Why Africa is Doomed to Stay Poor 

Step 1: Find a poor country with a corruptible leader Step 2: Offer them a loan that looks too good to be true Step 3: Take their assets when they inevitably default on their loans. Step 4: Blame the West for any and all problems anywhere Step 5: Profit!

Africa needs leaders who do not wear camouflage army uniforms and finished at least 6th grade.

Why will Africa remain poor? In a word: corruption.

I live near Manchester, England and one of my private Landlords was a Nigerian guy. He has a doctorate in Civil Engineering and spent decades working for Manchester City Council. For me, he sums up one of Africa's main problems: the one-way brain and skills drain from African countries to the West.

Africa on its side looks like Australia

The problem is corruption. That is why a country of such amazing potential, South Africa, is drifting toward being a failed state. Probably not so much drifting as going full steam ahead.

We have reached the point where colonialism can no longer be blamed for all of Africa's problem. Despite receiving $50 billion of aid every year, Africa has failed to modernize, organize, and raise living standards.

Just a reminder, Africa has 54 countries. You can't mention just a few countries and assume it's the same for the whole continent.

In China there is corruption but the building will still get built. In Africa the money just disappears.

All of this is quite hilarious considering its impact on the current narrative. As the world fights what's left of European imperialism they willfully ignore the new wave of Chinese imperialism.

personally I think the reason why Africa was, is and will for the foreseeable future will be poor/developing is because they and all the countries funding them are trying to skip crucial steps in state building. what is happening is a much smaller scale of what the soviet union tried doing, in that they (in large part) are trying to fund only the most productive areas of their economies (namely industry) while leaving areas like agriculture to die due to lack of funding, support and labour. and like the soviet union this leaves them very top heavy with their new found economic growth being more than counteracted by the need to import basic resources. In my opinion if an African nation were to try and become more equal on the economic world stage they need to focus on both affordable infrastructure and supporting their basic production before industry

Africa: “I am seeking 2 billion dollars for a 100% equity stake in my country”

Talking about Africa and not a single mention about France... African countries have billions of dollars deposited in Central Bank of France. This is modern form of colonization which is not visible at first go.

Teach a man to fish and he will eat for life, give a man a fish and he will learn to ask for more fish. Whether the failing is in the teaching or the learning one thing is clear Africa is not learning how to fish. Giving aid does Zero to solve the problems, or less than that since temporarily hides the underlying problems and kicks the can down the road. What it has done is allow the population to quadruple over the last 50 years and forecasts have it doubling from here by 2050 which just creates a situation where even more help is needed. So you get the Chinese stepping in, still not teaching them how to fish, to create a quasi slave continent. Think about it. The Chinese are the ones doing the developing. When what they build starts to fail who is going to fix it? Africa is a disaster in the making.

The main problem with the assumption that Africa will be the source of cheap labour leading to industrialization is that it ignores the impact that AI will have on costs of production. Africa's cheap labour is unlikely to have much of bearing on global production in a world where it's cheaper to use machines or to produce in space altogether. In this world production won't be outsourced to the country with the cheapest labour market but to the country with the most efficient, developed and affordable AI market. The 4th industrial revolution will flip conventional wisdom in economics on it's head

I appreciate highlighting these issues but there's an error in this. The Kenya Mombasa to Nairobi railroad is complete and was extended to Naivasha. A plan to have it reach Kisumu in the West was halted due to lack of funding. That's when they decided to complete that specific section by revamping the old railway. With the port, while there was speculation that it would be seized, both sides denied this was the case. Though neither side has released the terms of the contract. I'll end by saying that this debt trap diplomacy is nothing new, the IMF and World Bank do the same thing though instead of seizing assets, they force recipient countries to sometimes radically implement austerity measures, thereby suppressing their economies and ensuring they remain sources of raw materials and do not compete with donor countries in value addition.

