Introduction: Theorizing Development in Post-independence Africa

This chapter introduces the book Post-Independence Development in Africa: Decolonisation and Transformation Prospects. It achieves this by offering theoretical comments about post-independence development in Africa and by providing historical details about the development approaches adopted in Africa immediately after independence in the 1960s and mid-1970s. As the chapter shows, the book sits at the intersection of two sets of scholarly literature, namely, literature on development and literature on development discourses and practices in Africa. This book contributes to clarifying how the two strands of literature intersect using several case studies across Africa.