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Why Africa Is An Underdeveloped Continent

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Why Africa is an Underdeveloped Continent
Africa is the second largest continent in the world and the second most populated continent, but it’s behind the rest of the world economically, politically, and socially. However, Africa’s problems aren’t recent. Africa’s problems began with the first african natives, and continued on throughout the centuries. Africa is an underdeveloped country because of imperialism, racism, and a lack of geographical luck. During the second half of the 19th century, imperialism by Europeans stunted Africa’s growth by forcing Africa and its natives to submit its resources and people for European gain. Europeans already had a foothold on the African coasts because of the slave trade, but after the Berlin conference in 1884 the Western countries divided Africa between themselves for their own needs, without the knowledge or consensus of the native Africans. with different rule for the needs of Europeans . Sir Frederick E. Lugard, an English administrator, stated in 1904 that “the primitive savage in contact with (European) civilization learns the discipline of work, and the result of cooperation.” Lugard, like many Europeans, didn’t believe that Europeans were hurting Africa and its natives through imperialism. They thought they were helping and teaching Africans about hard work through hard labour. Jomo Kenyatta, an African nationalist leader, states that “... Europeans have robbed [the Africans] of the material foundations of his culture, and reduced him [to] an inferior state that goes against human happiness.” This shows that through imperialism, Europeans actually erased African culture by forcing them to do labour and be slaves. Consequently, this submission hurt Africa because by the time most African countries gained their independence, they not only were struggling to adapt to new leadership after years of being controlled by Europeans, but were also drained of their natural resources.
Racism that originated from America against native Africans caused Europeans to feel entitled to treat Africans unfairly. Racism is the concept that one race is superior to another based on a racial “hierarchy” in which one is judged on skin tone and continent of origin. This concept of a

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