The bitter Heart of Africa

The african continent is famous for its

poverty,

but many people don't know the complete

reason why

africa is so poor while we all have a

vague idea such as corruption,

colonization or foreign interference

all these reasons ignore why any of

these things can happen in the first

place.

So in this article, i seek to change that

we will look from the

point when african countries were rich

and powerful,

how over the centuries africa lost its

wealth

and why africa hasn't been able to crawl

out of its poverty.

While so many other countries and

foreign colonies have

and to do this we need to start in the

14th century

with eastern africa connected to the

indian ocean trade.

While west africa was home to the

richest person to have ever lived,

a man named mansa musa while many

historians throughout history have

concluded that

africa barely has any history aside from

mummies and pyramids.

It is important to remember that for

most of history

much of africa was as well connected to

the rest of the world,

as europe or asia they developed

metallurgy that was on par with europe

and asia

developed complex mathematical theories

and had intricate systems of governments

such as city-states kingdoms and empires

so what changed well in the 14th and

15th century.

Africa's prosperity began to fall behind

that of the rest of the world,

this was because of two external forces

the ottoman

empire and the western european empires.

We will start with the ottoman empire

because the ottomans required slaves, and

the way they got their slaves

was through war they would go into

villages

towns and cities to capture the men

women and children to be sold

as slaves back home and the easiest and

cheapest place to get new slaves was

eastern africa and so slave traders were

able to earn

a lot of money .

By buying or capturing

east africans to sell them

to the ottomans , this trade continued all

the way into the 19th century.

Something similar was happening with

western european empires,

at first european traders came to africa

to trade salt in exchange for gold and

ivory.

Later europeans sailed around africa to

go to asia,

as a result west africa became an

important location for european traders

to stock up on supplies,

on the way to and from asia soon after

europeans tried going to east asia

directly by crossing the atlantic,

but instead they stumbled upon the

americas.

In these , americas the europeans set up

colonies

and these colonies were supposed to have

the same system of government as that of

europe with nobility.

Barons clergy knights and peasants,

but those europeans had a problem the

native americans

who were supposed to become the new

peasants were dying from diseases, like

smallpox, measles

bubonic ,plague and many more and a dead

peasant

is an unproductive peasant so where were

they going to find new peasants for

american colonies.

Well they found them on the west african

slave markets

at the time west africa had slavery but

it wasn't the type of slavery we often

think of,

a slave often had similar rights as

non-slaves.

Their children weren't automatically

slaves themselves,

and they were often part of the family

structure rather than a separate worker

and so european traders began buying

slaves from west africa.

West africans were happy to sell

european slaves because their own gold

mines were drying up in the 15th century

and they were looking for a new way to

earn money,

but how do you get new slaves well you

go to war for them

various african countries went to war

with their neighbors.

Captured their citizens and then sought

those citizens to the europeans

prominent slaver countries were the

ghana empire,

the mali empire, the bono state and the

songhai empire

from the perspective of african rulers

this seemed like a good deal

they were weakening their rivals while

earning lots of money in the process.

And so over time slavery changed from a

relatively small market where slaves had

rights,

into a large system of warfare where

slaves became property to be sold

to the highest bidder this evolved into

a system where slave traders would go to

africa to buy slaves and put as many as

they could fit onto their ships.

They would then sail to the americas

where those slaves were sold to work to

death.

In the fields , those slave traders then

bought raw materials those slaves

produced such as

sugar cane, cotton or cocoa sail to

europe

and sell those raw materials for a

profit in europe.

Those materials would be turned into

manufactured goods,

like rum clothing or weapons the traders

then bought those manufactured goods

and sailed back to africa to sell those

manufactured goods and use the profits

to buy new slaves.

This was a good deal for everybody

except the slaves,

the americans received slaves to use in

the plantations

the europeans received raw materials and

the west africans

received manufactured goods and the

plight of the slaves was not an issue to

any of them.

While at times europeans tried taking

slaves by force,

this always failed because the african

kingdoms were far too strong at the time

and so they maintained friendly

relations which whichever country was

willing to sell slaves.

over the centuries empires collapsed

into civil wars

and the slave traders were more than

willing to buy their former slave

partners.

As slaves to be shipped after the

americas and so as empires rose and fell

there were always merchants willing to

buy slaves,

such has happened in the kingdom of

congo which fell apart into various

factions

each of those factions needed weapons

and money to fund their war effort and

so they captured slaves from

other parts of the former kingdom of

congo and sold them to portuguese

traders.

