Development and technology policy in a changing society:challenges for the African political structures

摘要

The fact that 30 years after independence, over three-quarters of Africa's population continues to live in poverty and struggles for the provision of primary human necessities calls for a radical, critical and urgent revie>v of the development strategies adopted by these countries. This paper considers why S& T-related activ-ities were disconnected from the economy of African society, and why these countries never developed substantial technological expertise as an integral part of their development process, but, instead, generated a state of technological dependence. It shows why and how basic science developed painfully within academic settings, and the intangible consequences of frontier technologies in the development process.