Look at a map of how alphabets spread and literacy rates. I think a more productive question would be not what is wrong with Africa but what was right with Euro

Look at a map of how alphabets spread and literacy rates. I think a more productive question would be not what is wrong with Africa but what was right with Europe. Religion played a part. The best selling book after the printing press emerged was the Bible and majority of book sales revolved around religious texts. There was money to be made from this so it spread. The great leap forward didn't come during the renaissance as many people imagine but as late as the 19th. The 20th for communist countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_literacy_campaign https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuban_literacy_campaign Before the campaign, the rate of illiteracy among city dwellers was 11% compared to 41.7% in the countryside Present day Nigeria is still somewhere around 50%, somebody correct me if I'm wrong. Without universal literacy a country can't escape corruption, it is a necessary but not sufficient requirement to move to to the next stage. Not so long ago most everyone most everywhere was an illiterate peasant, the first places to grow out of that got first mover advantage. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_curse