Many Africans in key positions find it difficult to make decisions; or, if decisions are made, in the end, they prove to be wrong and irrelevant to the needs of the people. This paper discusses the reason which makes it virtually impossible for African social scientists to make, or influence the making of, socially correct or relevant decisions. It is suggested that this inability is historically determined. The Africans are educated to serve a system which is actually against the interests of their society. They cannot progress unless they are ideologically unsubmissive and unless they have intellectual independence and self-respect. The first sections of this paper discusses the concept of the topic and some of the factors influencing decision-making; the second deals with the intellectual conditioning of the decision-makers; the third examines the problems of mental dependency; and the fourth puts forward a suggestion as to what could be done in the future. Notes.
