Reason as to why Africa’s economy is lagging
Africa’s economy, on the whole, has been lagging due to the income per capital remaining constant and facing constant divergence from other developing nations. Despite being unique in terms of both the physical and human geography, it is more often seen as a continent that lacks development and infrastructure. In this paper, I explain how geography resulted in the formation of transatlantic trade and years later, hindered it from developing even with the abundant resources present causing dependency and how natural factors continue to prevent further development of most African countries.
Most importantly, the geography of Africa is one of the reasons that led to the emergence of transatlantic trade. This is because Europeans were driven to the point of exploring the Atlantic to create trade opportunities outside Europe as well as a route to connect to Indians who had a surplus of spices. This was so that they couldn’t obtain it from Arab traders in addition to the creation of a different trade route in comparison to the Muslim ottoman empire in the middle east that served as a commercial and political aid to the Mediterranean. As a result, the European countries sought out to trade for slaves to work in the new world and gold that was abundant at that time in West Africa. Hence, this denied Africans opportunities to develop further through the disruption of technological advancement Africa was going through. In as much as Africa transformed the west, the situation Africa finds itself in today is a price it continues to pay for western development according to the documentary of Africa triple heritage.
The triple heritage explains how Africans, majorly favored by abundant resources in their environment, remain behind in development that resulted in the over-dependence of the western nations while lacking the technology to exploit them. The resources created are grown so that Europeans can consume them even when many Africans go hungry. According to Mazrui, he sees Africans as lacking the practical, technical, and managerial skills to manipulate their resources into becoming finished products thus allowing for exploitation from the European power. This can be seen in instances of countries such as Mozambique which grows sugar, Ghana grows cocoa in lands where staple foods may be grown and Kenya grows coffee and tea so that Europeans can consume them. A point to note is that, even though dependency remains to be a factor, the environmental factors also play a part in ensuring the poverty of Africans.
Geography has contributed to why Africa is poor and underdeveloped due to climate, location, and uneven distribution of resources. First, climate affects the wealth of a country in that the poorest countries are located in the tropics with the land being barren and scarcity of water. This can be seen in some of the countries such as Somalia which remain to have a disadvantage due to these factors. Secondly, location plays a part in the accessibility of a country, where many of the poorest are landlocked thus lacking navigable rivers, coastlines, natural harbors, or even high mountain ranges. Examples are countries such as Lesotho and Malawi, hindered by the lack of accessibility factors, make trade more expensive.
In brief, the geography greatly impacted the history of Africa when Europeans on a quest to look for different opportunities and resources, set up a harbor in west Africa seeing that it was an easier alternative. On the Africans part, they remained behind in development due to the lack of technology needed to manufacture their abundant resources leaving the European power, with the vast number of industries, to do the manufacturing for them. On the other hand, the presence of harsh climatic conditions and the inaccessible countries have seen the majority of African countries remain behind in development.