As the europeans founded more and more

colonies in the americas,

the more slaves could be sold and the

richer the trader became

and this trade had a long-term effect on

the economies of africa,

both in west africa as well as east

africa with the ottomans

because before industrialization the

economy of a country was determined by

the amount of people

living in the country the more people

you had the larger your economy was.

And if you had a large economy then you

could have a small portion of your

population

focus on producing things other than

food in europe for example craftspeople

produced all sorts of things from

alcoholic drinks,

steel muskets cigars and of course that

sweet

sweet delicious chocolate.

But it took centuries for those

industries to fully mature

but in africa these industries never

matured like they did in the rest of the

world

because in africa craftspeople were

enslaved

and this had a tremendous impact on the

african economies

while european asian and american

industries kept growing and kept

improving.

Africa's industries stagnated and soon

they could no longer compete with

european and asian imports,

and the african industries became small

and insignificant

because you could buy better and cheaper

products from asian and european markets.

But you might be asking yourselves why

did the africans go along with this,

well because they had to when you have

several warlike empires surrounding you,

you yourself have to invest in a strong

military to protect yourself

but if you put more money in the

military it means there is less money

for you to spend on your own economy.

So if an african leader realized what

was going on,

they couldn't invest in industries

because they had to protect themselves

and so all the way into the 19th century

africa's economies were

slowly declining because the slave trade

slowly destroyed the african economies

while making a huge profit for those who

captured and sold slaves.

But why did western europeans and the

ottomans weakened africa for hundreds of

years,

well because it was convenient for the

people in charge

at that time it wasn't some grand plan

but instead

each government trader and company saw

an opportunity

in africa to earn profit this profit

came at the expense of african long-term

wealth.

With most of the people involved

probably not even realizing this

and when a particular region becomes

weaker there are always the strong who

will exploit the weak,

and in the 19th century three major

events happened that would solidify

african poverty the first was the end of

slavery

all of a sudden african slave traders

were losing customers

because slavery was becoming illegal

across the World.

And this was a big problem for african

countries,

because their economies relied on

exporting slaves

and importing foreign goods but now

they lost their main source of income.

And because africa had not built up any

other industries because of the slave

trade,

it did not have another sorts of income

with which

it could trade with the outside world, so

africans could no longer buy

many of the goods and tools they relied

on and as a result

the african economies slowly collapsed

in the 19th century.

The second major event in the 19th

century was industrialization,

europeans and americans started to out

produce the rest of the world

africa became insignificant in world

affairs by the middle of the 19th

century.

And many of the stereotypes about

africans such as, that

they have no history no established

government and

various racist beliefs came about in

this time period.

When africa had become weak with little

to offer the outside world

and the outside world, taking little

interest in africa

and then the third major event happened

in the 1870s

with africa's economy in shambles and

european industrialization in full swing.

Europe all of a sudden had the ability

to transport vast

amounts of heavy materials across oceans

before it would not be profitable to

transport heavy oars from africa to

europe,

because the technology simply wasn't

available yet

to make it profitable but steam

technology meant trains,

steamboats and factories that could

transport

and produce goods at a profit.

And in 1871 the king of belgium decided that belgium

should have a colony,

looked at the world map and noticed that

africa was both weak

and available and so once again

the strong took advantage of the weak.

Soon other european nations joined

and almost all of africa was colonized

by western and southern european empires,

until africa looked like this and like

this after world war one

and this had three significant results

for africa.

The first is the increased poverty

european colonizers , cut little for the

people living in the colony

africans were driven out of the most

fertile regions to make space for

european settlers.

Plantations were built for africans to

work, and for europeans to own

and the taxis africans paid were rarely

spent on improving their lives,

but instead on continuing their own

oppression

the european colonizers were only

interested in extracting wealth from

their colonies

by constructing roads, railroads and

ports to transport raw materials to

europe and north america.

In essence whatever wealth africans had

were systematically taken from them and

handed over to european settlers,

a prominent example is the congo free

state

where they worked millions of people to

their deaths.

By the way if you're curious what the

free stands for in the congo free state,

it meant free of oversight so the rulers

of the colony could exploit the locals

without

any interference.

The second is the infrastructure which was designed,

specifically to transport raw materials

to their european overlords the first

president of togo

said ,it quite well the effects of the

policy of the colonial powers

has been the economic isolation of

peoples who live

side by side in some instances within a

few miles of each other.

