Why Is Africa So Poor Essays - World, Economy, Structure, Aid

Why Is Africa So Poor? Africa has always been poor. Although, for most of human history, the whole world has been poor.It was only in the 18th century with the industrial and agricultural revolutionsthat Europe, especially England, started to lift itself out of poverty.Unfortunately, whilst the rest of the world was industrializing Africa was left behind. There are many reasons for this including: corruption, disease, exploitation, geography and religion. In this essay I am going to explain how these factors affect Africa and make them so poor. Corruption is one of the biggest and most important factors that have caused Africa's devastating poverty. It is such a bad problem because the corruption is usually in the government who control all of the countries money and recourses. An example of this is the Nigerian government. The former president Goodluck Jonathan was allegedly given over $200million for the controversial $1.3 billion sale of OPL 245 oil field. This oil field was one of Nigeria's largest sources of income not only did Jonathan take a bribe but none of the money that he earnt from the sale went to the citizens of Nigeria. This is just one of the many examples that can be named in most of the countries of Africa. A second factor in that can be used to explain Africa's poverty problem is because Africa is incredibly rich in natural resources it has been attracting the greedy for hundreds of years. This, in turn, has led to the land being occupied by outsiders whose priority was to exploit as much of the wealth as possible, to be exported back to their own country. This in turn led to conflict, both international and tribal, as various countries, factions and tribes have fought for control of the rich natural resources. And where there is conflict, there is also grinding poverty. Another reason that can be held responsible for Africa's money problem is all the diseases. There are a lot of diseases in Africa, one of the most well-known being HIV-AIDS. I think this is a big reason why is Africa so poor because these diseases are just as toxic to the economy as they are the body. Poverty in the first place tends to lead to disease because people can't afford to take proper measures against it, and then the disease itself leads to more poverty because of the inability to work as well and the cost of medical help. In conclusion