Country: *exists* China: just ignore the fine print

Thank you for talking about my country UG. Also, Kenya's our Eastern neighbour not southern. Its practically a meme now. When the news came about that we could lose our bloody airport, we were angry, disappointed but ultimately not surprised. We've sort of just, come to accept our situation (of bad political leader) and just work around it. I can't tell anyone that we have a future regardless of whatever statistics there may be of economic growth. Voz we've had our guy and his cronies for 3 decades with no real plan economy wise and no real viable alternatives coz even if we have elections, replacing him politically would require the police and army not to be in his pocket. Which they are. The new guy will suffer a military coup, and elections are just 5 yearly dramas between the establishment and the youth who are still optimistic without really understanding the obstacles (they'll learn to be pessimistic soon). The majority of the population doesn't bother so..... Yeah, we're basically fu**ed 🤷🏽‍♂️🤷

In retrospect this aged like milk. Entebbe airport is the most dysfunctional airport i’ve ever been to (going there in a week to visit my family) and Hoima airport is a flying castle that wont open for a goddamn while. Chin has imo made no improvements to Uganda and the plan has been cancelled. I would know as an airline transport pilot born in Uganda…

Wow. Did you do any research from 4:00 going forward? Kenya is East of Uganda. Kenya did not almost forfeit Mombasa as the Supreme Court shot down any such notions. Mombasa is not the largest port in Africa. Anyway. Lemme leave the video because it's pure hogwash

What many people ignore is the impact automation and AI will have on Africa's growth as many industries will probably go back to developed countries if it happens within this century.

Thank you for this information

Give more money and watch it disappear into BMW's, European bank accounts.

1. Kenya isn't Uganda's southern neighbor. That's Tanzania 2.Not a single mention of the massive corruption issues in Kenya and Uganda that have stalled infrastructure projects and allowed the Chinese to come up with badly skewed contracts in their favour. This is what happened in Zambia where the drunken fool named Lungu let the Chinese wreak havoc as long as him and his associates got kickbacks. Same case with Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia who are all on the brink of a serious debt default.

This video in a nutshell : China Bad

I know that Europe fucked up Africa in the past. But come on, you had decades to improve your situation. Look at Japan, South Korea they are now rich. South East Asia is progressing.

I blame the Africans

i think the west should stop 'aiding' africa because it doesn't help and just maintains the status quo. africa should step up to it's own game and build itself without outside interference. at this point it just feels like a continent of wasted potential while it could have the potential to be amazing. africa has it all. the natural riches, the manpower, the cities and industry. it needs to just grasp it instead of infighting and selling it to foreign nations.

Great video! This is a great idea, You should make a series on the economy and growth of africa and the countries in it. It would be a good way to build a audience about economies.

The reason is cultural values - look for “Inglehart-Welzel cultural map of the world”. It makes pretty clear why some countries are better off than others.

This is why Malaysia refurbished the old KTM tracks that ply their major cities to do 140km/h, this is what Kenya should've done. There's nothing wrong with refurbishing what the British left, it beats having your current predicament. I wish Kenya all the best, may the tracks reach Uganda.

From European imperialism into Chinese one.

This is rich, Africa is poor because of the wests colonization and neo colonization of Africa, and not because of it's nominal independence from Europe, idi Amin had Britains backing for a time.

Without outside influence, nothing gets done. The leaders do tend to fight their own people.

Amazing video. Thank you for showing this.

Casual NATO Propagandist.

Since the previous colonial powers willing to offer non. It’s either the Chinese money or no money at all. It’s the only option they had.

China is smart af. Loan out money to countries that can't pay it back then take a seaport or airport as collateral. Then China can demand favors for it back.

You got to be in the lead in development to stay or become a powerful nation. As a continent having the resources with very few countries benefiting from it points to countries that lead in development. If a country is way ahead of you chances are it always will be and countries with resources suffer the consequences. And now you stay poor, while the others stay rich. Same concept with huge fortune 500 companies.

The problem with Africa is that they are so poor that they are shortsighted. There is no concept of ownership and generational wealth amongst most Africans, once a business becomes successful or they begin seeing a profit they sell.

