Heretofore, development studies seldom focus on the systemic twists of capitalism and the colonial past that contributed immensely to dislocate the African states as global financial competitors. The article engages the nagging reconstruction of Africa’s development discourse, in particular, the debate about the fallout of global development paradigm that created ‘two publics’ of the West and others. The global economic order metamorphosed from mutuality interface into subordinate-superordinate relations. The aberration negates the freedom of the impoverished to trade and, specifically, made economic transformation in post-colonial Africa forlornly challenging—not necessarily for being a poor player but for the constant shift in the goalposts.