why are Africans so poor?

Question

Since the beginning of time,Africa has been generally recognized as the richest continent on earth.It was blessed by both God and nature with a richness of soil,natural resources and human spirit. Biblical and secular records proclaim Africa as the birthplace of all mankind.With so much richness and heritage,one must wonder why Africa remained the most poorly develope country on earth and why generations of blacks around the world are so totally impoverish and powerless. The economic exploitation of Africa and blacks began in the minds of Europeans collective greed and profit above the value of human life. Their collective greed and machinations have left blacks a legacy of suffering and a black holocaust that has yet to end.

Answer 1

you seem to have answered your on question...and I don't disagree...

Answer 2

Alright starting off I'm African and to answer your main question the reason why the majority (not the entire continent, it's not like that everywhere- TV doesn't exactly paint the entire picture)... sorry trailed off, the reason why the majority of the continent is poor is because the people in control of the resources, namely government officials are corrupt. A lot of the times aid paid directly to the gov. doesn't reach the people. In addition, when developed countries loan money to African nations the interest rate is so high that it puts those developing countries into deeper debt. Furthermore, most African countries have industries that are based in the primary sector; so they sell raw materials at low prices and buy the finished products from other nations at higher rates...they need to make their economy's more secondary and tertiary based. And I'd like to mention that the downfall of Africa begun amongst Africans, few people know that people were trading and keeping slaves long before Europeans came in, but it was based on debt, crime and servitude. At first the leaders of the African nations didn't mind selling their own people for other merchandise. After a while Europeans over powered them with guns when they realized they could just take people without pay.

Answer 3

You really need to look a little further back in time.

African slaves were traded north across the Sahara into the Middle East by Arab and Oriental traders from about 650AD onwards. It was common for wealthy Arabs in places like Yemen to have African slaves into the 1920s.

It is probable that more slaves were traded into the Middle East than ever crossed the Atlantic. Also, remember that it was the Arabs that introduced Europeans to the African slave trade.

There was also a lively African slave trade, Nubia being a good source, in the ancient world going at least as far back as 1500BC in Egypt.

To give the impression that Africans or people of African descent are "totally powerless and impoverished" is totally wrong.

Answer 4

Thank you Louis Fareacon. The evil whites are the cause of all the blacks problems.

Lets forget little truths like many of the blacks were sold into slavery by other blacks, they had been captured from other tribes. Yes the whites bought them, but the blacks sold them.

Slavery was a discrace upon our nation. But there comes a time when you have to stop living in the past, lift yourself up, and make a place for yourself in this world. But when a black person does this, he is called an "Uncle Tom".

The nations of Africa are poor because most of their leaders are crooks.

Answer 5

Africa WAS in the beginning a cradle of life. Abundant food sources and places of shelter. All except one part. A belt across central Africa, (Congo region) had parasites that were deadly to humans. Tsy Fly, malaria mosquito's etc... This caused a barrier to north-south movement and development and was the reason for many of the superstitious stories about angry Gods and so on. It also accounts for the reason that sickle cell developed in many African people. Nature has selective breeding. People who caught malaria died. Those who had sickle cell survived because they were immune to the malaria. They in turn passed it on to their children.

Yes Africa had everything a person could want in the beginning. And that was the reason it fell behind in development. Why try to develop new ideas when you have everything you need. So African tribes became stagnant. The biggest problem they faced was war with neighboring tribes for possession of territory. They were all hunter-gatherers.

While humans in other parts of the world struggled to survive and had to come up with ways to do it. The actual advantage that began the upward climb of other races of people, was started in what is called "The Fertile Crescent". Where the development of wheat as a staple food and animal domestication started taking hold. The hunter-gatherers became a thing no longer required by everyone. (There became a surplus of food.) This freed some people to have time to think and develop written languages and study the world around them. Movement and trading started taking place. Other foods were domesticated by learning from people who did it in far away places. More food surpluses came into being. Tribes became communities...... they in turn developed into cities.

Africa was almost entirely cut off from this forward movement due to it's geographic location and a large desert in the north (Traders didn't cross it very often) and going past central Africa meant death to those who tried. The same thing was happening on the other side of the world. The undiscovered Americas were inhabited by people making slow forward movement. Much of it had to do with again geographic and the fact that corn (maize) was a harder staple to develop than wheat. Deserts in the southwest U.S. stopped north-south movement just like in Africa.

It was through the development of food surplus and exchange of ideas that comes through trade that caused certain regions of the globe to develop faster than others. With ships being constructed by middle-eastern, European, and Asian people. The southern part of Africa became in reach. This left the door open to technically advanced peoples. The thought of the day was "the strong survive and the weak perish". There wasn't much thought given to taking something from a weaker or underdeveloped people. Tribal war had existed since the dawn of man.

I hope this gives you another perspective to look into.

Thang ya' very much............ Elvis

Answer 6

most African countries (with the notable exception of Liberia) or 50 years old. they were arbitrarily divided into groups, with very little concession to true ethnic identity of the people, etc.

yes there has been exploitation of Africa, and yes there have been war. But the main issue is that the idea of wealth comes from the western world, and you are comparing young countries to countries that are hundreds, if not thousands of years old.

some African countries are working on economic growth (Ghana, Nigeria, south Africa) and some are still at war, of just out of it (Sudan, Liberia). stop trying to loop a large, diverse continent together, and stop basing your impressions on some images you've seen of sally struthers and friends on tv.

Answer 7

This is not a question for Yahoo. This is a question you can only answer by reading. By 'reading' I mean scholarly books on the subject: to be found at your local university library. I've worked in public libraries professionally in Collection Development: we're not even supposed to order "scholarly" materials because they don't circulate and use up too much of the library's budget so don't bother looking there. That's why I suggested a UNIVERSITY LIBRARY. Good luck with that one!

Answer 8

Don't forget that a lot of people in Africa have fundamentally different cultures that was in balance with nature which were destroyed when other cultures came in a instituted "modern" farming and mining techniques. Since their way of life was destroyed and there was nothing substantial to replace it, they are considered "poor" or the "third world".

Answer 9

Sam Kinison the comedian said it best:

Stop taking the trucks of food to the people out in the desert. Take those trucks and bring the people back to the food.

They live in a desert, nothing grows there, its sand, it was sand 100 yrs ago, it will be sand 100 yrs from now. Truck them out to the food.

Of course he said it with more humor but the point was well placed.

Answer 10

Every one in America feels that their country should be proud of him and he acts accordingly.

Is it possible to instill such culture in Africa?
How it can be done?

Answer 11

You answered your own question in the last few sentences.