In terms of natural resources, Africa is the world's richest continent. Despite its wealth of resources, Africa is home to the world's most impoverished and abused people. In countries like Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Mozambique, Sudan, Chad and others, ethnic genocide has taken the lives of untold millions of innocent civilians. Slavery is still practiced in the Sudan, and Mauritania.
African leaders are quick to blame the legacy of colonialism for their troubles.
I'll never make an argument for colonialism but the fact of business is that the average African, was better off under colonialism than they have been under independence. At the time of independence, the average growth rate among African countries was three percent. By 1980, it had fallen to one percent and by 1990, a negative 2.8 percent. By contrast, African countries with a greater measure of freedom and stability, Botswana, Mauritius, Cameroon and Senegal, have growth rates of 8, 4.4, 4.5 and 1 percent, respectively. People who think more foreign aid is the solution should know that the money either winds up in the hands of the elite and deposited in Swiss bank accounts or it's used to pay bribes to keep corrupt governments in power.