stephannie Adinde
Africa's Geography Trap
In the words of French Historian Fernand Braudel, "In understanding Black Africa, geography is more important than history".
There are several factors that explain why Africa is not as successful as its continental counterparts. A few argue that colonialism is the main culprit, others cite poor governance and some point fingers at the rate of population growth. While these are all valid explanations, the narrative is incomplete. Africa's geography still remains a highly neglected part of the story.
In Jarred Diamonds "Guns, Germs and Steel", he states that a country’s wealth and economic success is contingent on its geographical environment and topography. Consider a subsistence economy with low agricultural productivity and weak infrastructure. If the soils are poor, the rains inconsistent, and the crop varieties differ greatly from what "rich" countries consume, then that economy is less likely to escape extreme poverty. Local farmers will grow just enough food to feed their families and whatever is left will be insufficient to drive exports. These farmers will also have little incentive to save as they are living from hand to mouth. The lack of savings means that there is no private investment and this feeds into government expenditure (via taxation) on essential public investments necessary for growth.
Misleading Maps
Africa is a huge continent, saturated with diverse regions, climates and cultures. Yet, they all have one thing in common; their isolation from each other and the outside world. There is also a great misconception of African geography, the size of the continent as depicted by the Mercator projection does not fully illustrate how big it truly is. The image below should give you a rough idea of the true size of Africa.
