Nexus of Impediments to Development

Abstract

A careful reading of the literature suggests that what has not been emphasized or prioritized enough about African countries' present predicament is the role of the people and our environment: the choices we make, our cultural context, and our interactions with one another. To be sure, the external and the internal impediments (environmental sources of control and personal control in social learning parlance) promulgated in the literature shed light on how conditions in Africa have been influenced by the reciprocal interaction of choice and culture – the decisions and behaviors of the people in response to our environment, which includes circumstances imposed by outside forces. The depths of these connections are explored in this chapter, specifically what the broader literature conveys separately about choice and culture, how the two constructs influence human development in keeping with the theory of social learning, and why there is a compelling need to explore the relationship between the lives Africans lead and the development challenges that prevail on the continent.