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[Jarate]

Who's we

And "we'll" never know will "we"

I'm assuming "we" is Europeans

And while he's absolutely ignoring all the horrid things done by European Colonialism in African Nations, he's not technically wrong, just through sheer contact with the outside world, Africa would've gained a lot of technology and development that they would have never had. "We" probably did it in the worst possible ways and the most exploitative ways, but that's par for the course in human history

 

[AlimNassor]

Aren't they on the come up? I remember reading about it. Bill Gates is doing stuff over there as well. This City apparently got to this state in a decade

Looks cool.

That's only for the minority elite upperclass.

 

[Massive Duck. C.M.]

I'm assuming "we" is Europeans

And while he's absolutely ignoring all the horrid things done by European Colonialism in African Nations, he's not technically wrong, just through sheer contact with the outside world, Africa would've gained a lot of technology and development that they would have never had. "We" probably did it in the worst possible ways and the most exploitative ways, but that's par for the course in human history

That really didn't require you or anyone else lending it credibility but thanks anyway

 

[NoblesseOblige]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colonisation_of_Africa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scramble_for_Africa

Basically these wiki pages are all you need to answer this question. Africa has a sad history of being exploited by outside nations time and time again.

 

[Prez]

Historians aren't some homogenous bloc with identically shared opinions. Different historians have different opinions on the strength of Diamond's arguments. I'd say the most common summary is that the book is relatively strong at explaining divergences in very early human history [why agriculture developed in some places before others] and gets much weaker at explaining more recent divergences [why 'Christian' military technology developed more rapidly than 'Islamic' military technology].

If we're talking solely about sub-Saharan Africa, that makes Diamond's work quite useful. It's simply true that below the Sahara, there are very few wild plants which are predisposed towards being domesticated. This made the emergence of large-scale sub-Saharan agricultural societies very difficult; which meant that at the time of European contact with sub-Saharan socieities beginning in the late 1400s, Europeans had certain advantages they could leverage.

I feel like that's an oversimplification and while it certainly played an important role, there are probably many other crucial factors at play. I have too little knowledge of history to discuss this though, I've just never wanted to read the book because it doesn't show the bigger picture.

 

[crimzonflame]

I've been to a very wealthy area of Nigeria to visit a friend and when I stayed there I lived like a king.

 

[zon]

Africa is the biggest continent in the world.

Not even close.

Africa: 30,221,532 km2 / 11,668,599 sq mi
Asia: 44,579,000 km2 / 17,212,000 sq mi

 

[Deleted member 231381]

I feel like that's an oversimplification and while it certainly played an important role, there are probably many other crucial factors at play. I have too little knowledge of history to discuss this though, I've just never wanted to read the book because it doesn't show the bigger picture.

I mean, *no* book shows the complete picture. It's an entire discipline filled with thousands of works by thousands of authors. If you're waiting for the One Book To Rule Them All, you'll be waiting some time. Guns, Germs, and Steel is well worth reading, providing you read the recommended responses to it. The arguments should then stand or fall on their own merits.

 

[GoonerTRON]

A lot comes down to fertile land to grow an economy. All oil will be claimed by foreign business with small percentages going to the country and even less going to the people, agriculture is really the way forward for these nations.

 

[Prez]

I mean, *no* book shows the complete picture. It's an entire discipline filled with thousands of works by thousands of authors. If you're waiting for the One Book To Rule Them All, you'll be waiting some time. Guns, Germs, and Steel is well worth reading, providing you read the recommended responses to it. The arguments should then stand or fall on their own merits.

You're right. I'm no history buff though and would maybe read only one history book every few years, so I'd rather not have my perception of history shaped by this single aspect the book focuses on. If you already have a ton of knowledge of history though, I can see this being an interesting read.

 

[norinrad]

The continent has so much potential and it's really disheartening to see it basically be in limbo of war, poverty, diseases, and resources tampering.