Although, i can call paris from my office

telephone here in la may

i cannot place a call to lagos in

nigeria

only 250 miles away again while it takes

a short time to send an

airmail letter to paris it takes several

days for the same ladder to reach akra,

a mere 132 miles away railroads rarely

connect at international boundaries

roads have been constructed from the

coast inland .

But very few join economic

centers of trade,

the productive central regions of togo

benin and

ghana are as remote from each other as

if they were

on separate continents.

And the third result was that ,by

replacing all the african leaders with

european leaders

that africa was losing vital skills in

terms of governing themselves;

such as business managers ,government

leaders or

accountants as well as practical skills

such as mechanics,

construction workers or medical

professionals.

And that was a problem when africans

started demanding their independence

after world war ii,

when protests riots and rebellions

popped up across the continent

until the colonizers realized that a few

million europeans

simply couldn't control over 200 million

africans.

If those africans refused to cooperate,

and so between 1945 and 1975

almost every african country became

independent

at the time it was thought that if

africans would once again

rule africa that wealth would follow

soon.

But this didn't happen, but why not

history has shown us that former

colonies can become wealthy countries

such as new zealand, ireland or south

korea.

Yet not a single country in africa is

what we call

a developed country, and the reason for

this

is the way in which the colonizers left

africa

because when people don't have the

skills to run a country,

when communities don't connect to each

other and when prosperity is already

rare.

It becomes very difficult for the

leaders of that country

to bring prosperity to that country,

but at the same time leaders of african

independence movements

promise the african people prosperity

after independence.

So how were african leaders going to

fulfill this promise of wealth and

prosperity,

well for most african countries the

solution was an economic system

called african socialism the way this

system works

is that many industries would be

controlled by the national government;

such as mining, construction, plantations

etc .

It was would then use all of the

nation's resources to industrialize,

because at the time

manufacturing jobs paid higher salaries

than farming jobs

and so decided that the best way for

africa to become rich

was to replace low-paying jobs in

agriculture and mining.

With high-paying jobs in factories,

it made foreign goods more expensive by

putting extra taxes

on those goods arguing that if foreign

products are more expensive

then people will need to buy goods from

their own country instead.

The leaders were hoping that foreign

investors would come to their countries

because those foreign businesses

wouldn't have to pay those extra taxes,

if they just moved some of their

factories to africa

and luckily for africa at the time they

gained independence during a cold war

and so they could receive foreign aid

from either the west

or the soviet union in exchange for

being on their side in the cold war.

And while of course every african country

had different economic policies

they were all kind of similar to this,

but african socialism simply didn't

work first of all the trade restrictions,

meant that african countries couldn't

sell products to each other

meaning that it was hard to find

customers to buy any products made in

africa.

As a result none of the industries could

grow large enough to be able to compete

with the industries of north america,

europe or east asia,

and so nobody else wanted to buy african

goods

because they could get those same goods

better and cheaper

from other countries.

Secondly a single large government isn't able to

adapt to changes in world markets

as quickly as hundreds of smaller

businesses,

meaning that centrally planned economies

will always be

less efficient than economies which have

a lot of

different businesses competing with each

other.

Thirdly africans simply lacked the

skills and education required to work

in manufacturing jobs in the first place,

meaning that they were far less

efficient

than their better educated counterparts

in the rest of the world.

For example out of the 200 million black

africans in the 1950s

only 8 000 received secondary education,

200 a university education

and one third of the student age

population

went to primary school.

So it would take

decades before enough qualified

professionals would join the job market,

and so african countries select the

people needed to make their countries

thrive.

The fourth reason why it didn't work is

not so much about african socialism

itself,

but about the continent of africa

because africa's landscape is harsh

with some places experiencing droughts

lasting years

such as the drought which lasted from

1968 to 19 73

causing large food shortages while other

parts have locusts

and red-billed cuellar birds which make

agriculture nearly impossible.

The fifth reason was disease yellow

fever, smallpox ,sleeping sickness and malaria.

About a few of the diseases which

plagued african development,

and while smallpox was being eradicated

new diseases were spreading

such as river blindness where worms live

inside your eyes

and have become the second largest cause

of blindness worldwide.

Orteg bilharzia caused by a worm which

likes to live

in rivers, it infects the urinary tract

or intestines

which can lead to kidney failure,

infertility

and in children can cause poor growth

and learning disabilities

all of these diseases are easily

preventable in rich countries with

access to water sanitation facilities

and modern medicine.

