> 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.

> 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. The biggest religion in Africa isn't islam, it's Christianity. Meanwhile, the biggest religion in Asia is Islam and it does just fine. The middle east's problem's aren't religious, they're political. Nationalism and geopolitical conflicts get wrapped into the most convenient us vs them wrappingpaper available, in the middle east it's often religion. But let's be frank here, Saudi Arabia and Iran aren't in conflict because they believe in a radically different way of religious life. Your stuff about unification conveniently skips over the part where China sped past every other poor country in large part because it was unified and could move in one direction. Rwanda is tricky... it's probably home to the absolute worst tragedy in my lifetime. 70% of a peoples was eradicated. Beyond that, it's still dirt-poor, 90% of the population is engaged in subsistence farming, 80% live on less than $3 a day, 60% less than $1.90. I assume you're referencing to economic growth which has been really nice, but it's tricky to see it separate from the foreign aid which represents 30-40% of the budget. It's not particularly hard to improve income levels from $1.90 a day to $2 if you're pouring in $100 of foreign aid per person per year and lots more financing. (a great playing ground for Chinese companies to build an economy indeed.) Beyond that, there are 25 different countries who've had at least 75% of the average growth rate of Rwanda in the past 10 years, its economic growth has been great but things have actually gotten quite a bit better in Africa across the board. When Rwanda's foreign aid was temporarily cut a few years ago after accusations of aiding rebels the growth rate halved. I don't see the Rwanda (0.9% of Africa's population) necessarily as a model for the rest (99.1%) of Africa. Agreed on all your other points.