I understand the fact that the slave trade and colonisation highly affected the continent, but fact is African countries weren’t the only ones affected by that so it still puzzles me as to why African nations have failed to spring up like the Super power nations we have today
In: Economics
They have developed a lot.
Hans Rosling discusses the ‘pedestal effect’ where from the highly developed position of western countries, it’s hard to notice differences – but for many people there has been huge progress.
The example he gives is the difference between being able to afford shoes and a pedal bicycle and a motorbike.
Getting a bike when you have no bike is an enormous upgrade, can save you literally hours of walking every day and free up your time to persue other things like work and education.
Same for a bike to a motorbike – you can go places that would previously have been completely inaccessible.
But from a western perspective we would consider all three people ‘poor’ and don’t notice the differences/progress between them.
Edit: I would like to draw special attention to the Ethiopian super dam project and the Nigerian and Kenyan economies quadrupling in size since 1980/1990.
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