Africa has a lot of natural resources but has always relied on foreign aid. Nonetheless has famine, poor road network, poor Healthcare etc. Please explain.
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Guns, Germs, and Steel provides several answers to this question. Some of the biggest reasons I can think of off the top of my head:
-The head start that Europe and the US had with regard to industrialization.
-Losing the race to industrialize led the continent to fall victim to more industrialized European countries, who quickly plundered much of the continent’s natural resources.
-Europe took as much as they could from Africa through colonization.
-Countries were created with completely random boundary lines and no thought to the various tribal and ethnic groups that lived within these lines. This would lead to challenges at forming a cohesive national identity for some countries, and all out genocide in other countries.
-Countries continue to take advantage of Africa through the use of improper loans and grants. For example, China has become proficient at distributing loans to African countries that they know the countries will eventually default on.
-The brain drain- most of the young Africans that I have met will do whatever they can to get to Europe. The ones who are in the best position to do so have the brightest futures. As a result, the most intellectually gifted Africans never return to the continent once they gain acceptance into an American or European university.
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