Culture, Corruption and Commerce: African Culture Vis-À-Vis Corruption and Sustainable Development in Africa

A Research Article in the AKU: An African Journal of Contemporary Research ; Discourses on sustainable development in Africa decry deeply-entrenched corruption as a leading obstacle. Sustainable development refers to a system of production, consumption and service delivery that positively contributes to the welfare of both the present as well as the future generations. Corruption, refers to a system that distorts and even decimates means of production, consumption and service delivery. Corruption, therefore, distorts and decimates sustainable development initiatives. Coming to the realization of the effects of corruption on sustainable development, a number of international, regional and local governments and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have condemned, proposed and put into place various legal and institutional anti-corruption measures. Despite these anti-corruption efforts, corruption remains pervasive, continues to threaten to decimate sustainable development efforts in Africa. A reading of available literature shows that majority of the legal and institutional anti-corruption measures, as well as scholarly empirical studies, have hardly delved into how African culture can be utilized in the fight against corruption within the continent. This therefore, leaves a lacuna that this present paper seeks to fill. This paper, therefore argues that there are elements in African culture that can be effectively used to curb corruption for sustainable development in Africa