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8. Conclusion
- CODESRIA
- Chapter
- Additional Information
8 Conclusion Hans Müller, Pinkie Mekgwe and Marvellous Mhloyi Introduction The quest for comparative perspective on the role of values and culture in development in African societies continues. If there is one matter that has become clear in the process of putting together the results of this book, it is that there are all sorts of gaps in what we can put together without comprehensive new research. The aim of this section is not to try to summarise the results of each section, but to reflect on where the different inputs have brought us in terms of the research questions posed at the beginning and to reflect on the current limitations and future possibilities of our work. However, we need to elucidate the gaps in what has been possible to do on the basis of the material that is available for comparative research first. The first level of problems emanate from the fact that the research that has been done ever since independence came to Southern African countries has always been dominated by models and theoretical frameworks that are a product of the industrialised and primarily Western countries; and therefore, the dynamics, problems and consciousness that framed the research has been less than appropriate for the African situation. A second problem is simply that we do not have enough data collected systematically and over a long period of time to be able to assess dynamics as they play out in African societies. This is partially due to the instability of many African countries; but mostly because central institutions like universities and government institutions have not had the funding and the capacity to develop long-term processes and maintain them. A bare minimum of statistics is available in most countries, but the data is mostly standard demographic and economic data and one does not have anything to work with that helps the cause of Values and Development in Southern Africa 226 establishing the impact of values and culture in society. If one compares what would be possible in terms of analysis on the basis of the General Social Survey in the USA and what is possible in Southern Africa, the point becomes clear enough. The third problem is ideological. The research that has been done in African societies that would be relevant to our quest, has been couched in terms that are often very relevant in Europe and North America but not so clearly relevant here. Research in Africa has also been dogged by ideological limitations emanating from the very clear and continuing need to make the point that African societies have been decimated by the effects of colonial and post-colonial structures. This has very often meant that the research done by Africans stops at the point where the connection between exploitation and African underdevelopment has been made. To go further seems too much like blaming the victim to be politically feasible; it will not attract government funding or funding from large local agencies and to strive for support from multi-lateral and international bodies may mean that the agenda for the research is again determined elsewhere. These are issues that CODESRIA has been dealing with since its inception and the aim of fostering and developing comparative research is a clear attempt to do something about the problem. The development of the Afrobarometer has helped a lot in generating data that can assist; but an opinion survey that is dominated by issues of public concern cannot deliver the full scope of aspects that is required for a values and cultural analysis. Reflection on Research Questions We asked whether values can explain poverty and continuous exploitation in Southern Africa. It is not clear that values can do so. The work values and work ethos arguments would seem to be good candidates to support such claims. The assumption that while people are poor and desperate they have a short-term and instrumental approach to work and to the fruits of labour and no real commitment to work as such is not borne out by the analysis. In fact, Southern African countries (or at least the countries that we were able to survey) are moderately European in their approach to these matters. We asked whether it was possible to explain the fact of survival on the basis of values; and in that played to the gallery that would say that African communalism and social solidarity is a fundamentally African characteristic. We found some historical and anthropological evidence of solidarity constructs that could...