But because africans were poor they

couldn't afford the doctors clinics and

medicine,

they needed to fight those diseases and

so a combination of trade barriers

inefficient governments a lack of

education

harsh environments and disease meant

that this system was doomed to fail from

the beginning.

There was simply no way for any african

nation to reach wealth and prosperity

at that time, because of the

underdeveloped countries they inherited

from their former colonizers.

But this raises a new question why did

african countries choose this system

in the first place well the reason is

that,

this was a system which they inherited

from their former colonizers

where the colonial government controlled

nearly every aspect

of the colony's economy and if they

wanted to switch to a free market system

like western europe ,east asia or north

america.

Then they would need business people and

entrepreneurs

to set up new businesses but the problem

with this

is that africans weren't allowed to run

businesses under colonialism,

so the entrepreneurial attitude didn't

exist

on top of that due to colonialism

africans were never trained in modern

skills.

So if you wanted to open a factory for

example it would be impossible to find

qualified employees who knew how to run

the machines and factories,

in today's world we know the answer to

this dilemma because we've seen

countries like singapore,

vietnam and china in similar

predicaments.

But back in the 1940s through 70s there

were no such examples to follow

except for countries like japan and the

ussr,

who had gained economic development

through strict government control.

And so africa's leaders thought that

african socialism

was the best way to create wealth and

prosperity for their countries

except those two countries did so

through the deaths of

millions and already had an educated

population when they began their

economic development projects.

Let's compare this to a colony which did

become wealthy after independence south

korea,

they decided to focus on just a few

industries such as electronics,

agriculture and steel and only putting

trade barriers

on those products .

South korea would then

trade those products with things it

didn't produce itself,

as a result south korea became a world

leader in things like electronics

and has become one of the richest

countries in the world.

But this only explains why africa didn't

become wealthy

right after independence ,however after a

few decades

africans would have better education and

would be able to

indeed set up african businesses using

african labor

to create african industry yet this

didn't happen

until the 21st century.

So why didn't

this happen earlier

well this has a lot to do with the

corruption that emerged after

independence,

shortly before independence most african

colonies

became democratic and these democracies

were very

unstable because they had only been

around for a few years in most cases.

We still see this today where recent

democracies tend to be the least stable

democracies,

and most african nations were not at all

united.

Some countries were lucky in that most

people spoke the same language,

while other countries had hundreds of

different languages

and good luck trying to run a political

campaign in over a hundred languages.

So instead politicians realized that

they could more easily win votes

if they targeted specific ethnic groups,

as a result politics was divided along

ethnic lines and african countries

became more

and more divided with each election in

the 1960s and 70s.

So now, groups of people were not only

divided based on ethnicity

but also separated politically based on

where they were born

from the perspective of a politician.

This made perfect sense,

if you want to win votes appeal to

certain ethnic groups

but from the perspective of the country

as a whole it made the country

more difficult to govern over time.

And if a candidate decided to appeal to the whole country,

instead of specific ethnic groups then

they would lose elections

and so through a natural process african

nations tended to become more divided

after independence.

All thanks to the social and political

systems left behind by their former

colonisers,

a prominent example of what is went

horribly wrong was rwanda

with the rwandan genocide where over

half a million members of the tutsi

ethnic group were massacred

along with many other crimes against

humanity.

Once a party got into power they would

try to keep the power for themselves,

many africans saw democracy as nothing

more than a mess of infighting

with opposition parties abusing their

power

to hinder the greater national interest.

Therefore a single party system was

created in many african nations

in the years following independence by

crushing the opposition

and in countries with hundreds of

different cultures and languages.

It makes sense that you wouldn't want to

deal with all of them

vying for power by the 1980s the elites

had taken full control over the

political system in most african

countries,

and so very little changed after

independence

with european elites replaced with

african elites.

And those new elites were concerned that

they would be overthrown in a coup,

so how are they going to keep themselves

in power?

Well by taking the money intended for

economic development

and handing them out as salaries to

powerful government officials

to keep them happy enough that they

wouldn't start a rebellion.

But whereas colonies had oversight from

their european government,

who would fire anyone getting too

corrupt the new leaders had no such

oversight

and to show just how incompetent some of

these governments are

in the central african republic.

The government didn't even keep

proper records of financial transactions

by 1964 senegal spent 47 percent

of the government budget on the elites,

58 percent in ivory coast

and 65 percent in the homemade now

called benin.

And if outsiders wanted access to

african resources,

all they had to do was bribe government

officials to get access

and so african governments and companies

started paying money

to the african elites to gain access to

the resources.

