Why Is Africa Still Poor?

MaxShimba

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It’s hard to imagine now, but in the heady days of the 1960s, much of the continent was no less prosperous than South Korea or Malaysia. While those Asian nations have transformed themselves into economic "tigers," however, gross domestic products across Africa shrank during the last two decades of the twentieth century. Africans are getting poorer, not richer. They are living shorter, hungrier lives.

How can one continent be so out of step with humankind’s march of progress? Everyone agrees that Africans are desperately poor and typically endure governments that are, to varying degrees, corrupt and capricious. The dispute is about causes and consequences. One group–call it the poverty-first camp–believes African governments are so lousy precisely because their countries are so poor. The other group–the governance-first camp–holds that Africans are impoverished because their rulers keep them that way. The argument may seem pedantic, but there are billions of dollars at stake, and millions of lives. The fundamental question is whether those who are well-off can salve a continent’s suffering, or if, for all our good intentions, Africans are really on their own
 
This is a very complex and misunderstood topic. Before answering, it is important to note that "Africa" is not a political or economic entity, and therefore addressing this issue must be done on a nation-by-nation basis. In fact, some African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, and to some extent Morocco and Egypt have relatively high standards of living.
 
What is "poor"?

Between the tax dodging, lawsuit hardened, SEC evading, millionaire Wall Street stockbroker who can't sleep because he is constantly watching the bond market, the up and down swings of the Dow Jones and S&P 500 and constantly tending to his ulcers with a cocktail of medication and the babu living of the land - perhaps not comfortably, but nevertheless content- in rural Tanzania, who is "poor" ?

Do Africans have the same priorities as the rest of the world flashed in comparison?

That is, do Africans really want not to be this "poor"? Or are they mostly content/ ignorant/ apathetic/ otherwordly unconcerned on this matter?

Is it right or fair to treat Africa, Africans or even individual countries within Africa in such an oversimplified monolithic way?

Is the GDP yardstick foolproof? Or even credible? Especially for a continent whose huge chunk of economic activity takes place in the informal economy?

Wale dagaa wanaouziana watu wa Kigoma/ Burundi/ Kivu wanaingia kwenye GDP?

Dhahabu ya Tanzania inayouzwa na Malawi kimtindo je? Inaingiaje kwenye GDP? GDP ya wapi?
 
We would understand better as we follow through time machine.
 
Most of the issues faced by this continent are identical. Corrupt mindset. As soon as we are able to deal with this aspect then we will be better off.
 

May be RSA. Majority of people in rest of African countries are languishing in poverty.
Back to the question why Africa is poor. We are poor because we want and enjoy to be poor. Many of you may think I'm nuts, but that's the bitter truth to fathom
 

I think If you look at map vizuri, kila kitu kipo wazi, na ndio maana umewekewa perfomance ya kila nchi, kuna nchi kama Namibia na Botswana ambao wako mbali sana ukilinganisha na Sisi (Tz), au Kenya, lakini ukichukua kwa wastani Afrika ndio bara maskini kuliko yote Duniani kwa kutumia vigezo vyote vilivyowekwa na binadamu (UN) vya kupima maendeleo, sasa kama mtu hakubaliani na hivyo vigezo hilo ni swali lingine, lkn ndio vinatumika kila mahali!

 
SHERRIF ARPAIO said:
May be RSA. Majority of people in rest of African countries are languishing in poverty.
Back to the question why Africa is poor. We are poor because we want and enjoy to be poor. Many of you may think I'm nuts, but that's the bitter truth to fathom
Click to expand...

Colonialism forced African peoples into regimented and incredibly foreign manners of government. Warring tribes were often "placed" in the same nation while other tribes were split by these artificial boundaries. Also, colonizers placed certain tribes in positions of power which has caused uprisings in areas such as Rwanda.
 

Colonialism was not invented in Africa! Na wala sio Afrika pekee yake iliyotawaliwa, nchi zote Duniani kwa namna moja au nyingine zimeshawahi kutawaliwa, na lengo la Ukoloni halitofautiani sana, kwa hiyo jibu lako mimi kwangu ni kuendeleza yale yale tunayoyajua na kuyasikia kila siku kulaumu watu wengine, kwamba ndio sababu ya sisi kuwa maskini!
 
ukifikiri sana AFRICA utakufa kwa pressure.vichwa vyetu vimejaa funza.utawazi zaidi ya pale tunapoona!
 

Na ndio shida iko hapio sasa, Ni kwa nini hao wanaouziana dagaa wa Kigoma hatuwaingizi kwenye mfumo, ili wote tufaidike? Nikimaanisha wao walipe kodi, Serikali ipate mapato, na iwarudishie huduma? Tatizo liko wapi? Afrika sio Kisiwa, hatuwezi kuishi kwa kanuni zetu pekee yetu, ni LAZIMA tufwate mfumo wa Dunia unavyokwenda, hatuna jinsi, kuna jamii nyingi pia walikuwa wanishi kama sisi na walikuwa na hiyo sekta isiyo rasmi kubwa tu, wakajifunza kutoka kwa wengine na wakafanikiwa kuboresha maisha yao!

 

Kwamba Afrika si kisiwa na inabidi twende na dunia ni suala jingine kabisa ambalo linahitaji mjadala mahsusi kama huu, bila shaka hata hapa tunaweza kuuchomeka kama sehemu ya mjadala huu.

Na kuna watu wataweza hata kukuambia kwamba mojawapo ya matatizo ya Africa ni kwamba imekuwa kisiwa kwa miaka mingi, kuanzia kijiografia . Na pale ambapo haijawa kisiwa, this has been to Africa's disadvantage (slavery, colonialism, neo-colonialism, unfair trade and unregulated globalization) .

