HARNESSING THE FECUND DEPTHS OF HUMAN SUBJECTIVITY: A SELF- RELIANCIST’S THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

No meaningful development ever happens outside considerable ingenuity of the self, stretched beyond the bounds of settled conveniency. With this understanding in view, this paper advances a developmental alternative theory for African states, one that is driven by the resilience of the human spirit. It speaks of the transformative powers of the self which lie within the human ontological constitution, although only comes into activity when called upon to do so. It is otherwise described in the paper as human subjectivity, the thinking power of man. But unlike other kinds of power, for instance, electric energy; the human subjective power is inexhaustible and unique. In other words, while electric power depreciates with each usage, the paper contends that the human subjective power gets nourished the more it is put into use. This fact is substantiated in the paper using the German speculative thought on the powers of a reawakened self directed towards social transformation and creative exercise. The significance of the discourse lies in its ability to orient the African states on the best alternative developmental theory, that is, a self-reliancist approach. Thus, the study benefits the developing nations, especially the African who often go cap in hand seeking foreign solutions to localized problems. The research adopts the analytic method of enquiry. However, against the risk of advancing an autarchic state situation, the paper takes cognizance of the fact that no state can absolutely be self-reliant without needing the other. But in needing the other, the self must not be subsumed in the process. It is for this reason that the paper in its final analysis recommends self-mastery as the starting point for the quest for the attainment of self-reliancist theory of development. It consequently submits that only a mastered self is capable of creating order and directing the state towards self-reliancist initiative.