Debt Sustainability in the Context of African Dependency and Underdevelopment.

This article conveys the critical elements of the keynote address delivered by the author at the opening session of the Third African Conference on Debt and Development in Dakar, Senegal. It attempts to answer the question of African Debt sustainability through the lenses of dependency and underdevelopment theories based on the Centre-Periphery theory and hypothesis that unless Africa exits the dependency and underdevelopment mode in which it has been trapped since colonialism, it will remain in perpetual debt crises. Thus, delinking from institutions and processes that trap Africa in this mode is inevitable for debt sustainability and long-term broad-based development in Africa. The responsibility for generating countervailing power for transformation lies totally in the hands of Africans as our historical experience to date must suggest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]