So much rich history, yet it seems like not one of the nations of Africa can come together and form a single country that can stand toe-to-toe with Western Powers in terms of GDP, Standards of Living, upward mobility, etc.

I'm seriously baffled.

There you go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Africanism the key to Africa's survival.

If only they had listen to this guy

https://consciencism.wordpress.com/history/dr-kwame-nkrumah-speaks-in-addis-ababa-in-1963/

This guy was the real deal and Africa's survival died with him thanks to the CIA and western governments. http://www.seeingblack.com/x060702/nkrumah.shtml

You wonder why Africa is a mess when lines have been drawn all over the place that should never have been?

 

[zon]

I'm assuming "we" is Europeans

And while he's absolutely ignoring all the horrid things done by European Colonialism in African Nations, he's not technically wrong, just through sheer contact with the outside world, Africa would've gained a lot of technology and development that they would have never had. "We" probably did it in the worst possible ways and the most exploitative ways, but that's par for the course in human history

Muslims had traveled through Africa for 500 years before any significant amount of Europeans entered Africa. The people of Africa had gotten a lot of contact with the outside world already.

 

[Kinyou]

Has anyone on GAF actually been to Africa? Not asking this with snark, I'm genuinely curious, and I don't mean on a service trip to the poorest areas. Most of the Nigerians and South Africans I know aren't exactly blown away by our "first world" society.

As has been said, it's a pretty big place, and it's almost three or four different topics wren you talk about Northern Africa, South Africa, West Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa in general.

I've been to Namibia and on first glance did the inner city of Windhoek not look very different from your standard western city (because it was a former colony there are actually a lot of German influences). What was striking though was that all the houses had huge fences and gates, many of them topped with barbwire.
It doesn't feel like the city itself is poor, but the wealth disparity is huge.

 

[Africanus]

That's only for the minority elite upperclass.

I am confused by your meaning as Lagos is a city of about 21+ million people.

Has anyone on GAF actually been to Africa? Not asking this with snark, I'm genuinely curious, and I don't mean on a service trip to the poorest areas. Most of the Nigerians and South Africans I know aren't exactly blown away by our "first world" society.

As has been said, it's a pretty big place, and it's almost three or four different topics wren you talk about Northern Africa, South Africa, West Africa, and sub-Saharan Africa in general.

Parents are from Nigeria, and aside from that I've been to Ghana and passed through other countries.

 

[Liljagare]

Too many of our "western" countries still don't really want a true economic power to grow anywhere in Africa, sad but true.

Who knows what agendas are being run even today to add to the misery of the continent?

 

[AyaisMUsikWhore]

Dig up some vibranium.

I think we are done here.

-----

As crazy as this sounds to say, I think Africa needs Google to become a 1st world country. It seems to me that in terms of making Africa more technologically literate, Google has been looking for way to expand the technical landscape out there with new products and new experimental projects to get basic Internet out there.

The problem is there is still a huge rebel army that will pretty much kill all of that efforts because of politics.

 

[Deleted member 231381]

Pan-Africanism is not the solution to Africa's problems. It's a wishy-washy concept embraced only by the elite African socio-economic upper classes that is actively detrimental to the development of individual African countries. You can't just invent a pan-African identity and expect it to stick, when no such identity has *ever* existed. You're talking about a continent where there are at least a thousand languages by even the most conservative accounts making any sort of communication very difficult, a frankly uncountable number of different local religions and tribes which have spent generations in conflicts with or without European intereference, vast geographical divides that segregate particular societies from one another, and so on. This is ignoring the practicalities involved in trying to govern a country of 1.11bn - China barely manages and they're culturally far more homogenous and have a much stronger history, not to mention that the population growth rate in Africa means that it's not even going to be barely comparable to China for much longer.

European countries took hundreds of years to form "national" identities from starting points that were geographically much smaller and culturally much more similar. Even then, the process was incredibly difficult, and often just failed outright - see the collapse of Austria-Hungary. I agree that proper national identities are pretty critical in the economic development of states, but you have to be realistic about the kinds of national identity that are feasible. It's hard enough to get Tutsis, Hutus, and Twas to coalesce into a single 'Rwandan' identity, let alone the rest of Africa.