Jared Diamond katika "Guns, Germs and Steel" kagusia jiografia, which is relevant to the island concept. Africa doesn't have the advantage of Eurasia, two continents bordering on a massive but penetrable land barrier in the Urals and even more penetrable further south by the various straits and passageways from the Caspian to the Dardanelles. That Africa, specifically Sub Saharan Africa, is literally a geographical island (if you count the Sahara as a sea of sand) cut off from the rest of the world until very recently, and that even with the advent of air travel and mass migration, we are yet to fully integrate in the world economy.

Nyerere mentioned this as a challenge to Sub Saharan Africa in one of his South to South commission speeches. Akasema wa Mexico wakiona mambo magumu watakimbilia Marekani, North Africans (ambao wengi hata hawajihesabu kama wa Africa, ila kama a "Middle-Easterners" wanaweza hata kuogelea mkondo wa Gibraltar kwenda Ulaya. Waafrika wa Malampaka je? Hata waogelee vipi hawavuki Kampala na Kisumu! Kwa hiyo inabidi wawe inventive na kujua kujitegemea.

Some would even go further and argue that Africa is more like visiwa ambavyo hata havifanyi biashara na kuwasiliana vya kutosha ndani yake. Unaweza kusafirisha kontena kutoka Dubai mpaka Mombasa kwa USD 1500 ukaambiwa kulisafirisha kutoka Mombasa mpaka Kampala ni USD 4500. Intertrade (formal albeit, we circle back) in Africa is below 15%, mostly around 10%. By comparison, in North America and Western Europe this is around 40-60%. Go figure.

Nilipotoa mfano wa dagaa Kigoma sio kama nasema tubaki hivyo na biashara informal. Nilikuwa naonyesha tu kwamba hizi habari za kutumia formal economy kupima zinaweza kuwa nzuri kwenye nchi zenye systems, lakini huku kwetu zikatuonyesha kwamba sisi ni masikini kuliko tulivyo.

Ukimwambia Mmarekani kwamba Afrika watu wanaishi kwa bajeti ya chini ya USD 2 kwa siku ataona hao ni masikini kuliko walivyo, simply because bajeti yake ya kula tu inaweza kuchukua USD 15 kwa siku. Kwa hiyo hafikirii Purchasing Power Parity, anafikiria dollar figure tu.

Tuko masikini, labda tunahitaji kujiuliza zaidi. Lakini mimi nafikiri maswala ya kiuchumi yatatatuliwa tu tukitatua masuala ya elimu kwanza.

Ili kusudi ukianza kumueleza mvuvi wa dagaa habari za umuhimu wa kulipa kodi akuelewe, na aweze kuifuatilia kodi yake imletee maendeleo.

Otherwise utamuingiza katika formal economy, utamtoza kodi na VAT. Kodi italiwa badala ya kuboresha huduma, na yeye kwa sababu analipa kodi za ajabu atashindwa kujikimu na biashara itakufilia mbali.

Formalization bila elimu inaweza kuua uchumi.

Ukitaka kujua chanzo cha umasikini Afrika angalia elimu.
 
Ni ugonjwa wa ubinafsi tu ukipona basi utajiri utauona kwasababu kiuhalisia Africa ni tajiri kuliko hata bara la ulaya isipokuwa roho zetu za kimasikini na choyo ndio ukasababisha kaugonjwa ka "corruption"
 
What happened to Liberia nad Ethiopia? Both countries had never been colonized.
 
Africa is not poor. But only made to be poor through various historical processes known generally as Colonialism, a process which greatly benefits Europe and the US (and has also made many other places artificially poor). No, Africans are not poor, but are locked into a cycle of poverty by the global economic order which demands cheap materials and depends on the fruits of exploitation for sustenance.
 

Well I will say I disagree wholeheartedly. The real reason for Africa's inability to prosper can be summed up in three words: Greed, laziness and stupidity... Of its leaders. Even if we went with your argument that the West has somehow caused all this incompetency, corruption, instability and general stunted development to serve their own needs, the question remains: How stupid and weak do you have to be to let it continue for this long? It is remarkable how many countries are thriving, after colonialisation, except African countries who prefer to bang the blame and victimisation drum. If you ask me, Africa suffers from a collective case of acute low self esteem.
 
They give a man 1 fish to feed a family of 10, after having taken 1,000 fishes from him, while continuing to take massive quantities of fish from him every day, with no plans to stop taking fish from him, ever.

The giving of 1 fish makes the givers feel good, and makes them forget about having taken 1000 fish before, and makes it possible for the taking of fish to continue.*

The sentiment, the sympathy, the emotionalism, the tears, the "caring", the charity, the aid -- it is all an integral part of the machine which keeps plundering, raping and murdering Africa (and S. America and S.E. Asia).

The "apolitical" rhetoric of humanitarianism often cloaks, justifies, and ultimately equals military interventionism (intervention which serves economic and political self interest, beneath the talk of aid). Just like the allegedly "neutral" language of "free market", business, and development always conceals hegemonic ideology.

*fish stops being a metaphor and becomes literal when it comes to the Somalian Pirates.

and within the problematic world of Charity and Aid, Invisible Children is especially worrying:
 
No, Europe is neither the only source of modernity nor of evil, it does not deserve nearly as much agency or credit as is normally attributed.
During the modernizing process every form of violence, exploitation, and oppressive measure of colonialism was applied on its own shores, in the miserable and dehumanizing factories of Britain, and of course in Ireland, its European colony.
 

This amounts to nothing but simple plagiarism of other people's intellectual ideas. Shame on you!

Why Africa is poor: the new denial that ignores history - Opinion - This Is Africa
 
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