The poverty in Africa is ranked among the highest in the world. The United Nations website on statistics shows that 75% of the world’s poorest countries are found in Africa, for example, Zimbabwe, Liberia and Ethiopia. According to the 2013 report by the United Nations, Africa has an estimated population of 900 million people. The countries in Africa share many features like reliance on agriculture, experience of European colonialism, high rural populations and poverty. Despite Africa having the richest natural resources on the planet and yet it is poor and stagnant in development.
Poverty in Africa was not created in a day; it took many years in the making. Seriously speaking, the media outlets, like CNN and BBC depicts the pain and misery of Africa’s poverty. In 2011, United Nations said that 500 million African people live on less than $1 per day. The United Nations defines poverty as “the proportion of people whose income is less than 1 $ a day”. Poverty in Africa is caused by a number of factors. The four most important factors are the latent effect of colonialism, misuse of money by officials, conflicts, and lack of infrastructures.
The latent effect of colonialism has played a major role in impoverishing in Africa. This latent effect was caused by many years of European rule in Africa. The Europeans started building their empires at the end of the 15th century. In the beginning of the 20th century, large parts of Africa were colonies of European powers who greatly exploited the natural resources and did nothing to develop the land. Europeans stole their minerals (such as Gold, Diamond, and Iron ore), and leaving Africans with nothing in return. According to Joshua D. Settles of the University of Tennessee, “European powers pursued this goal by encouraging the development of a commodity based trading system, a cash crop agriculture system, and by building a trade network linking the total economic output of a region to the demands of the colonizing state”.
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The Europeans countries such as, Britain, France and Belgium used the wealth of Africa to develop the Europeans countries because in the 1900s, there were problems like unemployment, poverty, homelessness, social displacement from rural areas, etc. These social problems developed partly because not all people were absorbed by the new capitalist industries. For example, the British colonized the Ghanaians, who had a lot of minerals which were looted. Consequently, the economics of the Africans countries were greatly destroyed by colonialism.
The misuse of money by officials is another reason why poverty in Africa is rampant. Every year, millions of dollars are sent to Africa for development. In addition, some countries in Africa owe huge sums of money to the World Bank. According to the World Bank report, countries like Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa, Kenya and Liberia are all in debts. Many African countries are pushing for debt relief because they are unable to pay their debt. Furthermore, most of the money is used to develop expensive projects, which bring little benefit in the long run.
Africa receives money from various developed countries such as U.S, Britain, Germany and China to help develop their countries. Jonathan Wright of the Washington News Review reports that millions of dollars were put in place into build the Aswan High Dam, which serves electricity to Sudan and Egypt. In addition to serving its purpose, it blocked the Nile River due to the nitrate fertilizer and organic material which was put in it. Furthermore, financial fraud has been the problem in Africa. Some African government officials have been using their power to embezzle the state funds and placing them in their Swiss accounts.
Samantha Spooner, who is a journalist from Mail& Guardian Africa, stated in 2015 that The Egypt’s Minister of Trade and Industry, Rashid Mohamed Rachid, who has different accounts with an estimate of $31 million each, and The King of Morocco who is called Mohammed VI, who has the largest private stakeholder and his fortune estimated at $2.1-billion.In the long run, foreign aid is not being helpful to many African nations. It often supports them not to tax internal revues of multinational corporations within their borders to attract foreign investment. However, this sort of strategy often leads to internal political disagreement.
Conflicts are another crucial thing causing poverty in Africa. Constant war and conflict in Africa make it very difficult to have a meaningful productive economy. Ordinary life becomes impossible, as people are forced to flee their homes. Armed conflict is the main source of human misery and poverty. According to a report by Antonio Guterres, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, “2011 saw suffering on an epic scale. For so many lives to have been thrown into turmoil over so short a space of time means enormous personal cost for all who were affected. We can only be grateful that the international system for protecting such people held firm for the most part and that borders were kept open.”
For example, Ethiopia and Eritrea’s border wars started after the latter seceded from the former. Numerous terror groups have played a part in worsening the poverty situation and also have caused lot problems in creating some instability in Africa. Some of the terror groups in Africa are Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, Ansar al-Sharia and Lord ‘s Resistance Movement. These groups are responsible for killing of innocent active citizens in Africa all in the name of religion. This depletion of the workforce and other resources and prevents improvement of the well-being of the nations.
These groups destroy government properties which are wealth a millions of dollars and these are the factor of poverty in Africa. According to a report from CNN, “Kenya Armed terrorists stormed a university in northern Kenya on Thursday, killing 147 people, wounding dozens and taking hostages during a 15-hour siege until four militants were killed by security forces. Christians and converts to Islam appeared to have been the targets.” If there can be some improvement, one must be able to let bygone be bygone; that is the only way that peace can prevail.
Lack of infrastructures is the last major cause of poverty in Africa. Crucial infrastructures are referring to lacking for clean water, sanitation and electricity grid etc. In spite of Africa being a continent that has a lot of rivers and some contains fresh water lake in the world, but yet one cannot find good drinking water in Africa. Many Africa countries do not have adequate sewage systems, which eventually ends up in our drinkable water. According to Jacqueline Novogratz, the author of The Blue Sweater, when she visited Kenya, she noticed that the people over there could not afford good drinking water in their community .The problem is the worst in Africa’s rapidly growing cities, such as Cario, Lagos and Kinshasa.
In many situations most Africans gets water- borne diseases, such as, cholera, dysentery and typhoid fever. Next, Africa’s has issues with their sanitation systems for many years. The outcomes of poor sanitation in facilities, brings about the transmission of poop-oral disease. Poor waste disposal practices are responsible for a significant proportion of the world ‘s infectious disease burden. According to the U.N., for every dollar invested in sanitation, $8 are returned in reduced public health costs and lost productivity due to disease. In addition, some parts of African countries do not have access to electricity. In sub-Saharan Africa, there are half of the populations who are living without electricity.
According to the a report made by Lazarus Sauti , a journalist of The Southern Times, “As a result, a staggering 80 % of the population relies on biomass products such as wood, charcoal and dung in order to cook their meals. These products are also hazardous to the well-being of Africa and her citizens.” These show how appalling the poverty situation is in Africa. Therefore, if they had better ways of disposing their waste, it would help reduce the amount of money that goes into it.
To sum up, poverty in Africa doesn ‘t result from just one or two causes. The problem of entrenched poverty is extremely difficult to solve because of different factors at work, all interacting with one another. African leaders are unwilling to work for change and do not recognize the fact that there is a big problem. Most African leaders are corrupt and make things worse for their fellow Africans. The only solution for Africans is should be ready to eliminate unethical leaders who are not eager to improve the country and giving the right people the opportunity to their work right in order to eliminate poverty in Africa.