 

[Necrovex]

I've been to Namibia and on first glance did the inner city of Windhoek not look very different from your standard western city (because it was a former colony there are actually a lot of German influences). What was striking though was that all the houses had huge fences and gates, many of them topped with barbwire.
It doesn't feel like the city itself is poor, but the wealth disparity is huge.

I have lived in South Africa for almost half a year, and I have moved around the country a decent amount during that time. I haven't seen an occupied house that didn't have a gate or something surrounding it, urban or rural.

 

[Ganzlinger]

Mauritius and Seychelles are good countries to live. They have high human development index.

 

[Jarate]

Muslims had traveled through Africa for 500 years before any significant amount of Europeans entered Africa. The people of Africa had gotten a lot of contact with the outside world already.

While this is true, this also doesnt show that they could easily trade resources and ideas between the two nations, and there wasn't a super reliable way to get through southern Africa without going by boat. There had probably been even southern africans who traveled along the Nile who couldve gained access to many european and middle eastern ideas, but the scale of such travels weren't exactly large enough to help them spread among the many peoples on Subsaharan Africa. Also, it was mostly the Muslim religion that was spread rather then any type of technology and culture.

This is also not to imply that Sub Saharan Africa was somehow worse off, in the age of swords and bows, countries weren't exactly that much different culturally and technologically from eachother in terms of "first world countries" and the idea behind it, it wasnt until the Renaissance that Europe became the power it became and really set itself apart from other nations. This coupled with the outside invasions of Muslim and Asian countries by the Mongols really set off the European Colonialism compared to better naval powers from per-renaissance times

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

Kind of an ignorant thread topic bro; South Africa and all that. Just sayin'.

There you go http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan-Africanism the key to Africa's survival.

If only they had listen to this guy

https://consciencism.wordpress.com/history/dr-kwame-nkrumah-speaks-in-addis-ababa-in-1963/

This guy was the real deal and Africa's survival died with him thanks to the CIA and western governments. http://www.seeingblack.com/x060702/nkrumah.shtml

You wonder why Africa is a mess when lines have been drawn all over the place that should never have been?

FFS man this is just a very blatant dire outlook when it's nowhere even like that. Yes the various tribes have issues to work out but let's not act like the entire continent is going to go extinct in the next decade or something else equally as ridiculous.

This is a very Western POV you're looking at it from, but what works for Western societies may not work for other societies. There are pieces of Western economics and policies African nations should adopt more of (although it would help if international corporate conglomerates weren't interfering with said nation's abilities to become self-sustaining in creating their own viable economies, i.e not using silly laws to prevent countries from making use of their own natural resources), but anyone who knows the history of the continent and the different tribes knows that a directly Western approach will not work.

It did not work for Asian nations, or Latin countries (in both instances, there are Western standards and policies integrated into their traditional structures, customs, cultures etc), so it's naive to think that would suddenly work for African nations.

 

[Ke0]

Kind of an ignorant thread topic bro; South Africa and all that. Just sayin'.

Considering what SA went through to get to where they're at...I wouldn't use them as an example.

 

[Sirpopopop]

Botswana is up. It has the crippling AIDS issue, but it seems to be getting a handle on it.

 

[Beelzebufo]

Considering what SA went through to get to where they're at...I wouldn't use them as an example.

Would you not count the United States as an example? What is this lol.

Corruption is rife in Africa (yes, it's all over the world), but the corruption in Africa is a bit different, particularly the use of tax.

Also, South Africa has been in a weird place for a very long time. We all know that during Apartheid rule South Africa was "first world" obviously, the tech at the time, politics and so on. After Apartheid in 1994 a lot of this carried on and improved and holds up to standards of today, but other parts, some areas of poverty and inequality in the country still exist. For example, the Koeberg Nuclear Power Station began in Apartheid. In some places it's what you'll consider first world, in some places, not so much.