Thanks

My wife is Ugandan and I visit the country every year. I suspect that those Chinese clauses were put on contract because of the corrupt environment in the local civil services. There are dozens of people working in Entebbe airport with no real work objective. For example, there are 10 people guiding you when you walk to the plane to avoid getting in the way of the turbines when the same job could be done by portable safety railings! In all seriousness though, those countries reached out to China because they know what IMF is like. Handing over some infrastructure that's actually built by the Chinese is not as bad a a perpetual debt that dicates all policy. The biggest port in Greece was taken over by the Chinese and this has actually brought more jobs for the locals and even wages have improved.

Why is African going to stay poor is fairly simple in my mind . The Sahara desert acted as a huge wall that blocked any chance Africans could share or receive knowledge. Europe, MENA and Asia all shared knowledge that for the most part Sub Sahara wasn’t involved in. This subsequently made Africa easy to colonize. Right around the same time a lot of these colonies got their independence the Cold War was going on, and Russia and the US stuck their fingers all up in Africa. It’s a chicken and an egg. Are Africans without a moral compass and are easily corruptible? Living in the US I think that’s quite possible, sadly. When the colonists left…it would be like me retiring and putting my son in control of a family business I never showed him how to run! Of course he’s likely to tank it. Success then became believing Russian or American promises that they will run your country by proxy. They then give u and your tribe just enough money you’d believe them. I’d probably of fell for the same thing. This corruptive mentality is now pervasive in Africa. There was a small window in time where Africa might have changed their fortune….but now u have China, Europe and the US corrupting African. Worse, Africa isn’t even being used much for cheap labor but rather for the land and resources under their feet! Europe formed the EU because Europeans understood one thing…..the US was way too powerful and could dictate trade and pretty much anything else to their advantage! Even historically strong countries like England, France and Germany had little negotiation power against the US. Africa is 54 nations….it won’t ever become the 54 states of Africa but Africa needs to trade amongst itself. Develop what the west and East have known for years and then open your markets. Otherwise China, US and Europe will keep exploiting u.

Great video ! 😃

4:09 That's just what happens when you loan to low-income countries. If you look at the total number and amount of loans given from China to Africa, an overt majority of them are given to countries that could reasonably support that debt. If China was trying to get countries to default on their loans, you'd think they'd go after countries that couldn't. The defaults are not the rule, they are the exception. When Sri Lanka gave up that port, China didn't go to them, Sri Lanka went to China. And besides, you can't just build a military base on properties you technically own, that's a massive violation of legal and political codes and would jeopardize China's relationship with Sri Lanka. The only way that base is built is if Sri Lanka wants China to, and that needs a lot of political favours. How do you get those favours? By building what they want, AKA, large-scale infrastructure projects. China isn't good or evil by giving out these loans, they're merely tactical ways of getting friendly with the continent that could be home to the next superpowers, along with getting control with critical maritime routes. However, it should be noted unlike Western loans, China doesn't care about liabilities or how long it will take to build it or anything else. All they care about is how much money they make and when they can start. This cuts through all the red tape in with Western loans, making them more appealing, while also increasing the risks of default. But the companies or China doesn't really care, they just want to get paid. This is why corruption is a common theme throughout Chinese loans due to the off-hands, zero red tape approach. Also, your title is wrong. As most of these loans are paid off, giving China money and better diplomatic ties and the African country the infrastructure they need, they will have the basis to use their cheap labour and natural resources to become rich. And since China's so closely related with these countries, they're going to be getting a big slice of the pie. Again, not just good or evil, just tactical. If the West wants Africa to stop leaning toward China, they're going to need to embrace capitalism and engage with competition. This will end China's monopoly on large-scale infrastructure projects, bring prices down, quality up, and decreasing Africa's slide to China. Believe it or not, countries tend to like other countries that care for them.

ah yes. Its chinas fault for building infrastructure to help africa, and not the US or europe who has been exploiting the entire continent for centuries. + 10 FICO credit for maintaining goodthink in the west!!

