Africa has abundant natural resources. The gold and diamond reserves in Southern Africa are the highest in the world and the oil output takes about 12% of the world. Although Africa has so much wealth, such as mineral ores, petroleum, arable land, the governments didn’t utilize those resources. I think the harsh geographical environment increases the difficulties of exploration. Another reason should be the lack of technology and the shortage of the government’s finance. Due to the historical reason and geographical environment, many places in Africa have many problems including poverty, starvation, and lack of water. African countries rely on the help of other countries to solve those problems. The exploration need large amount of expenditure. I think it’s hard for the government to deal with all those problems together and spend lots of money on improving technology and investing the exploration. In order to explore the resources, they need to cooperate with other countries or get support from other countries.
I agree with you Liang, there are several different factors that have held back Africa from progressing as a nation, even with their abundance of natural resources. I wonder what you feel is the most critical one out of all the reasons you mentioned, which one you feel Africa should tackle first? Personally, I believe that corruption within the government is the most crucial issue at hand, and the one that is hindering Africa's progress the most. Almost every other reason why African nations have not progressed as much as other countries can be traced back to government corruption. In many African countries, the governments are essentially run by wealthy drug lords and crime bosses, who will gladly condemn event the most poor, starving person in Africa to a miserable death if it means they will gain money. Government corruption is the reason a lot of foreign aid and technology cannot get to the people who really deserve it. Government corruption has also aided the spread of poverty, disease and famine throughout Africa. Government corruption even stretches as far back as the days of the slave trade, when some governments would allow slave traders to freely capture innocent civilians in exchange for money or favors. If African nations are to fully realize the potential of their natural resources and progress to the level of countries like Germany, China and the United States, government corruption must be eliminated first.
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