If you're privileged and fortunate enough to live in the cities, life is not all that different from other smallish first world cities. A drive around Cape Town A drive around Durban.

Cities like Cape Town have the same traits as you'd expect from many other first world ones, but it's when you start leaving the cities to rural areas, that's where the poverty is really bad, and places like townships. The bad poverty in these areas create bad crime overall.

I've been in South Africa many times, I have friends there, I know what the government is like, there's a lot of corruption and it affects middle class to lower class/poverty stricken areas. When I'm saying corrupt, I'm saying they are stealing tax money straight up, like Jacob Zuma's Nkandla issue and Gupta-gate.

South Africa does have some better laws than other first world countries, for example South Africa was one of the first countries to grant 100% full rights to LGBT. Everything the LGBT community would want is 100% legal in South Africa, as well as laws regarding women rights.

It just depends on some areas of the country, like poverty areas/townships where sangomas tell young men who have AIDS that raping virgins or babies can cure them, it became a wide spread issue. Also a big issue recently is the xenophobic attacks in townships, all due to poverty. However now and then there is taxi violence which has been an issue

Right now there are major power shortage issues, the grid can just barely reach demand (and the country already supplies the most power in the Southern Hemisphere). The reason why there's a shortage is because over the last 20 years corruption has caused the failure of new power plants of being created (there's a lot to read up about it, starting from Medupi). So now in 2015 the country sits with 2 hour rolling black outs almost daily. Only reason is because there is growth of the country but not enough power and the corruption regarding tenders and contracting etc with tax money has caused these new plants not be created or extremely delayed. This is the sort of shit that holds back third world/developing countries. So the government doesn't take responsibility but had blamed Apartheid government for this recently, yet it was the ANC's responsibility for the last 20 years already (more than enough time, plus money, plus resources) to secure a grid that can supply the growth. A lot of lack of accountability exists within South Africa's government because Apartheid is a very easy scape goat in its politics. Yes Apartheid has resulted in some issues that still exist today, but it has nothing to do with the issues of corruption under the ANC government for the last 20 years.

South Africa is a huge mixed bag of first and third world. I can tell you as someone who has been there a lot, corruption is the #1 issue with pretty much everything at least here. Also wage/trade union issues.

As someone that has years of experience in South Africa there's way, way, way too much to say about all the good and all the bad and why it at least has issues. I haven't been to other African countries other than Namibia, so I can't speak for a whole continent. Just of South Africa. I have seen the rich, the middle class and the poor/poverty parts of the country. It's a scary difference of going from what you'd see in a city which is good to what you'd see in a township and the difference of society. It's very jarring. You have to ask yourself if you're even in the same country. Huge gap of inequality in regards to that.

I'm in South Africa right now (I have dual citizenship, I'm German) and typing from here!

This is all incredibly interesting. Does the future look bright in terms of equalizing the wealth gap and slowly eliminating corruption?

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

Considering what SA went through to get to where they're at...I wouldn't use them as an example.

We're talking purely economic though, which was the OP's intention. And it's not like the U.S's history is easy-going either. We practically genocided Native-Americans and put black people through 200 years of cruel, dehumanizing slavery. A wrong is a wrong and both countries have their fair share of them, but that doesn't mean they aren't economically viable.

In South Africa's case, it doesn't mean they aren't something of a first-world nation. And it's not like first-world nations have to be equal in terms of GDP or the such either.

 

[genjiZERO]

"3rd world" is merely a label placed on it by the "1st world".

What you really want to ask is how do we stop people taking advantage of them.

We could replace the words with developing and developed nations, but there would still be strong qualitative differences between these countries.

 

[kswiston]

Kind of an ignorant thread topic bro; South Africa and all that. Just sayin'.

South Africa's GDP per capita is still under $6000 country wide. There are obviously some really wealthy portions of South Africa, but income inequality is extremely high, and like a quarter of the country is living on incomes of $1-2 a day. That disqualifies it from being a developed/first world country.

