Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
The short and simple answer: The one common denominator they all have is that they were once colonies. How succesful they are now strongly correlates with how well they were left as colonies. Contrary to popular belief, it's not just a continuous mass of failure throughout the continent. Gabon, for instance does reasonable well for a developing country because of a low population and rich resources. Botswana does well because they were left with a stable government and institutions. Now I believe they have the highest GDP on the continent on par with the rest of the developing world. On the other hand you have your cases like the former French and former Portuguese colonies who had to figh wars for their independence which eventually led to civil wars that prevented proper growth. You have cases like the Congo which existed only as a resource mine for Belgium and was left with no political or physical infrastructure. That's not how the British left India or South Africa and its a large reason it is taking them so long to show meaningful growth: many are essentially starting from scratch. Then there's South Africa and Zimbabwe who shot themselves in the foot by forcibly cloistering the majority of their population into small areas and restricting access to jobs and education, and people wonder why those countries are so dysfunctional today.
I tend to ignore threads that ask questions of why "Africa sucks" as though there aren't as many reasons as there are countries. It is my belief that a facile premise almost never leads to anything but facile discussion. But I've gone against my better judgment here I guess.
That's exactly why Africa is what it is now and Europe and Asia are what they are two different mindsets. One is of complacency the other is continuously striving for more.
That's another topic altogether.
First of all, complacent how? Sub Saharan Africans get up in the morning and do what they can to feed and clothe themselves just like everyone else. There is nothing complacent about that. If you want to get into culture, then that's YOUR take on it. Apparently, you admire the European value system and wish to impose that on Africa. I think it's stupid, personally, but i won't say that it's completely implausible and misguided, just silly.
Look, people are what they are. You want to change tens of thousands of years of programming and replace it within a century with a new program from somewhere else? As we say in the D..."where dey do dat at?" LMAO....that's asking a lot. Besides, the Europeans had their chance to build lasting institutions there that could've sustained themselves intact up until this day had they not tried to hog everything for themselves by pitting people against each other to stay in power! But what they managed to build, they built for themselves, which fomented nothing but discontent. That's the European legacy on the continent for better or worse. It's a shame really, because it could've been the total opposite result.
As for your idea that the other is "striving for more"....well, more of WHAT exactly? I lived in Europe for 13 years, and i haven't a clue as to what you're talking about. It's a small continent, aint much room for more of anything. Talk about complacency. I don't know of another continent where the people are more fat and happy than Europe is at this point. What they want more of is vacation days, sick leave, and even shorter working hours. Sounds like complacency to me, but whatever floats their boat is fine with me. I'd rather live there than here anyway if i had my way.
Because too many Black countries have rejected capitalism in favor of state socialism and one party dictatorship.
In Africa this came from post-colonial African leaders who tried to use a Soviet model to develop their countries because they were trying to reject the capitalism of their western colonizers. This was a mistake on their part because they failed to see that capitalism was just a more effective and effeciant way of organizing economic activity that didn't have to be tied to colonialism. Even Adam Smith was against colonialism. The Soviet economic and political model they wanted to emulate ended up producing bad economic and political outcomes.
Africa and Black countries in general need to learn how to use market reforms to build wealth along with embracing multi-party democracies.
I'll take it a step further.....most majority-black cities right here in the USA are poorly run and corrupt as well. Political correctness keeps us from talking about these things, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize it.
I'll take it a step further.....most majority-black cities right here in the USA are poorly run and corrupt as well. Political correctness keeps us from talking about these things, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize it.
Don't reverse cause and effect. Failing cities quickly lose the people with the money to leave (whites, generally speaking). An already failing city becomes a "black city" purely by default. And most retain a wealthy white suburban ring that owes its existence to the "poorly run, corrupt" city in the middle.
Of course it is important it takes intelligence to come up with written languages, it takes intelligence to run empires and conquer the environment around you.
The Mali Empire or Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufa was a West African empire of the Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. It extended over a large area and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces.
The Ashanti (or Asante) Empire (or Confederacy), also Asanteman (1701–1896) was a West Africa state of the Ashanti people, the Akan people of the Ashanti Region, now in Ghana. The Ashanti or Asante are a major ethnic group in Ghana, a powerful, militaristic and highly disciplined people of West Africa. Their military power, which came from effective strategy and an early adoption of European rifles, created an empire that stretched from central Ghana to present day Togo and Côte d'Ivoire, bordered by the Dagomba kingdom to the north and Dahomey to the east. Due to the empire's military prowess, sophisticated hierarchy, social stratification and culture the Ashanti empire had one of the largest historiographies of any indigenous sub-Saharan African political entity. Today the Ashanti monarchy continues as a constitutionally protected, sub-national traditional state in the Republic of Ghana.
Quote:
The Ashanti government was built upon a sophisticated bureaucracy in Kumasi, with separate Ministries to handle the state's affairs. Of particular note was Ashanti's Foreign Office based in Kumasi; despite its small size, allowed the state to pursue complex arrangements with foreign powers, and the Office itself contained separate departments for handling relations with the British, French, Dutch, and Arabs individually. Scholars of Ashanti history, such as Larry Yarak and Ivor Wilkes, disagree over the actual power of this sophisticated bureaucracy in comparison to the Asantahene, but agree that its very existence pointed to a highly developed government with a complex system of checks and balances.
Quote:
Wars of the Asante
From 1806 until 1896, the Asante Union was in a perpetual state of war involving expansion or defense of its domain. The Asante's exploits against other African forces made it the paramount power in the region. Its impressive performance against the British also earned it the respect of European powers. Far less known than its Zulu contemporaries, Asanteman was one of the few African states to decisively defeat the British Empire in not only a battle but a war.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
