Have you ever really stopped to think about why Africa is the way it is? I've been chewing on a theory that might help explain some of the historical forces that shaped today's inequalities across the continent.
Hear me out.
To provide context, it's good to note that societies across the globe have always developed at rapidly different phases. And so at one point, a society may lead, and decline at another. It always happens. The mighty are supposed to fall. And yes, Africa was once mighty.
But the state of world affairs today starts from 1492. When Europeans through Christopher Columbus first made their way to the Americas, ie the New World.
Now, the new world was quite special because of something you wouldn't believe it had. Food. Good food. The New World had tomatoes, chocolate, potatoes, corn, green beans, peanuts, vanilla, pineapple, turkey and more - which transformed the European diet in so many ways.
Everyone likes good food, so the demand for this foodstuff rapidly grew. Hence, this meant that the Americas became a place to make more money, and Europeans wanted in. Yet there was a problem.
More demand meant more work. But because the Europeans had settled in the Americas, they came with all sorts of diseases. Diseases that the American locals had not built up resistance to. Because they had been uncontacted.
But you know who had built resistance? The people from the old world - Africa, Europe and Asia. Asians were not physically strong to farm and European labour was expensive. But you know which group checked all the right boxes of cheap, strong, and healthy?
The Africans! Correct for 3 points.
Thankfully, in their exploits around the continent they found that we already had a system of human trade in place - the slave trade - so they took massive advantage of it and invested so much into it. Talk of product-market fit.
I'm getting somewhere.
Slaves were brought in to farm the products for the mass consumer markets: sugar, tobacco, coffee, cocoa, and later cotton. Thus, the slave trade stimulated European shipping, manufacturing, and gun making - reinforcing the continent as a world power.
However once humans developed the ability to do large quantities of work with steam, the Industrial Revolution was largely born. And slaves were now more of a liability. Because machines could work faster for cheaper, and do more.
It's not coincidental that slavery was abolished around this time. I acknowledge the work of abolitionists, but I argue that slavery became unattractive because it wasn't that profitable.
You doubt me? These are the same people who keep funding wars in the Congo for cobalt, or Lybia for oil, but that isn't the point of this Ponder.
Once slavery was abolished, these people found more use for our RESOURCES so they had to colonise us - just so they had access. You'll realise that they started focusing on building infrastructure that helped them carry our resources out.
And when they built schools, they were to help them raise people to rule over us. Then the world war came and they spent their money fighting - causing them to become broke.
After which, they left us alone to go rebuild their countries. I mean, they needed more hands on deck, and maintaining colonies were very expensive. So they retreated from dissident colonies in the name, of course, of human rights.
Today, the scales have shifted again. Because of a declining population rate in their countries. And yet the demand for goods and resources has only skyrocketed. And will you guess where the labour to feed this demand is from? You guessed it right!
Africa and much of the developing world.
But this time, the demand is for brains, and not brawls. There's a specific reason why they are doing training programs, fellowships, opportunities, green cards, etc. You know why? Economics. Demand and supply, baby.
But once AI makes humans obsolete, guess who will pioneer a mass deportation exercise in the name of "incentivising people to rebuild their countries?" Your guess was as good as mine.
We have always been pawns. There is a reason why they keep coming for our people and resources and we need to take action now. There's also a reason why to them, we're better off under developed.
That is exactly why I am an advocate of solving our problems our way. We're just one breakthrough away from creating the invention that revolutionises how we do things. But that will mean inventing more.
You want to know how America came out of a place of being shackled to a place of dominance? One phrase - the Industrial Revolution. These guys, smart guys, took advantage of a period of mass development to build leverage and put themselves in a position of advantage.
This should be the way - our way forward. We invest in inventions. Sponsor people to create. Fund ideas. Build stuff ourselves.
We start small, we start now!
