Someone once said: “I want to live in a world where people migrate out of taste, not out of hunger.” That world is possible. But only if we stop making excuses for why it hasn’t happened yet.
What is stopping Africans from being rich might have been colonialism once (that is true in some cases but not true in all) but post-independance gpovernments with exceptions that include those the author mentions. Many African leaders post-independance blindly followed Western radical socialism or resurrected African neo-monarchial systems. These were not based on traditionalism like say Eswatini but in one case, on Napoleon Bonaparte! Bokassa the First. Or else on personality clurtsists like Mobutu, Said Baree, Mugabe and so many others, some like Nguema in Eqiatorial Guinea, extraordinarily murderous. Others devolved into pure kleptocracies.
Africa will not become rich until African states trade amongst themselves, based upon individuually distinct free economies that utilize competitive advantage. Wiith governments that encourage pluralism and democratic processes , open economic incentives andfsound plans. Not just trade more with Europe, Asia or the Orient. The author will probably generate many negative comments with an article like this that repudiates the idea of Africans as perpetual victims of others. But it is a timely and refreshing one.
There are pictures of Hiroshima and Detroit in the late 1940s (after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima) and in the early 2000s. In the 1940s Hiroshima was rubble and Detroit was flourishing. Now, it's the opposite.
Entrepreneurship is the only way out! We need more builders building in Africa, solving real problems. Government, leadership and policy will catch-up.
As a Somali African I believe we can do it yes but what we are missing is the right leader someone who truly wants to help the people and give them a better life with dignity Africa has all the resources we need but we need honest leaders instead of corrupt ones and we need to remove the foreign military bases that are still in our countries One of the best examples today is Burkina Faso In my opinion Ibrahim Traoré is a great leader and I see him as part of Africa’s future We all want to see Africa become one of the leading places in the world and I believe we can achieve that if we work together make the right choices and put the interests of our people first
Yes , but even under the best administration no African country is becoming Singapore or South Korea. Can improve yes , would that be good for the world? Yes , but Ghana can't be South Korea
A compelling argument! I’ve also always felt that while history can explain where Africa is, it cannot determine where Africa goes. As rightly said, long-term prosperity is built on sound institutions, good policies, and the choices made today.
The successful reformers chose good policies. They also stepped into openings they didn't create. But I think that is not the full explanation.
What distinguished the cases that worked was also that a capable, cohesive founding cohort was already in place when the moment arrived, with the organisational depth and internal authority to make tough, well-founded decisions under pressure. And it could hold the line against the factions and vested interests that would have distributed the gains instead.
Vietnam's Doi Moi reformers weren't improvising in 1986. Through the early 1980s, Nguyen Van Linh had been running "fence-breaking" experiments in Ho Chi Minh City. Allowing state enterprises to operate outside the central plan gave the renovation faction a chance to test policy ideas and build a known track record before the crisis hit. The 700% inflation created the opening; the prepared cohort had accumulated enough internal authority to carry the decision through.
Seretse Khama's team had the same quality: a coherent economic philosophy, an inner circle that structured the Debswana joint venture before major diamond revenues materialised, and the institutional discipline to channel those revenues into infrastructure rather than distribute them.
Mauritius is slightly different; the EPZ Act came in 1970, before any major crisis forced the issue, which may be the clearest case: a founding generation that moved on structural reform while there was still room to manoeuvre, not under duress.
The contrast with other African nations makes this visible. Nigeria's oil windfall in the 1970s and Zambia's copper revenues were external conditions at least as favourable as Botswana's diamonds. What differed wasn't the opening; it was whether a founding cohort with the capability and cohesion to act on it was ready and willing when it arrived.
It isn't only about which policies to choose or what creates the reset moment. It's how you build the cohort that can act decisively and implement the right policies when the moment comes. And that formation takes longer and starts earlier than any individual reform window.
Great article. To add: the capital architecture is the missing layer. Africa absorbs $59B in aid annually and $5.5B in private capital. Leaders who liberalize get the same aid budget as leaders who don't. The aid industrial complex doesn't reward Vietnam-style reforms — it rewards proximity to the dysfunction it's hired to manage. Botswana, Mauritius, and Rwanda built parallel to that architecture, not through it. Rwanda's MoMo went from launch to mass adoption in six months during COVID — not through a 10-year capacity-building grant. The leaders who liberalize don't get killed. They get ignored by the institutions that claim to want them to succeed.