Africa suffers with corruption coming from the leadership class and also a lack of a well educated population.

please stop referring to Africa as a single nation. Not saying this video is false. but this only applies to some African countries.

The Marshall plan was free money. Donations from the US to Europe. The belt and road is predatory loans to developing nations. You really can’t make a comparison between the two.

Why did you use a mountain shot at 0:10 from New Zealand (Monkey Creek on the Milford Sound Road -44.8008482,168.0216307)?

The poor myth has already been debunked and disproven. There would be no multinational trade and investment, let alone corporations based in Africa if it were 'poor'. The only questions is, how do we stop the annual illicit outflows of Africa's wealth and resources by the Europeans to the tune of $84 billion, but also the supposed legal tenders involving Western corporations that sees substantial profits leaving the nations of Africa. Sidenote: $500 billion in 'colonial tax' is collected from Francophone African countries year on year by France. Now is that poor?!

Because of Africans

I am a Korean who is right next to China, so I know China very well. At first glance, China's One Belt, One Road policy appears to be a mutually beneficial and pro-globalization policy, but in fact, it is a policy that reflects China's thoroughly nationalist ideology, which inevitably harms all participating countries. The Belt and Road Initiative mainly lends capital to underdeveloped countries by encouraging the development of infrastructure such as ports, airports, and roads. However, in the case of infrastructure construction, the condition that a Chinese company must win the order is always included in the contract. Chinese companies that are in charge of infrastructure construction also transport various materials, manpower, and even food necessary for various construction works from China. Therefore, the country that builds the infrastructure will not get any benefit from the construction process. This is a very vicious structure in which money only flows from the Chinese government to Chinese companies, and only Chinese employed by Chinese companies make money. If the country borrowing money for infrastructure construction fails to repay its debt, the facility will fall into the hands of China.

This is nothing but anti China western propaganda, green with envy against the global south being able to develop without them. Just imagine how poor Haiti is and it’s America’s neighbor that virtually does anything and everything America asks of its leadership. I come from Kenya, the developments that have been done by the Chinese are tangible roads, bridges, and railway of world class standards. These are capital investments that spur economical growth. Kenya’s GDP was USD 13 billion in 2002, when Kenya looked exclusively to world bank and IMF for external loans. Kenya’s GDP is now USD 116 billion, a growth that’s in large part due to the investment gains of Chinese loans. The tyranny of the Dollar and the present threat of sanctions, not to mention military action are far worse than anything on the contracts with the Chinese that are largely about risk management to encourage borrower responsibility and not nonsensical propaganda about China repossessing chunks of African territory.

People don’t realize that the problem resides in the fact that none of the companies that own anything in these places are owned by the people/nationalized so all the wealth is extracted and not put back into the country

As a Congolese myself, I believe africa simply cannot get aid right now. currently, there should be more effort in stabilizing governments, writing more powerful constitutions, and and try to create more stable government for many african countries. Possibly an organization that could make this occur. Then you could begin sending aid and developing even more countries efficiently, and preventing corruption which will eventually turn into developed 1st world countries. But this will tale a very long time.

I have several criticisms of this video as it does to be balanced in its explanation of the concepts mentioned, nor does it answer the title question, "why Africa will stay poor". First, the title question implies one thing, explaining the causal factors that keep African states poor, neither going through its historical colonial past that affected their ability to grow, but then argues that China's foreign policy objectives through the BRI are the ones causes African states to do so. Secondly, your description asks a different question, why has China been rushing into Africa, perhaps a question to consider is why are African countries choosing China to do business with and take loans. You mentioned that Uganda was looking for creditors to finance their airport expansion, perhaps one thing to consider is that Chinese banks offer loans with fewer restrictive regulations than other loans. Such as, the IMF offers loans on conditional terms as long as they align with its principles. That is part of why China is in Africa which was omitted from the video, they offer loans without the strings to prevent African states from developing in their own way. Furthermore, debt-trap diplomacy is a questionable concept that implies a neo-colonialist agenda with the Chinese foreign policy objectives. I think comparing western loans to China's more commercial private bank style loans then it is a wrong comparison to make. Would we consider private banks offering loans as predatory to the same degree as we see with China, perhaps less so? Even more so, lenders will always be the favorable party when negotiating loan agreements. I think this video has the potential in discussing the concepts of China well, particularly its economic and foreign policy goals (although I don't think China wants to be a global super power in the same sense America does), but does so in the wrong aspect. Perhaps consider historical context in Africa, incentives for african state to choose Chinese finance, and evaluate the Chinese debt trap concept, to answer the original question.

