Sub Saharan Africa

In the second half of the twentieth-century, African countries were able to gain their independence and strive to create unified countries. However, many countries were plagued with civil wars and the issues left behind the colonial era. The adversities faced by these new African nations are at the hands of their old colonial powers and the neo-colonialism that has taken place. These new independent countries were left to unify their people of different backgrounds, create a strong government and economy, and leave the post-colonial legacy behind.

Whilst raising money for African charities at school I developed an interest in global inequality and alternative policies that can help low-income nations escape the poverty trap. Reading ’23 Things’ by Ha-Joon Chang, I was intrigued by his view on blaming free-market policies like SAPs that exposed sub-Saharan Africa to international competition, slowing economic growth. Hence, this extended my research to the other side of the

In the late nineteenth century the European powers of the world began imperializing Africa. This annexation, occupation, and division of African territory has since led to much strife within the continent and has caused many struggles politically. This period known as the “Scramble for Africa” has led to the many problems that Africa faces today and has been the root of several wars in Africa to assume control. After World War II many European imperialists began to give African nations autonomy. This seemed like a step forward for African nations, but without any plan to transition into self governance many African nations have faced bloody civil wars and corruption. Along with political struggles, numerous African nations face rising debt and other economic problems. Many of these political and economic issues stem from the “Scramble for Africa”. Once the European countries left Africa had very little to support itself. To explain the issues left by imperialism the three African nations of Rwanda, South Africa, and Sierra Leone will be put under the scope.

This paper would contain a detailed overview of African Continent’s history and evolution. Social and cultural reformations and practices would be taken into consideration. It will carry a detail oriented research on the poverty and underdevelopment issues of the continent. A brief review to the history in the relevance of the topic would be included. Developmental crises would be analysed from several perspectives. The cultural and social norms and their relation to their relation to developmental crises would be evaluated. Possible solutions regarding the limitations and issues in the developmental social and cultural prosperity and well-being would be discussed. A meaningful conclusion would be evaluated on the research

Africa is a region that has for long been taunted as the dark continent. Years of political cynicism, proliferation of civil wars and governance mismanagement have negated the growth and development of the continent. However if the present positive growth patterns and future economic projections are anything to go by then the continent is set to undergo a massive transformation by 2025. African economies are showing impressive growth, with an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth forecasted to be 6.3 % in 2013, Africa has become the fastest growing region in the world, and only a few Asian countries will continue to grow faster than the continent's top performers. Africa`s growth projections are premised on the backbone of an anticipated educated young population growth, rising intra-African trade, investments in public-private partnerships and commodity-based industrialization. This paper gives an impetus to the future prospects of Africa by highlighting inter alia the present growth trends and envisaged future prospects. It also analyses what still needs to be done to ensure the envisaged growth projections are realized.

Ever since the oldest human remains were discovered in Africa, the ‘Cradle of Mankind’, it was establish that Africa was the birthplace of human species. Despite the source of human existence Africa has been plagued with conflicts and problems that was often rooted in European colonization. Due to the sheer mass of Africa many of its countries are categorized as underdeveloped, insubstantial governance, and poor human progression which negatively affects continental growth and poverty reduction. These issues that Africa face cripples growth, political prosperity and economic independence. AFRICOM represents a fresh start for African nations to trade globally and provides military protection for these nations. In conclusion, Africa is a crippled nation unable to live independently and ineffective with foreign aid.

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a disease that has evolved over time into an epidemic. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world with the highest population of infected individuals and some of the lowest access to resources needed provide preventative education, treatment, and support for the disease. This study examines five studies conducted within the past ten years, in order to gain an understanding of the impact social services have on people living with HIV in Sub-Saharan Africa. The broad overview of social services, positive impacts, negative impacts, economic impacts, and sustainability of social service aid related to HIV is examined. The purpose of this analysis is to determine if HIV related services are positively impacting the lives of those it is intended to help. While there are negative aspect of social services, the finding of this analysis show that there is a more significant positive effect of social services. Research should be continued in this area of study in order to reduce negative impact of social service and improve the quality, effectiveness, and efficiency of aid so that one day HIV will not longer be a public health threat in the world.

