Why is Arican continent behind others in terms of Scientific and technological developement?

Question

Yes!why is the continent of Africa so behind in terms of scientific and technological developement?Does it mean that the people of other continents like Europe, America and Asia are by nature more intelligent?Why is Africa just following behind?What is wrong?

Answer 1

1) The Legacy of Colonialism

The colonial period in Africa was relatively brief, but it is difficult to overstate its impact. The colonial powers haphazardly divided Africa as it suited their interests, in many cases joining previously distinct ethnic groups in a single state while bisecting others with artifical boundaries. Creating states without regard to nations (i.e., the people who constitute a state) has contributed to ethnic violence and the low levels of legitimacy held by many governments in Africa today.

2) Lots of Land, Few People

Many African states contain vast, sparsely populated regions where it is difficult to collect taxes and prohibitively expensive to build infrastructure. The geography of these regions provides an ideal location from which the rebel groups that routinely menace African states can launch attacks and hide from government forces. This has led to a situation where the majority of African governments are in control only of the center of the country while a low-grade civil war rages in the periphery.
3) Infectious Diseases

HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Tuberculosis have wreaked havoc on African societies. Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds and Tuberculosis infection rates have tripled in the last decade. However, it is AIDS that extracts the greatest toll. In some countries, as many as one in four adults are HIV positive. AIDS strikes adults who are in the prime of their lives, those who are parents and workers, leaving grandparents to care for the orphaned young.
More: HIV/AIDS

4) Civil War

Since decolonization began in earnest in the 1960s, millions upon millions of lives in Africa have been lost to civil war, the disastrous consequence of weak, poorly institutionalized and illegitimate states suspended over desperately poor societies.
More: An Overview of Africa's Major Contemporary Civil Conflicts
5) Scarcity of Human Capital

Human capital - the supply of labor and its productivity - has been decimated by decades of war and disease, and by the pervasive lack of access to education. Literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa range from 19-85% with huge disparities between countries and regions. Moreover, the most highly skilled professionals - doctors, engineers, and scientists - leave Africa for more developed countries at a rate of 20,000 per year.
More: Literacy Rate by Country

6) Corruption

Corruption, by one estimate, costs African countries nearly $150 billion each year and raises the cost of products by 20%. Government corruption, from the well-connected official who funnels millions in foreign aid or oil revenues into a foreign bank account to the civil servant who has not been paid in months and demands a bribe, reduces confidence and deprives governments of much needed revenue to fix roads, build schools, and provide basic services to its people.
More: An overview of corruption issues in Africa.

7) Natural Resources

The abundance of natural resources in poor countries can lead to rampant corruption, low levels of industrialization, decreased incentives to diversify the economy or invest in education, and civil war. The economies of resource-rich countries grow more slowly than those of wealthy countries, and the struggle between rival, often ethnically-based, political groups for control of oil and diamond resources has fueled armed conflicts across the continent.
More: Why are so many countries with abundant natural resources so poor?

8) Personal Rule

Post-colonial Africa has been plagued by governments founded not on strong institutions, but on the personal charisma of a single leader. Whether led by brutal dictators or enlightened despots, these leaders often treat the state as their personal property, stifling the development of opposition political parties, regular elections, a free press, and other mechanisms of accountability associated with developed democracies. These regimes are often vulnerable to coups d’etat and succession crises.

9) Foreign Aid

International assistance may hurt poor African countries as much as it helps. Foreign aid and humanitarian assistance provide governments with resources with which it can purchase political support, decreases the government’s incentive to collect taxes and to provide essential services, and may hinder the development of a genuine civil society. Aid often comes with "strings attached"; governments must enact policies that in some cases may not represent the interests of the people.

10) An Unjust International System

Europe and the United States, large potential markets for African produce, continue to impose high tariffs on foreign agricultural products and protect their domestic industries while at the same time placing pressure on African governments to open their economies to foreign trade. The international lending regime locks African countries into cycles of indebtedness where they must take out more loans in order to make interest payments on old ones.

Answer 2

To echo Engineer’s response, read Guns Germs and Steel.