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

South Africa's GDP per capita is still under $6000 country wide. There are obviously some really wealthy portions of South Africa, but income equality is extremely high, and like a quarter of the country is living on incomes of $1-2 a day. That disqualifies it from being a developed/first world country.

Again though, that isn't too different from what's going on in America right now. No, families aren't living on 1-2 dollars a day, but relative to the distribution of wealth in this country, and the cost of goods having risen, it might as well feel like it to a large chunk of the lower class, which now includes people who used to be firmly in the middle-class.

Income distribution is always going to be a thing, the question is if the cost of common goods affordable enough for those on the lower end of the scale to still make it through life somewhat decently. There are many social and gov't programs in America that assist with the lower-class to help make their lives a bit more manageable and less stressful; not sure if South Africa has those same type of programs (or equivalents).

Even so, I find the idea of dismissing SA as a first-world country simply because their first-world isn't as lavish as America's or Britain's, or because of their income disparity seeming vast at first when after you correlate and adjust it to what's going on in America right now, isn't actually all that different, as quite silly.

 

[trixx]

It's going to take a very, very long time for the reasons many of people in this thread state.

Honestly, I think this is never going to happen when you have governments that are so corrupt and willingly allow exploitation to occur there's little hope.
Plus in the global capitalist economy, there needs to be this imbalance. There can't be equality.

I mean even if a country like Nigeria becomes a first world nation, what does that mean for the continent as a whole?

The oldest free African nation is younger than a bunch of people who are still alive right now.

Pretty much. Crazy that my dad was born in the "Gold Coast".

 

[IceCold]

The civil wars and Cold War proxy wars didn't help. you guys should see videos of how cities like Maputo or Luanda looked like in the 60s. Granted, all of that infrastructure was for the Portuguese, but it's sad to see how it has regressed due to recent wars.

 

[Beelzebufo]

Again though, that isn't too different from what's going on in America right now. No, families aren't living on 1-2 dollars a day, but relative to the distribution of wealth in this country, and the cost of goods having risen, it might as well feel like it to a large chunk of the lower class, which now includes people who used to be firmly in the middle-class.

Income distribution is always going to be a thing, the question is if the cost of common goods affordable enough for those on the lower end of the scale to still make it through life somewhat decently. There are many social and gov't programs in America that assist with the lower-class to help make their lives a bit more manageable and less stressful; not sure if South Africa has those same type of programs (or equivalents).

Even so, I find the idea of dismissing SA as a first-world country simply because their first-world isn't as lavish as America's or Britain's, or because of their income disparity seeming vast at first when after you correlate and adjust it to what's going on in America right now, isn't actually all that different, as quite silly.

Ehh, read the post I quoted above. It's definitely worse than what's going on in America.

 

[Ovid]

Namibia was a pretty chill place when I visited it a few years ago. Certainly didn't give me 3rd world ghetto vibes.
Can recommend a visit there to anyone, awesome country to drive around in a rental.

I could actually see myself live in a place like Swakopmund, their main seaside city which had a ton of cool attractions.

HIV/AIDS is a problem there too.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[jhmtehgamr20xx]

Ehh, read the post I quoted above. It's definitely worse than what's going on in America.

I did read that post, and I stand by what I said. It may not seem that bad in America depending on where you fall in the socio-economic structure, but it's pretty bad out there. Most people still haven't recovered from the financial crisis to where they were before it happened, and that's just a milder example.

The reason why things don't seem as bad is because luxury items that fall into classification with life necessities, are very damn affordable even for poor people if they know where to look. That's one of the upsides of hyper-capitalism. OTOH, when you compare the average net worth and monetary value of someone in the lower class or lower middle-class, to the most affluent in the country, and the divide is massive in terms of money, clout, etc. American society is also just culturally different to where we look at the problem at large in a different way, but income disparity is a real thing here and it's bigger an issue than most realize.

I mean, we still don't give women equal pay for equal work for goodness sake!