Rich nations needed to run their own

economies,

as a result the elites became richer

while the poor

became even poorer so if you're an oil

company

all you have to do is bribe government

officials and you can extract

all the oil that you want.

The elites would get a portion of the profits

while the people would see no benefits

from resources taken

from their own country ,this is a system

which is still

active in many parts of africa to this

day

and if you're a country or company who

does not want to give

money to corrupt politicians then there

will always be somebody else who

is willing to pay as a result anyone who

thinks morality

is more important than those resources,

will always be

by the ones who are willing to pay the

bribe.

Thus you create a system where world

leaders who are willing to pay those

bribes

will always have an advantage over those

who won't pay bribes,

and over time bribes had become the norm

in africa, the africans were not stupid

of course

and saw what was happening they would

often protest or even start rebellions

to stop their own exploitation.

But in the 1960s african countries did

not have

a strong enough military to keep the

peace,

so who did they call upon to restore

order,

well they're former colonizers

the french and british in particular

suppressed rebellions and protests

across africa in exchange for greater

access

to african resources.

For example ,in 1962 french troops broke up fighting

in what is now called the republic of

congo

and put down a rebellion in cameroon.

The british meanwhile suppressed mutinies in

kenya and tanzania

by 1965 these military interventions

became common across africa

from algeria to congo ,benin

the central african republic, upper volta,

ghana,

nigeria ,ethiopia all independent

countries

and all had european troops stationed

there to secure

european access to african resources.

African nations experienced around 40

successful coups within the first two

decades after independence,

and so africa gained a reputation for

being a very

unstable country so unstable in fact

that almost nobody wanted to invest in

africa anymore

except for their resources and this

highlights another issue.

People think of africa as a single

entity a continent filled with poverty

and war,

so when someone hears about for example

boko haram in nigeria

it is often grouped with the rest of

africa as just being another war

in a continent filled with war yet what

most people don't realize.

Is that the area in which they operate,

is over a thousand kilometers away from

nigeria's economic centers

and has almost no effect on business

they are further away

than amsterdam is from warsaw but

companies will still refuse to do

business

in africa because of this belief.

And this creates a cycle, people group

africa together as a poor continent

resulting in less business which results

in africa

staying in poverty it is for this reason

that throughout this article,

i have used the words most almost all or

few quite a lot to show that africa is a

diverse area and simply

cannot be grouped together in most cases.

Due to this diversity in peoples

landscapes and cultures despite

all these issues some things did improve

in africa,

by the 1980s african politics started to

stabilize with fewer coups

primary school enrollment went from 36

percent to 63,

secondary school from 3 to 13.

Life expectancy rose from 39 to 47

and the medical professionals per person

doubled

on the whole though, the average african

was becoming poorer.

However africans were receiving better

healthcare and education

and this would be very important for

africa by the 1980s,

because in the 1980s africa faced three

major issues.

The first was that the infrastructure it

did have

started to break down, meaning that raw

materials became far more difficult to

export.

The second was that africans who did

receive a proper education

decided to move to another country where

they would receive

a better salary meaning that africa was

losing its smartest

and best educated people

And the third

was the fall of the soviet union by the

1980s the soviet union decided to stop

participating in the cold war

and focus on its own economy as a result,

it was no longer sending

as much money to african allies.

In turn western countries decided that

they were also going to send less money

to africa,

so all of a sudden african leaders no

longer had enough money to keep

themselves in power

with the system of bribes and so african

leaders decided to ask western nations

for financial aid.

But this time those western nations were

no longer interested in giving money

directly,

instead african nations would have to

sign loans with rich countries

and in exchange african countries would

have to reform their economies

in such a way that it would become

easier for companies to do business

in those countries and while various

industries were privatized.

And free markets emerged most african

countries underwent few reforms,

and the reason they underwent so few

reforms is that african dictators

had an idea they could pretend to

privatize their economy

by selling the privatization to the

highest bidder.

Basically doing what they had been doing

for the past couple of decades

bribes in exchange for access to african

markets,

so in effect nothing changed

except that this time western

institutions supported this process

by rewarding those dictators through

foreign aid packages

making bribes even more profitable

in nigeria.

For example the government

privatized

various state-owned businesses of which

80 percent of the shares were owned by

the leaders of the country,

in effect not changing anything at all

in kenya,

uganda, zaire, guinea and senegal they

sold government businesses

to the friends and family of government

leaders.

