Africa is the richest continent in the world in terms of natural resources, yet it is the poorest continent in terms of socio-economic development. The story of Africa is that of a continent with a paradox of being so rich, yet very poor. There is the disconcerting fact that Africa harbours overwhelming majority of the least developed countries of the world which United Nation regards as the Poorest. In spite of its rich resources-endowment, a disproportion number of people in the population of Africa are known to be undernourished and under-privileged. Colonialism has impacted the political and economic conditions of the contemporary Africa. Post-independence African states are a western model. Therefore, the focus of this paper is to examine the role of political economy of the West on the under-development of Africa. It was discovered that, the rising profile of Africa in the world socio-political and economy was suddenly truncated through its contact with the outside world. The preceding result of the research also, revealed that, what was called 'the development of Africa' by the colonialists was a cynical short-hand expression for 'the intensification of colonial exploitation in Africa to develop capitalist Europe'. Hence, African resources were extensively exploited by colonizers, thereby rendering Africa economically weak and looser in its interaction with the global economy. However, this paper concludes that colonialism and imperialism had played negative impact on Africa's development. In offering this view, the paper then drawn attention to the way that previous African development was blunted, halted and turned back by the capitalist Europe. The paper then, suggests that much of the conventional wisdom regarding on how best to address African development and poverty is not only misguided but often harmful by certain policies. Hence, other policy issues were recommended which constitute imperative pre-requisite for the attainment of development in the continent of Africa.