Cultural Imperialism, The Catholic Church & Africa

In my class, called The Developing World, we are actually talking about this very subject, although not in relation to the Catholic Church. Its good to hear that the Church is speaking and standing up for unity of the family in Africa. The World Bank refers to Africa as the world's foremost development challenge. The number of people in this region living in extreme poverty has almost doubled since 1980. Over 300 million people lack access to clean water, and 450 million have inadequate sanitation. Since 1990, U.S. investment in Africa has mainly been donated to countries like Egypt or Nigeria whose countries can contribute resources to the world, or help with security related to fighting terrorism, but not so much to the countries in Africa that would help the poorest of the poor.

Two differing perspectives as to reasons why Africa is struggling is:

Externalists argue that Africa's problems and solutions are based on factors outside Africa.
They believe this is due to colonialism and globalism.

Internalists argue that problems and solutions are internal. They believe it is due to corrupt leadership in Africa.

One other theory that I learned of earlier is called the Dependencia Theory. This is the belief that the industrialized North (Developed Nations) has created a neocolonial relationship with the South. The Developing World has become dependent upon the industrialized nations for capital investment and foreign aid.

I believe that the problems related to Africa's development could be both external and internal. I don't know whether I agree with the Dependencia Theory, or not but it could be possible that the industrialized nations are trying to keep the wealth for themselves instead of caring about the needs of the Developing countries, and the poor. What do you think?