The only businesses which actually saw

significant investments

were oil and mineral extraction which

just like in the 60s and 70s

had been sold off to the highest bidder,

by bribing government officials

as a result the 1980s is often dubbed

africa's last decade and why africa

remained poor

until 1989 because protests were

erupting all over the world.

The soviet union ,eastern europe, taiwan

south korea, china and africa.

Africans were once again protesting

their own oppression

and so rich countries decided to switch

tactics

instead of giving money to dictators for

fake privatisation,

they instead gave money to countries who

reformed their government to be more

democratic.

And so dictatorships faced two issues at

once

on the one hand their own people were

getting restless,

while on the other hand their income was

decreasing

and so the elites allowed for a small

amount of reform

enough to appease the people and the

rich countries.

But not enough that they would be

removed from power

spread across africa to zaire, ghana,

nigeria ,togo ,gibbon, cameroon,

kenya, uganda, malawi ,south africa

until it spread across the continent

with of course

various exceptions while some

governments resisted.

Such as for example,

the central african republic

most did democratize at least slightly

each country had their own struggles of

course but in general the continent made

slow but steady progress towards

democracy.

Even today we still see this progress in

action,

in africa as elections are often

contested

and often unfair yet it is more

democratic than a complete dictatorship

and this process has made africa more

stable

and more open for doing business in the

early 90s.

And now new leaders were in charge of

africa,

and these leaders had to fight

corruption in order to fight poverty

and by fighting poverty they could stay

in power as this would earn them votes

in future elections.

They reduce the government's role in the

economy encourage growth in the private

sector,

allowed africans who were much better

educated than in the 1960s

to use their skills to develop their

country and attracted investors from

abroad.

These policies primarily focused on

using the strengths of africans

themselves

rather than by having policies enforced

upon them by the outside world,

the african renaissance can only succeed

if its aims and objectives are defined

by africans themselves.

If its programs

are designed by africans ourselves

and if we take responsibility for the

success or failure

of our policies african countries

started to work together more through

institutions like the african union,

by reducing trade barriers to make trade

between african countries

easier investing in stable governments

to make sure that you didn't have to

worry about a civil war

right across your border and by creating

various agencies to cultivate

african talents .

And these trends have

had an effect in the last three decades

with some african countries now being

the fastest growing

economies in the world ,and so we arrive

in the 21st century

where history is too recent to make any

real historical analyses.

However there are some trends worth

noting africa is still facing many

issues,

they are the least prepared for climate

change while probably suffering the most

under it.

A third of all children are malnourished,

a third of children don't finish high

school,

extremists find it easy to recruit the

vast amounts of poor unemployed young

people.

Pandemics are common across the

continent with covet being just

one among many and the economic

development of africa

is limited to certain countries .

African countries are looking at the economic

successes of east asian countries

and are adapting those policies for

their own countries,

this is resulting in factories

agricultural centers

and tech centers being opened across

many african nations.

For example they are able to use the

fact that africa and europe have the

same time zones

and take over various administrative

jobs from european-based companies

for a lower price a new generation of

africans is entering the job markets

that are better educated and better

skilled than any african generation that

came before.

With these hard-working and talented

people, african governments have created

economic policies to harness the talents

of africans

by letting them set up their own

businesses in a free market which

generates wealth,

by africans for africans in africa.

For example take the hyacinth plant an

invasive species on lake victoria

african scientists developed a method of

turning this invasive species

into protein-rich animal feed .

This feed is now being sold across the world,

in the 21st century developments like

these are creating a fast-growing middle

class with rising spending power

this middle class will want to buy

things with that extra money

and this will allow africa to sell more

goods

to other africans .Which in turn allows

africans to create

industries specifically suited for the

african market,

a market often neglected by rich

countries

and while africa is still in the

position where it mostly exports raw

materials.

It is currently experiencing an economic

development that

if it continues will finally bring an

end to the large-scale poverty

that has systematically plagued africa

for centuries.

Africans are not just hopeful of the

future but

for the first time since colonization

are actually gaining the tools that will

create this

future and yet despite all the

information in this video.

There is a lot which i had to leave out

such as for example the disastrous

agricultural

programs which cause famines in areas

with some of the most fertile land in

the world,

economic successes which eventually

failed due to corruption

are the french financial systems linking

african currencies to france. if you're from

africa or are an expert on africa

then please share more information about

this topic in the comments

i will heart react once that provide

more information so people can learn

even more about africa

and please leave a like comment and

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algorithm

this was avery from history scope, thank

you