Jared Diamond lays out much of today’s political landscape by looking at geographic regions long before there were trade routs. Some of the key factors towards a technocratic society are

1. crop staples with a high protean content. This allows a smaller piece of land to support more people, and allows higher civilization densities with more idle workers who can make innovations for that society. The two most telling innovations are steel (a very hard and dangerous invention) and writing. A writing system paired with a printing system allows knowledge to be transmitted in a very reliable way to anyone in a society who can read. This was exploited to conquer the Incan Empire, where the lessons of Cortez against the Aztec were read and applied against the Incan people.

2. beasts of burden. Sub-Saharan Africa isn’t blessed with an abundance of native animals which can do work. Before there were trucks and tractors, there were two options for moving goods overland or powering mills: people and animals. When have you ever seen someone riding a zebra? They are too skittish to be herded and cultivated. Elephants can be tamed, but they cannot be bread for domestic purposes (too dangerous.)

3. animal husbandry. Here Sub-Saharan Africa has done well. By keeping animals in close proximity to humans, the diseases of the animals eventually mutate and attack the local humans. After a suitable plague has killed many people, those left have an immunity. This is like a loaded gun wielded against people from afar when they invade because they won’t have the immunity. The Americas suffered the greatest death toll when the Spanish brought Small Pox. That one disease killed 90% of the native population. Africa’s Malaria stopped a good deal of colonization in the early days of Imperial Europe.

These first three factors are quite telling when you compare two communities coming in contact for the first time. Who has the better crops, the better horse, and more fiendish disease in their past?

Answer 3

The answer to this question is quite complex. It has absolutely nothing to do with intelligence. You might be surprised to learn that folks living in "primitive" conditions are on average smarter than those of us with the good fortune to be living in the first world. Stupid people find it very difficult to survive in harsh conditions but relatively easy to survive in our cushy first world.

The answer to this question was offered in an excellent book that was a best seller and that I highly recommend. It is a fascinating read and you will learn a great deal about the history of the entire world over the last 14,000 years. The author is Jared M. Diamond and the book is Guns, Germs, and Steel, the title of which is the answer to your question. To understand the answer you will want to read the book.

Answer 4

All of the above.

Taken together all of this makes the safe and economical exploitation of mineral resources all but impossible. natural resources are the basis of ALL economic activity and growth. Maybe, if the violence stops, etc., etc., things may change.

But then there's a new problem: What will happen the surviving wildlife in Africa? Do we really want to see Africa covered in freeways and cheap apartment complexes??

Answer 5

It is because of war. Scientific breakthroughs need cash, hait to say it, but a brilliant person without cash just isn't going to build a a fusion reactor. Even more sad, they will not be able to reach their full potential without education, schools in Africa are not as well equipped as western schools. Africa is being torn apart by war, and resources needed for peacefully purposes (education) is being used for weapons. Many important industries are disrupted or bankrupted from the devastation, draining cash even more.

Finally, many who are on the leading edge of science in Africa may find big American/European/Asian cash a little to appealing to remain in war-torn Africa.

Answer 6

Africa is a poor underdeveloped continent that has been exploited by Americans when we imported slaves, exploited by ruthless dictators who ruled their countries without regard for citizens, and exploited by various other countries throughout the centuries. Poverty and disease is rampant, and all of those 'civilized' societies snub their noses at Africa, just as wealthy people everywhere snub their noses at the disadvantaged, disabled, aged, sick, homeless and hungry. You'd think we'd pay attention to their plight at help! -RKO-

Answer 7

I would put lack of quality education as the prime reason for that. People, europeans, arabs and all, have exploited Africa for centuries but never really gave them equal oportunities in anything.

Once people are educated, they can advance scientifically and technologically. I hope that happens soon. :)

Answer 8

Money, money, money (or lack thereof)... past colonial exploitation, ethnic violence, misrule and corruption, AIDS and other diseases, more lack of money, unfair trade practices by rich greedy western nations, exploitative loans given by rich greedy western nations.

The list is endless. The one thing it is not due to is lower intelligence levels.

Answer 9

Simple, they don't want to become more advanced. If they did they would change the way things worked so they could advance.

Answer 10

way to many wars and dictatorships