1.0 Introduction 1.1 Definition of poverty
CHUPICAL SHOLLAH MANUEL

Poverty as a phenomenon is very elusive to define and is rather multidimensional and a contested concept whose definition is influenced by the contexts in which it exists. The concept has both a relative an absolute measure. The dominant Western definition since World War II has defined poverty in monetary terms, using levels of income or consumption to measure poverty (Grusky and Kanbur, 2006: 11) and defining the poor by a headcount of those who fall below a given income/consumption level or ‘poverty line’ (Lipton and Ravallion, 1993: 1 in Handley et al., 2009). Multidimensional definitions acknowledge that poverty is also defined by a sense of helplessness, dependence and lack of opportunities, self-confidence and self-respect on the part of the poor. (Narayan et al., 2000). Sen (1999) defines poverty as lack of freedom while another dimension view it as interlinked forms of deprivation in the economic, human, political, sociocultural and protective spheres (OECD, 2006).This essay discusses the issue of poverty in Africa from colonial period to present day. The paper also analyses the causes of poverty since colonial era, the poverty alleviation strategies adopted to deal with poverty and propose possible solutions for poverty alleviation. A plethora of case studies will be drawn from several countries to substantiate the claims and insights provides in this paper. 2.0 Poverty, colonialism and Colonial Legacy Poverty is attributed to colonial legacy and how colonial rule marginalized the Africans in economic participation. In Africa, poverty is attributed to the economic activities of the colonial masters which exploited labour, natural resources and expropriated the continent while there was little plough back to citizen nations. A classical study by (Rodney, 1972) “How Europe Underdeveloped