NEPAD (i.e., the New Partnership for Africa‟s Development) is an overly ambitious continental development programme, purportedly committed to advance the standard of living of Africans, majority of whom live below the poverty line of less than two dollars a day – an indication that many Africans live dehumanized. Presumably, latent in NEPAD is the quest to re-humanize Africans. To do this, NEPAD endorses and without amelioration applies the neoliberal economic model of development, an offshoot of the traditionalist development orientation. This way, from its onset NEPAD fails to address the fundamental causative factors of Africa‟s underdevelopment by ignoring the philosophies of dehumanization and (neo-) capitalist imperialism underlying neoliberalism. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the policy thrusts of NEPAD with a view to highlighting the inner contradictions that obstruct its re-humanization agenda. The major question this paper addresses is, how can the western economic model, with the intrinsic design to conquer and dehumanize the African person, be employed for his rehumanization? In other words, does the philosophy of NEPAD contain internal contradictions capable of thwarting its set goals? This paper holds that the western traditionalist development orientation, otherwise conceived as the linear development paradigm is the root of Africa‟s under-development. Specifically, the western paradigm of [neo-] capitalist imperialism, which has been the key instrument for the actualization and perpetuation of Africa‟s defeat, cannot be the solution to Africa‟s re-growth. Rehumanization of the African, therefore, requires breaking away from all forms of imperialistic economic theories or models. The research methodology is expository, analysing data derived from primary and secondary sources.
Development, re-humanization, person, neo-imperialism, Africa.