"Attributed to major political instability since it gained its independence in 1962." how about before that? you put it as if it's the root cause, what about before independence? was it prosperous when it was occupied?

As a Ghanaian,this is very true not to mention the unemployment rate, people will literally complete university and will not get jobs Unless you major in courses like medicine, pharmacy,engineering,nursing,and law and few others If u major in less known courses you will definitely not get a job

Traveling around, I can say that countries that have a culture centered around education and a certain work ethics work better. That's why some countries miraculously went out of poverty after horrible conflicts and wars in quite a short time like Germany and Japan and others don't with all the resources and aid in the world.

Bruh this video doesn't explain why africa is still poor, and it just shifts all the blame from western countries to china.

Does anyone know the music used in this video? Particularly at 7:22 onwards.

I made a charity orphan spirulina farm in Fort Portal, Uganda, now serving five schools. I wonder how we can leverage this information

Okay but the alternative was the IMF and those loans are significantly more damaging to 3rd world economies. It’s not even close.

Africa is poor because france and englanf

African countries were richer and better places to live when they were still colonies. Except maybe Belgian Congo, the Belgians were sadistic rulers

I thought africa vertically was china. A very cheeky thumbnail

It will never happen... China already stared automating almost every aspect of industry... They don't need cheap labour, They need skilled labour now. No matter how cheap Africa gets they can't beat free labour for 20 years... At most Africa will be used for it's resources again. African nations must grow on their own or they will never grow...

It’s genuinely scary some people watched this video thinking they came away smarter, it’s as if he did no research for any of this. The entire second half of the video is unwatchable.

Like Thomas sowell said Africa has geography problems,raging rivers and hardly any deep water ports on the whole continent. The only river that's really navigable is the Nile.

Resources do not make a country rich, skills do.

Can I just say though, Africa is impossibly beautiful. I mean my god... every square inch of that place has something sacred and special to show.

China setting conditions to ensure the return of the loaned investment isnt communist oppression, is cold and capitalist financial secuirty

If the bank gave me the loan, should i not follow the bank's rules? Is it that complicated? Are there banks that dont do that?

Is there any doubt that compared to Who One Shares A Nation/Nationality (and the status of not being a convicted felon) With, it is negligible Who One Marries/Who Is One's Spouse (assuming that Mankind is an order of units which [when mentally competent in a world where any of them are UNDERSTOOD TO BE free] believe that they exist within their own lifespans)? Is there any doubt that the previous question brought up within our conversation addresses the psychosocial "fallout" which is a product of none of us being Genghis Khan (which unarguably has a bigger impact today than any of us Being Genghis/Chinggis Khaan)? Is there any doubt that the goal of each member of a conversation must be to never say that something Which Exists No Matter What is his or her goal? (I mean do you seriously use your mortal lifespan to PUBLICLY think that you are smarter than others "just because you're lucky"?)

What does it say when the DRC (3 1/2 times bigger than Texas) has less than 1,000 miles of paved roads (TX has 680,000)? Or that Nigeria wants to be a "superpower" with 1/3 illiterate and 1/3 of all children not going to school? Or that every country in Africa ranks near the bottom in Corruption and the Freedom Index? It tells me things are not improving any time in this century

You should make a video about IMF's "deathtrap diplomacy"

Casual Scholar Please tell me how the approaches of the IMF, the world Bank and the west is different?

