Explanations based on colonial history and external dependency have always been the leading explanation on Africa's development constraints. Although these views are still critical to the comprehension of inherited disparities and initial institutional circumstances, they are becoming inadequate in describing modern variance in economic and governance results across African nations. This paper explains that the current problem of development in Africa is not as influenced by colonial legacies per se but rather by post-independence institutions, political incentives, and skewed state capacity. The paper will apply the political economy and institutional theory to understand the role of elite bargaining, incentive structures and institutional enforcement patterns in defining development trajectories. It demonstrates that different legacies of the past have played out differently over the continent since domestic political settlements precondition the way institutions play out. In the growth processes, there is no structural transformation, especially where the distribution of rents and temporary protection of coalitions are rewarded by political incentives. On the other hand, where incentives are congruent with productivity, learning and consistency of the policy, developmental progress is made possible even in unfavourable historical conditions. Instead of the moral or retrospective understanding of responsibility, the paper presents the idea of responsibility as structural and forward-looking. Responsibility is perceived as the outcome of the positions of actors in both institutional and political setups and their ability to remodel incentives, enforcement modes, and priorities of governing. This reframing indicates that analytical interest is no longer focused on the past determinism but on the present day political decisions that reinforce or disrupt the constraints of development Through the combination of both the institutional analysis and the political settlements theory, the paper can be added to the further discussion on the subject of African development and provide a theory on the way the governance reform, state capacity, and incentive realignment can contribute to the lasting and inclusive growth of the economy.