enhances their and we do this explicitly and can-

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