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
The geography isn’t ideal for development and there are some other structural reasons. But one reason I am confident the thread will over look is the role of ideas. So broadly during the 20th century interventionism, socialism, and welfareism became popular among academia and politicians. And the general public. So African elites would come get educated in the west and return and govern their nations under the influence of these ideas. But if you really want to grow an economy what you need is economic freedom.
I strongly believe that there’s a major brain drain and skill drain going on, just like my home country in Asia. Countries that do not do more to retain their talents lose out on them. Even their skilled labor, such as farmers, don’t get fair compensation.
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.
My mother who was from Africa always said that, individually, people from her country do great things but as a collective they always fuck eachother over destroying any possible momentum.
You’ll get a much better answer from /r/AskHistorians than you will here (and it will still be easy to understand)
My explaination. Maybe more for a 12 – 14 year old, this is hard to explain to a 5 year old. I lived 25 years in Africa and have visited allot of it. These are my thoughts.
From the 10th – 18th centuries Europe and Asia went through a cultural change from tribal groups into nation states. This did not happen in Africa (or South America) especially below the Sahara. (I know a few exceptions).
Why this did not happen I suspect is enviromental. The climat which encouraged illness and plagues ment forming large settlements and cities was risky in this period. Also the size of the content and geography, allot of rain forest and desert, compared to the lack of population ment ideas spread very slowly before transport improved.
The lack of cohesion and nation states made Africa easy pickings for the colonist like it was in South America similar conditions.
In South America the local population was completely replaced by European settlers this was not the case in Africa except the extreme southern bit again I suspect because the climate is soo harsh.
The British saying ‘Beware beware the bight of Benin for not one comes out for two that go in’ comes to mind.
The colonial powers started building nations in Africa but only half hartedly as they where more interested in plundering the resources including human than building nations in such harsh climates.
Since indepedence the world powers have been more interested in using Africa for its resources and fighting proxy wars than in helping the countries form their own sense of nationhood and cultural identity.
One of the best (ELI5) explanations there is on this comes from [Dr. Parenti](https://youtu.be/6Bzhe3eUMmg?si=IP6hjCILCxi0aiX6)
The resources Africa would need to advance are the resources europe and america get on the cheap. If africans started using them then it would negatively affect the quality of life for europeans, asians, and americans, according to Henry kissinger https://pdf.usaid.gov/pdf_docs/PCAAB500.pdf
It is very politically incorrect to say this, but low average cognitive ability seems to be involved. When a population has an IQ average in the 70s or 80s, which many African populations seem to, having well run nation states is difficult. I can’t think of a reason why an entire continent would be developmentally retarded, especially when the genetic evidence tells us that everyone outside of Africa belongs to a common ancestor that left Africa and hybridized with other species of humans (those that remained in Africa did not). The san people in South Africa are actually the oldest population of sapiens genetically speaking.
The short answer is too much corruption, money not going where it should, aggression and fighting stopping forward thinking and a hate for white people who try to make a difference.
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