If you drive a Toyota in Africa that only requires the usual servicing and no repairs, do not emigrate to some "developed" country. You'll not enjoy a lifestyle upgrade. You're already in the top 4% in a country like Kenya. Be warned.

There some people in this comment section saying Africa is poor because blacks and whatever, this is completely wrong, they were very wealthy until the colonists European steal their land and resources, the AfricansThey just didn't have advanced weapons to defend themselves in that time, so and even after colonies they still poor because of corruption and the The devastation the colonists left behind.

The reasons why Africa will always be poor are obvious, no one can talk about them without being banned.

4:28 Kenya is Uganda's eastern neighbor, NOT southern 4:33 Mombasa is not the largest port in Africa

Corruption, outside interference (making up borders etc), colonialism and capable people leaving are some of the major problems in Africa

Great video, but it felt so short! There is such a huge discussion that can be made on all the current and historical reasons why Africa is in the state it is today. I’d greatly appreciate more videos expanding on this subject, if you haven’t done so already. Cheers!

You explained how and why China is taking advantage from Africa but you never explained WHY IS AFRICA STILL POOR??

Making a deal with China is like making a deal with the Devil

I knew about this before by the video of Nas Daily titles " chinese money trap "

"it appears China does not assess the nation's ability to pay off the loan..." On the contrary, I'm sure they assess it pretty accurately and then make the loan based on the county's INability to pay it off...

Im so mad. About 8 years ago I donated a good sum of money to Africa. I looked at a lot of charities and decided to choose an education project. While researching I was baffled by the lack of willingness to invest in Africa as its potential is just waiting to be utilized. I found out about Chinas investments and it was already obvious that a country like china would not have altruistic motives. I did not know about those Loanshark type contracts. But it seems fitting. That’s what happens if you do not “Help” but allow bad faith actors to corrupt desperate nations.

I think you forgot to mention the most important problem, European imperialism. China worsens the effects.

I'm from africa and the continent itself is poorly managed mainly because of incompetent ruling leaderships and massive corruption which occurs everywhere especially when foreign aid is given to some countries then you'd it doesn't go the people instead ends up going to the corrupt individuals in power.

"Why Africa will stay poor" Depends what part of Africa you mean. The arab / European part will be rich.

This is coming from an African. I live in Algeria, which, despite being the 4th richest country in Africa and the one with the third highest HDI, is in an awful situation. Nothing related to China, but a dependency to natural resources (oil), extreme corruption, constant geopolitical issues with neighbors (mainly Morocco and sometimes France, as well as Israel which has never been recognised), awful education, some old negative french influence, mediocre job opportunities leading into most competent people immigrating to Europe. Those are the largest problems with Algeria, but also most if not all African countries. Chinese depth traps exist, but I would say old colonisers influence, especially in West Africa, is a bigger problem. Ask any west african and they'll tell you they consider their government a french puppet (which is arguably not wrong). For example France sends "aids" (all taken by corrupt politicians) in exchange of natural resources from West African countries, and you've guessed it, that's no good. When Burkinabes refused to accept those terms, their president got murdered.

The people and the government in Africa are here to blame.

Imagine a white guy claiming africa will remain poor because it's "china's fault"

This video is rich on accusations but not in facts. He raises debt trap policy by saying Kenya is playing 40% of its debt servicing to China without giving any figueres about the debt itself. Kenya has 75bn USD debt and ca. 6bn of it to China. How did you get to the 40%? Also overall the PRC only accounts for 8% of Africas debt. Guess what the other 92% are doing. The only 'fact' given for Kenya is the almost allged seizure of Mobassa port. How is an 'almost' supporting your claim?

West is the reason not China

I thought they were going to say low IQ and weak work ethic.

CANADA also doing it here.. we work hard alltime and we only bring it back to government or bills due to low wages and high taxes and bills..

I think the number 1 factor people will always forget that contributes to poverty world wide is simply having too many children , too early , and too many broken single parent households.