What is stopping Africans from being rich might have been colonialism once (that is true in some cases but not true in all) but post-independance gpovernments with exceptions that include those the author mentions. Many African leaders post-independance blindly followed Western radical socialism or resurrected African neo-monarchial systems. These were not based on traditionalism like say Eswatini but in one case, on Napoleon Bonaparte! Bokassa the First. Or else on personality clurtsists like Mobutu, Said Baree, Mugabe and so many others, some like Nguema in Eqiatorial Guinea, extraordinarily murderous. Others devolved into pure kleptocracies.
Africa will not become rich until African states trade amongst themselves, based upon individuually distinct free economies that utilize competitive advantage. Wiith governments that encourage pluralism and democratic processes , open economic incentives andfsound plans. Not just trade more with Europe, Asia or the Orient. The author will probably generate many negative comments with an article like this that repudiates the idea of Africans as perpetual victims of others. But it is a timely and refreshing one.
There are pictures of Hiroshima and Detroit in the late 1940s (after the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima) and in the early 2000s. In the 1940s Hiroshima was rubble and Detroit was flourishing. Now, it's the opposite.
And entirelty all dpown to governaance or the abscence of it.
Thank you for your posts and your continued commitment to bringing the best to your continent!
Entrepreneurship is the only way out! We need more builders building in Africa, solving real problems. Government, leadership and policy will catch-up.
As a Somali African I believe we can do it yes but what we are missing is the right leader someone who truly wants to help the people and give them a better life with dignity Africa has all the resources we need but we need honest leaders instead of corrupt ones and we need to remove the foreign military bases that are still in our countries One of the best examples today is Burkina Faso In my opinion Ibrahim Traoré is a great leader and I see him as part of Africa’s future We all want to see Africa become one of the leading places in the world and I believe we can achieve that if we work together make the right choices and put the interests of our people first
Yes , but even under the best administration no African country is becoming Singapore or South Korea. Can improve yes , would that be good for the world? Yes , but Ghana can't be South Korea
A compelling argument! I’ve also always felt that while history can explain where Africa is, it cannot determine where Africa goes. As rightly said, long-term prosperity is built on sound institutions, good policies, and the choices made today.
Agency. We need agency, loads of it.
The successful reformers chose good policies. They also stepped into openings they didn't create. But I think that is not the full explanation.
What distinguished the cases that worked was also that a capable, cohesive founding cohort was already in place when the moment arrived, with the organisational depth and internal authority to make tough, well-founded decisions under pressure. And it could hold the line against the factions and vested interests that would have distributed the gains instead.
Vietnam's Doi Moi reformers weren't improvising in 1986. Through the early 1980s, Nguyen Van Linh had been running "fence-breaking" experiments in Ho Chi Minh City. Allowing state enterprises to operate outside the central plan gave the renovation faction a chance to test policy ideas and build a known track record before the crisis hit. The 700% inflation created the opening; the prepared cohort had accumulated enough internal authority to carry the decision through.
Seretse Khama's team had the same quality: a coherent economic philosophy, an inner circle that structured the Debswana joint venture before major diamond revenues materialised, and the institutional discipline to channel those revenues into infrastructure rather than distribute them.
Mauritius is slightly different; the EPZ Act came in 1970, before any major crisis forced the issue, which may be the clearest case: a founding generation that moved on structural reform while there was still room to manoeuvre, not under duress.
The contrast with other African nations makes this visible. Nigeria's oil windfall in the 1970s and Zambia's copper revenues were external conditions at least as favourable as Botswana's diamonds. What differed wasn't the opening; it was whether a founding cohort with the capability and cohesion to act on it was ready and willing when it arrived.
It isn't only about which policies to choose or what creates the reset moment. It's how you build the cohort that can act decisively and implement the right policies when the moment comes. And that formation takes longer and starts earlier than any individual reform window.
Great article. To add: the capital architecture is the missing layer. Africa absorbs $59B in aid annually and $5.5B in private capital. Leaders who liberalize get the same aid budget as leaders who don't. The aid industrial complex doesn't reward Vietnam-style reforms — it rewards proximity to the dysfunction it's hired to manage. Botswana, Mauritius, and Rwanda built parallel to that architecture, not through it. Rwanda's MoMo went from launch to mass adoption in six months during COVID — not through a 10-year capacity-building grant. The leaders who liberalize don't get killed. They get ignored by the institutions that claim to want them to succeed.
this is the truth