The continent of Africa occupies a strategic position in global economy from the pre-colonial through colonial to post colonial periods. This could be linked to its huge human and material resources. However, the puzzling paradox is that these obvious credentials have little positive impact on the continent’s march towards industrialization. This paper adopts a historical method of inquiry, using largely secondary sources to interrogate the trends of industrial development in Africa within the context of the global economy. It is contended that all indices of development point to the fact that industrialization has been eluding Africa due to colonial experience, weak political will, poor infrastructure, financial constraints, and corruption as well as mismatch foreign economic prescriptions. However, to avoid undue exoneration of African leaders, and the escapist intellectual discourse, these issues have been analyzed through the middle-of the-road approach. Finally, the paper examines the prospects for robust industrialization in Africa in an attempt to have a glimpse of the future of the African economy.