EDIT: And reading that post again, there isn't anything there unique to SA. Power grid failures? Tainted tap water in West Virginia making people sick and preventing them from drinking it for almost two months. Corruption of local gov't leading to power grid failures? Corruption of federal gov't and local water supply companies leading to tainted tap water in WV.

Disparity in affluent and poor areas being night-and-day? Just look at Chicago or Baltimore. Same thing.

 

[wildfire]

Africa is a big continent that gets very little press. Gabon is doing ok compared to other first world nations that are only first world because they are a part of Europe.

Other than that Libya and Nigeria might blow up in prominence by 2020.

 

[mantidor]

I thought colonialism was much more damaging than the slave trade. Didn't colonialism go well into the XX century?

 

[archangelmorph]

It's going to take a very, very long time for the reasons many of people in this thread state.

Honestly, I think this is never going to happen when you have governments that are so corrupt and willingly allow exploitation to occur there's little hope.
Plus in the global capitalist economy, there needs to be this imbalance. There can't be equality.

I mean even if a country like Nigeria becomes a first world nation, what does that mean for the continent as a whole?

Western influence over the continent is waning...

Nigeria is the largest economy on the continent and it's growing middle and upper-middle class (thanks to a legacy of rich corrupt political elite, sending several generations of their offspring overseas to be educated and settle in a rich and diverse diaspora, that's over the past 10-15 years begun to move back home, importing western ideals, morals, ethics and business acumen), the private sector has been emerging rapidly, creating a hot bed of capitalist activity and economic growth that is heavily detached from the petro-chemical-dependant, thieves in public sector.

As a nation they have plenty of hurdles to overcome (regressive cultural traditions and beliefs, endemic corruption, poor social welfare, etc..) but they're at least on a reasonably decent track to getting over them a single, slow hop at a time.

It will likely take quite some time and it's highly possible that Ghana, with it's similarly rich plethora of natural resources, strong international trade links and somewhat less corruption (it's still a problem but not as bad as in Naij), might overtake them. But overall I think the trajectory for social and economic progression in some of Africa's leading nations is strong. They just need to stay on track and steer clear of the major risk factors, i.e.:

- Political destabilisation from influence from western or other foreign powers
- Stunted economic growth due to poor political decision-making (historically due to political incompetence or illiteracy from western-stooge-governments)
- Increasing instability due to militia groups such as Boko Haram in the North of Nigeria for example

IF any of these nations can get there then it will be a pretty significant achievement given the long history of the continent of rape and exploitation by foreign powers/parties/influences...

(NOTE: I'm a british-born Nigerian, born and raised in the UK but I'm pretty well acquainted with the place, having been back many times over the years and even considered a move once - maybe again in the future depending on how things turn out).

 

[Angry Grimace]

This isn't a problem with Africa alone, its the entire Southern Hemisphere. Well okay, I guess Australia, but everything there kills you.

 

[Kinitari]

There are about half a dozen countries in Africa that are in the middle of an explosive growth. My own country of origin, Ethiopia, is transforming at a crazy high speed, and has a lot going for it.

I imagine that people are a bit too pessimistic on Africa.

 

[archangelmorph]

This isn't a problem with Africa alone, its the entire Southern Hemisphere. Well okay, I guess Australia, but everything there kills you.

Err... South-East Asia?!

 

[Bleepey]

Western influence over the continent is waning...

Nigeria is the largest economy on the continent and it's growing middle and upper-middle class (thanks to a legacy of rich corrupt political elite, sending several generations of their offspring overseas to be educated and settle in a rich and diverse diaspora, that's over the past 10-15 years begun to move back home, importing western ideals, morals, ethics and business acumen), the private sector has been emerging rapidly, creating a hot bed of capitalist activity and economic growth that is heavily detached from the petro-chemical-dependant, thieves in public sector.

As a nation they have plenty of hurdles to overcome (regressive cultural traditions and beliefs, endemic corruption, poor social welfare, etc..) but they're at least on a reasonably decent track to getting over them a single, slow hop at a time.

