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Article: Focus: The lost continent AFRICA IN CRISIS; Angola, Somalia, Nigeria, and now Sierra Leone - the list of countries in trouble goes on and on. Why is Africa the way it is?
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- May 14, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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What makes Africa fail? Some say it is "just the way Africa is",
an inherent - almost genetic - weakness in the continent's make-up.
Others blame it on the outside world; European imperialism going back
to the disruption caused by the slave trade, then conquest and
colonial rule. Its modern form is debt, unfair trade and the strict
policies of the IMF and the World Bank.
None of these explanations alone really explains why Africa is the
way it is. These days everyone, Afro-optimists and Afro-pessimists,
blames African leaders. But is it coincidence that Africa should have
produced so many bad leaders? Somewhere in the triangle between
African society, Africa's imperial past and its present ...