Knowledge in praxis and socio-economic development: Explaining the African situation

One of the most fundamental questions bedeviling the African continent is the problem of underdevelopment which manifests in the forms of fears and despairs Africans face daily as they try to make sense of their existence in a world that has become a global village. Such a situation affects the level of confidence Africans have in terms of the relative opportunity to realize their potentials within the political and economic milieu they find themselves. This question takes on particular pungency when Africans try to make sense of the paradox of penury and hunger in a continent so richly endowed with natural and human resources. This paper argues the position that African socio-economic underdevelopment has its root in the prevalence of the knowledge of “what”, as opposed to the knowledge of “how”. The paper holds that this is the cause of our over reliance on others for thoughts and solutions to our pressing problems and our failure to make our mark in this new age of discovery and globalisation. While concluding that development of knowledge in praxis is a critical element in the achievement of the goal of social reconstruction in Africa, we emphasize the fact that unless Africans accept knowledge in praxis as an instrument for socio-economic revolution, development will remain an unachievable project in Africa.