Before African countries became independent in the 1960s, they were richer than much of Asia. Now, China is richer than every African country, and almost every Asian country is wealthier than most of Africa. Asian economies grew much faster than African economies (except for the African nation of Botswana, which adopted free-market policies. It went from being among the poorest African countries to almost the richest country in Africa due to its capitalist economy). Many African nations, such as Ethiopia, Angola, Mozambique, and Mali, explicitly adopted socialist policies, which retarded their growth. Other African nations like Zaire (Congo) nationalized businesses even without adopting socialism as an ideology, and those nationalizations sent their economies into a tailspin.
In 1980, China was poorer than all but two African countries, Uganda and Guinea-Bissau (Uganda’s economy had been destroyed by its dictator, Idi Amin, who killed 300,000 Ugandans and also expelled Uganda’s Indian population, who ran most of its businesses. Guinea-Bissau had been devastated by a bloody war for independence against Portugal, which killed many of its people. Most other African countries were peacefully given their independence by France or England, without a fight.). But then China adopted some free-market reforms, and its economy took off. While African countries like Mozambique and Ethiopia were still following socialism.
This year, Africa finally expects to see economic growth as fast as Asia’s. “The International Monetary Fund predicts that in 2026, for the first time in history, Sub-Saharan Africa’s economies will grow faster than Asia’s—about 4.4 percent compared with Asia’s 4.1 percent,” notes The Doomslayer.
African economies need to grow faster, because Africa’s population is growing, unlike Asia, whose population is hardly growing at all, and will begin falling within a couple of decades. Some African nations like Angola, Niger, and Mali have population growth rates of over 3% per year. If a country’s economy doesn’t grow, it can’t create jobs for its growing population.
Ethiopia is a poor African country with 135 million people and a persistent trade deficit. It is now creating jobs and shrinking its trade deficit by exporting offal to the Middle East.
The southern African nation of Zambia used artificial intelligence to find more mineral wealth.
In other good news, the African nation of Guinea recently eradicated sleeping sickness, a parasitic disease carried by the tsetse fly that causes irreversible brain damage, aggressiveness, psychosis, and then death, if left untreated.
Niger recently became the first nation in Africa to eliminate river blindness, a disease spread by flies that breed near rivers. Those flies carry long thin parasitic worms that burrow in a victim’s skin.
