We are all Planners now. Planning and decolonisation in Africa

The concept of "development" was an important part of the global re-ordering which took place after World War II. With the rise of the development paradigm, the hour of the planners began to strike. "We are All planners now," W. Arthur Lewis declared in 1949. Lewis, who originated from the Caribbean and taught development economics in Manchester, embodied like no one else the confidence in the "development potential" of the states in Africa and Asia struggling for independence. Lewis was deeply convinced that the political economies of the "Third World" would flourish oil the basis of careful planning and with the help of the "right" economic programs. This article analyses at some examples the planning efforts of late colonial administrations hi Africa and traces the way from the promise of planning to the end of the planning euphoria in the 1960s.