It will likely take quite some time and it's highly possible that Ghana, with it's similarly rich plethora of natural resources, strong international trade links and somewhat less corruption (it's still a problem but not as bad as in Naij), might overtake them. But overall I think the trajectory for social and economic progression in some of Africa's leading nations is strong. They just need to stay on track and steer clear of the major risk factors, i.e.:

- Political destabilisation from influence from western or other foreign powers
- Stunted economic growth due to poor political decision-making (historically due to political incompetence or illiteracy from western-stooge-governments)
- Increasing instability due to militia groups such as Boko Haram in the North of Nigeria for example

IF any of these nations can get there then it will be a pretty significant achievement given the long history of the continent of rape and exploitation by foreign powers/parties/influences...

(NOTE: I'm a british-born Nigerian, born and raised in the UK but I'm pretty well acquainted with the place, having been back many times over the years and even considered a move once - maybe again in the future depending on how things turn out).

Did your parents tell you to to do Youth Service?

 

[Onyar]

I would bet for SA, Nigeria, Tunisia and Ethiopia.

 

[archangelmorph]

Did your parents tell you to to do Youth Service?

Nah, and I wouldn't need to because I'd be entering the country as a British national..

I decided against the move because, being a software engineer, the IT industry, whilst growing, is still pretty immature, partly for obvious reasons (i.e. power generation is sorely insufficient - too many politicians siphoning off cash budgeted to build plants...)

 

[Mgoblue201]

I haven't read it yet, but it's clearly about the exact thing you're talking about. It's a continuation of centuries of earlier exploitation of the continent and its people.

By focusing too much on commodities, I think that misses a good deal about what's driving Africa's future prospects. Yes, resources still dominate Africa's economies, manufacturing is paltry, and without improved governance, continued reform, and greater diversification, Africa risks stagnation and perhaps regression. But commodities cannot account for all or even most of Africa's recent growth. According to a World Bank report:

The recent economic performance in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has been remarkable. Real GDP in the region grew 4.5 percent per year during 1995–2013, and the benefits from this surge were broad based, since they were reaped not only by resource-rich countries but also by non-resource-rich low-income countries.

If you look at growth in foreign direct investment, for instance, you'll see that investment flowing into resource poor economies has outpaced investment in resource rich economies (though the share of the latter is still greater in absolute terms). The Economist published a good article about Africa's rebalancing earlier this year. Far from being heavily exposed to the vagaries of the commodities mark, Africa's growth could remain robust in the face of falling commodity prices.

In some economies large drops in commodity prices have led to currency falls. At least ten African currencies dropped by more than 10% in 2014. But there have been few catastrophic depreciations. This suggests that investors do not see lower commodity prices as a kiss of death.

One reason currencies have been robust may be because economic growth is starting to come from other places. Manufacturing output in the continent is expanding as quickly as the rest of the economy. Growth is even faster in services, which expanded at an average rate of 2.6% per person across Africa between 1996 and 2011. Tourism, in particular, has boomed: the number of foreign visitors doubled and receipts tripled between 2000 and 2012. Many countries, including Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Nigeria, have recently revised their estimates of GDP to account for their growing non-resource sectors.

Despite falling commodity prices, the outlook also seems favourable. Wonks at the World Bank reckon that Sub-Saharan Africa’s economy will expand by about 5% this year. Telecommunications, transportation and finance are all expected to spur economic growth.

What explains Africa’s increasing economic diversification? A big pickup in investment helps. That has arisen partly because governments have worked hard to make life better for investors. The World Bank’s annual “Doing Business” report revealed that in 2013/14 sub-Saharan Africa did more to improve regulation than any other region. Mauritius is 28th on the bank’s list of the easiest places to do business. Rwanda, which 20 years ago suffered a terrible genocide, is now deemed friendlier to investors than Italy.

