Reading some of the overly negative comments, I'd like to add some perspective. Africa might not make sense to compare to India and China earlier, but I like to

Reading some of the overly negative comments, I'd like to add some perspective. Africa might not make sense to compare to India and China earlier, but I like to often compare it to another troubled region, the middle east. We have seen far more positive developments towards democracy in Africa than in the middle east. Military conflicts in Africa seems to be winding down, while they just seem to get worse in the middle east. More religious diversity, not just Islam, I think is a gain for Africa. I don't think they will get bogged down in religious extremism as in the middle east. To those who claim unified India and China as such a big advantage. I think being unified has just short term advantages, but lots of longer term problems. Look at Europe. A key reason Europe sped past China in the past, was because it was NOT UNIFIED. No single stupid leader could ruin European progress. It worked like a free market of ideas where bad ideas get weeded out. In China you had emperors who would declare that going overseas is bad. And then with a brush stroke, an area the size of a continent stops trading or exploring overseas completely, leaving that to the European upstarts. The advantage of Africa being divided is that it provides a big sandbox to experiment with what works and what doesn't. We see many smaller countries have success like Rwanda. This allows other countries to evaluate what works and copy good ideas and discard bad ones. Another key advantage today, is that we are passed the naive western aid of the past. Today we got China making big investments in infrastructure, mines etc getting the economies going. And I think it is a positive thing with all the people they are sending in as it allows Africans to learn from other countries how they work and do things. China not being as developed as the west is probably an advantage as it is easier to understand each other. Western countries are so far ahead that we often have no clue about how to operate or do business in less developed countries. We make a lot of stupid assumptions, which only work in modern well developed economies. I think the Chinese understand a lot better of to get things working in Africa. And finally lets not forget another advantage. Unlike the middle east, African countries can take advantage of their heritage of English and French from colonial times, which makes it easier for them to connect to the global economy.