The Need to Reform Africa's Economy

Africa nowadays is viewed as a pretty poor continent, but if it were not for a single event, it wouldn’t be in the shape it is today. This event is best known as the scramble for Africa. The European powers had begun taking land after King Léopold the second claimed that initial piece of land. European powers gathered in 1884 to discuss which part of Africa were theirs to avoid fighting, however this was done between European countries, and the thought of even inviting a spokesperson from Africa was beyond them. The people of Africa were enslaved and forced to work the land for natural resources such as rubber and diamond. After the European powers claimed all that they could, two independent countries remained. These two countries were Liberia and Ethiopia. The “Eurocentric” perspective that the European powers had at the time allowed for them to commit these horrible acts and see nothing wrong with what they had

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.

The large cash injection would then create a “greasing the gears effect” and allow for the jumpstart of economic development. Between the years of 1948 and 1952 the U.S. granted $13 billion to revamp the European economy (Dambisa, 2009: 35). This particular method achieved great success in post-World War II Europe and was known as the Marshall Plan. Due to its effective and unquestionable success in this era, the model was applied to economic development in Africa with the confidence that the same outstanding results would ensue. However, the application of the Marshall Plan to Africa is problematic for three reasons. One, the Marshall Plan had a rigid duration period of five years while, the concessional loans and grants to Africa over the last 50 years have been unending (Dambisa, 2009: 36). Two, European institutions were already in place to receive the aid efficiently and effectively. In Africa, however, these same institutions are either non-existent or grossly ineffective due to corruption (Dambisa, 2009: 37). The vast amounts of corruption have been heavily documented. Mobutu Sese Seko, President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1965 to 1997, for example, stole an equivalent of U.S. 5 billion dollars from his people (Dambisa, 2009: 48). However, even the less corrupt rulers of many African countries had few options as to what to invest the aid money on. Consequently, the bulk concessional aid goes directly into consumption without a variety of investment outlets. This process does not solve the problem but instead, allows for the cycle to continue. Lastly, three, the money from the Marshal had specific targets to repair physical infrastructure such as, roads, communications, sewage, factories, and electric systems (Dambisa, 2009: 37) In Africa today, the scope of the

It is very sweetening to hear of Africa emerging after years of struggle. The ten fastest growing countries in the world came from Africa for example and consumer spending in Africa tend to increase exponentially in the years to come. Nevertheless, this image and expectations we have of Africa is not a hundred percent sure because the poverty level in Africa does not make any improvement.

As many know through the news, Sub- Saharan Africa is not a wealthy nor financially stable

Africa has become aid dependent in the sense that “few of its states can carry and routine functions or deliver basic public services without external funding and expertise”(Goldsmith, Foreign Aid and Statehood in Africa). Foreign aid is meant to be used as a means of creating the infrastructure and institutions to carry out the functions of a nation. African nations have become so used to foreigners providing many basic functions and necessities of their people they do not feel the need to provide it themselves. This thinking has allowed for unneeded increases of foreign aid because of the lack of progress made by Africa with the current spending. Western nations have done little to nothing to give African nations incentives to use the foreign aid in an effective manner so that less and less foreign aid has to be provided to

Africa is known to be one of the most heavily povertized region on the globe, and whether or not it was the fault of Europeans or themselves is beside the actual problem. Ethiopia displays one of the problems Africa is dealing with, as one of the overlying problem is rural poverty, and any other issues that follow poverty. Entire households survive on scraps of food every day, and work hard to try to gain more money for food. The poverty has encouraged farmers to have more children in an attempt to increase their workers and profits. This increase in population in rural Ethiopia has been causing migration from the area. Studies have been made about society in Ethiopia and how the economy affects it to try to understand the issue of poverty.

Africa is a continent that attracted European countries decades ago, who colonized various countries in Africa in search of gold, iron, zinc, diamond and especially crude oil. It is sad that most of these countries with natural resources still suffer immensely from lack of basic things such as clean water, light, cooking gas, good schools, roads, good health care etc.

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.

The economy of Africa is a main reason of Africa’s poverty. The economy is corrupt meaning that the people controlling the money are being dishonest. The government is also in a lot of debt. For example South Africa is in 137,681,168,206 dollars in debt. This is just one of all the African countries that are in debt. Fifty percent of working people in Africa make an astonishing $1.25 a day. In total fifty percent of people in Africa

Africa, the world’s poorest continent, has the highest population growth rate. The growing numbers often make it very hard to give everyone the food and supplies that they need. More than 70% of poor people in Africa live in rural areas, depending on agriculture to get food

Africa has been the largest recipient of American financial aid for many years now and is thus up for examination as to whether this money is being used efficiently. Foreign aid is a humanitarian necessity in developing countries because it eliminates immediate suffering, helps to prevent this suffering in the long run through administration of medical, hygienic and educational essentials, and gives countries the capacity to have a stance in the international market through economic growth. There is clear evidence of why the USA and others should continue providing financial aid to developing regions in Africa.

Economic challenges are another encounter that Africa has faced. Some may see the help of foreign aid accommodating because it’s a granting of aid to needy countries. According to Moyo, “Africa’s broad economic experience shows that the abundance of land and natural resources does not guarantee economic success, however” . Still, Moyo initially argues that the help of foreign aid has just created a master-servant relationship that creates lobbying for the foreign aid through borrowing. Conditionalities are a set of “rules and regulations set by the donors to govern the conditions under which aid is disbursed” which can ultimately lead to the master-servant relationship. The foreign aid is just flowing in to Africa so much that it develops “aid-dependency” . Moyo closes his argument stating that aid is not helpful or a solution, it’s actually the problem and increasing the aid in Africa is not the answer either.

Over the last 50 years, the world has struggled to maintain an economic balance and stability, while flourishing countries try to maintain a steady income to support its people and relations with other countries. Therefore, when a continent like Africa fails to maintain a stable government and economy, super powers such as America decide to intervene with its relations. Africa has great potential to become another pillar of the world’s economic structure with its mass amounts of uncultivated land. Unfortunately, corruption and irresponsible governments hinder that progress. Foreign aid while helpful should be limited to a yearly amount because it allows the government to repudiate responsibility and gives room for corruption; it creates a

Extreme poverty, poverty is one of the biggest dilemma facing the issue of sustainable development in Africa. Poverty in Africa is linked to the environment in complex ways, particularly in natural resource-based African economies. About two-thirds of the populations in African countries live in rural areas, deriving their main source of income from agriculture. African economies are historically indigenous economies. Trees are cut for fuel wood,