 

[Sch1sm]

It's some time coming, but there's a fair few countries with good projections of economic growth, as Kinitari threw out there.

Spoiler

One is my own, Kenya. Time for a vacation maybe.

Invest more in infrastructure (which east and more recently central African countries are getting in on) and there's hope yet.

 

[Valhelm]

You're baffled? For real? Hundreds of years of slave trade, war, and European Imperialism...and you're baffled?

I would argue that the end of the slave trade probably hurt African polities more than it helped. It deprived them of a major source of income, and no longer gave European states any reason to allow them to remain independent.

 

[Jeevesmeister]

Also they do things like this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confessions_of_an_Economic_Hit_Man

So I was reading this book and enjoying it and from my experience working in infrastructure development overseas read a couple things that furrowed my brow, and checking criticism of that book shows really, really fast that the author is completely batshit and not worth using as any sort of legitimate source.

As crazy as this sounds to say, I think Africa needs Google to become a 1st world country. It seems to me that in terms of making Africa more technologically literate, Google has been looking for way to expand the technical landscape out there with new products and new experimental projects to get basic Internet out there.

If there is any ideal scarier to the development of African power, it is the Silicon Valley worship of billion dollar tech conglomerates that don't actually care about the development and welfare of people's lives in their home countries. We're talking countries that still don't have stable electrical grids and proper waste disposal among many other things and we're assuming something like Facebook Internet or launching an army of internet drones is somehow going to fix these problems. There's a really good piece on the comedy of that ideal here.

The reality is that Africa is just another market to shove ads in front of to push products by other million and billion dollar corporations that hasn't been tapped yet, and places like Google and Facebook are made up of mostly upper-middle class white people who don't know shit about the needs of those parts of the world.

I thought colonialism was much more damaging than the slave trade. Didn't colonialism go well into the XX century?

Now it's just corporations instead of governments. That wanna fill the sky with drones.

 

[YoungHav]

Atlanta.

lmao! wow.

You really think Africa would be better of/computing with western countries if we had never been there?

A biker gang raped my wife, killed my children, all while forcing me to watch but left me a mansion for my troubles! Am I better off Randam?

 

[Mesousa]

Where are all these first world for Ethiopia comments coming from? Have any of you guys been there in the past 5 years? NOBODY has a fucking job.

It's a wonderful nation, but jesus christ compared to Nigeria or Botswana it really is no competition.

Angola is also doing well I hear. Angola is hiring engineers out of the ass from my school(Georgia Tech). I'd sign up, but I have never really felt a connection to Angola the way I have with places like Mauritania or Niger.

 

[Valhelm]

I'm assuming "we" is Europeans

And while he's absolutely ignoring all the horrid things done by European Colonialism in African Nations, he's not technically wrong, just through sheer contact with the outside world, Africa would've gained a lot of technology and development that they would have never had. "We" probably did it in the worst possible ways and the most exploitative ways, but that's par for the course in human history

That's false, though.

If Africa was never politically subjugated by Europe it would surely be a lot better off. African states would have been able to Westernize on their own terms, not unlike Thailand or Japan, and develop governments without deference to Europe. Given the disparity of infrastructure, it would have been much more difficult for the Congo to meet Western standards than it would be for Japan, but having control of their own people and resources would probably make it possible.

A good parallel would be Saudi Arabia, I guess. Though it was influenced heavily by Turkey and later Britain, it developed a resource-exporting economy on its own, was allowed to maintain its cultural identity, and formed a nation based on its own customs. Of course, their theocratic nature is hardly ideal, but their independence allowed the people of Hejaz and Najd to become some of the most prosperous in the world.

 

[EMT0]

The oldest free African nation is younger than a bunch of people who are still alive right now.

Liberia dates back to 1847 and Ethiopia's government continued to exist past the Italian conquest of Ethiopia in exile. In which case modern Abyssinia/Ethiopia can be dated back to 1137.

As to which country can become 1st world in the shortest amount of time? What some poster on the first page said, one of the small tourist destination island states.