The ending of the Cold War brought about optimism and feelings of hope after independence, but violence and political issues were still a major problem that persisted to exist in large areas of Africa towards the end of the 20th Century. So what factors played a part for the economic and political collapse of African states since independence? Robert Bates, When Things Fell Apart, attempts to answer why Africa was not able to be as successful as European nations. Bates attempts to analyze state breakdown, developmental failure and the instability of their democracy in his latest book.

Beginning in 1880, there was a growing desire for European countries to expand and control their rule. The only continent at that time that was left uncontrolled and, in the European's eyes uncivilized, was Africa. This was the start of Western Imperialism. All European countries wanted their piece of Africa and to get it, they would let nothing stand in their way. They would change the entire government, religion, market, and behavior of most of the African nation and affect almost every person living there. An account of the impact of Imperialism is given in Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. This book shows the changes that occurred in Africa during Imperialism and its affect on the community and the people

North American media coverage of Africa often times paints a pictures of a vast waste land of poverty and death. One is often led to believe that the entire continent is just an undeveloped desert, with citizens living only in mud huts, tormented by rebel armies on a mission to rape and plunder then burn villages to the ground. This understanding is incredibly dangerous and are often warped to fit a certain agenda. African cities like Lagos, Cape Town, Windhoek, or Cape Town are much like those in found across America and are not as rare as it would made to be seen, but despite this, many areas of Africa do struggle. The Democratic Republic of Congo is one country in particular that has and continues to struggle to find it’s footing in a global

Sub-Saharan countries received their independence at various times during the 20th century with approximately $1 trillion dollars being transferred in the form of aid to the African continent. The African content is huge, where its size is equivalent to combining China, Mexico, Western and Eastern Europe, United States, Japan and Iberia (refer to Exhibit 1). The aid that has been provided to the sub-Saharan nation has always seemed to be a band aid approach to helping Africans by giving them food, water, medicine along with other basic essentials needed to survive. Where if you look at the money that has been spent on those developed nations towards getting them to be self-sustaining, a trillion dollar in foreign aid to Africa seems to

The world has a misconception about Africa’s way of life and I do too. “The Bright Continent” explains reasons and provides essential evidence to prove that Africa is better off then we think and that people can learn from them just as much as they can learn from others. In many ways, the book describes that it could even be better than most countries in certain areas. Africa’s knowledge, financial standpoint, way of life, and culture is completely different than what people would think.

Modern African states have several problems ranging from corruption, to armed conflict, to stunted structural development. The effects of colonialism have been offered as a starting point for much of the analysis on African states, but the question of why African states are particularly dysfunctional needs to be examined, given the extent to which they have lagged behind other former European colonies in many aspects. In the first section, I will consider the problems with African states from the level of the state. That is, the nature of the states' inceptions and the underlying flaws may explain some of the issues that have been associated with African states today. Next I examine the development of, or lack of, civil

a. Africa is a continent associated with the cradle of mankind. It is believed to be a resourceful continent. Associated with heavy forests, flooded rivers and lakes, rich volcanic soils that favors agriculture, huge deserts that harbor tons of oil and petroleum products, vast land for both settlement and industrialization and heavy vegetation that sustains its ecosystem and all life forms. Most European countries and developed countries obtain their raw materials from Africa. But the above source materials provide strong evidence that is yet Africa as a continent characterized by poor states and poverty-stricken countries. Both articles argue that among those affected are women and children who face the pangs of hunger and famine each season. It is sad to read that the political class and affluent are keeping resources to themselves hence enhancing the gap between the poor and rich. Poverty in Africa has made it impossible to fight natural calamities like diseases, famine, drought and other risks associated with poverty. However, the issue of income disparities in Africa is a controversial one since income disparities are attributed to poverty in Africa.

For the purpose of avoiding what Thandika Mkandawire criticizes as “the leveling of the African political and economic landscape” apparent in previous literature on Africa, this essay will use examples from Nigeria and Uganda as supporting evidence. Both countries were chosen for this analysis, as their geographical position and make up, historicity and polio-economic development differ from each other, yet both have witnessed disparities in development across their sub-national regions. Accordingly, the following paragraphs will seek to identify the existing links between both cases as to the features, causes and effect of their uneven development.