It is a common conversation piece among those trying to understand how the world works: how did it come to be that Sub-Saharan Africa is far less developed than the rest of the contemporary world? While there is no one simple answer, there is an answer. One that involves several intertwining threads with some causes in the past and some existing today. This article points to 8 books that hold many of the keys to reaching an answer to this question, identifying the causes of the situation we see today, and hopefully sow the seeds of change for the future. Not thought of by most is the fact that until about 1200-1300 AD, all societies on Earth were equally poor. While the beginning of the iron age around 1200 BC improved the standard of living for most on the planet (at least in the Europe-Asia-Africa group of continents) bringing people a step or two beyond worrying about starvation, only isolated pockets provided greater wealth for a minority for a short period of time. The Roman Empire was almost an exception, but then it too suffered the same fate. So, most all of the differences between Sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world arose after that time, in some cases due to advantages in places like Europe, and in others due to disadvantages in Africa.
[1] Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
Diamond explains how geography, specifically the plants and animals available for domestication in any environment affect the success of a population. Tracing the migrations of people with agriculture, he also shows how difficult it is to move North or South with a given set of agricultural know-how as climate changes drive a need to readapt each crop and sometimes animals to the new conditions. Many do not realize that agricultural peoples migrating southward in Africa had not arrived at the cape by the time the Dutch and English had sailed there. So, although humans first appeared in Africa, much of the continent was only relatively recently settled as compared to the sites of other major civilizations.
[2] The Wealth of Nations
In an old economics classic, Adam Smith describes the characteristics that can bring a nation wealth. Among those are access to navigable rivers and protected harbors along the ocean, which in Africa are nearly non-existent. A predictable climate and productive agriculture, which are also generally missing except for isolated pockets. All in all, Adam Smith's "invisible hand", his name for the free market mechanism, would leave Africa less prosperous than other areas all things being equal. However, a richness in natural resources from rubber to gems to uranium to oil and gas has provided a historical drive to involve Africa by one way or another in the modern economy.
[3] King Leopold's Ghost
While colonialism was not always directly harmful to the native inhabitants of a region, this example shows how disastrous an impact could be achieved in a region. Explaining how the Belgian Congo was conceived and took root as an imperial colony on the continent of Africa with the purpose of enriching a monarch no matter the means necessary, this book shows the worst effect of colonialism on the African population. The long term effects of this brutal exploitation have lasted into modern times with the horribly destructive dictatorship of Mobutu Sese Seko.
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[4] Heart of Darkness
This novel is built from images Joseph Conrad encountered directly or heard of while living and working in the Belgian Congo. As opposed to a history, this is a fictionalized, but realistic narrative account of a vision of life in the colony at that time. Conceived as a story into the extremes of human nature, this offers a glimpse of how bad things went in a certain place at a certain point in history. Again, while the Congo is the exception, these kind of events took place at a smaller scale in other parts of the continent and explain part of why things currently look the way they do.
[5] The Scramble for Africa
Sometime after the establishment of European trading forts for rubber, gold, and slaves, there arose a sudden and unquenchable thirst by Europeans for African "colonies". Every European power staked out claims and drew maps dividing up the continent according to their wishes. Men sitting in European capitals decided on boundaries that exist until this day not based on ethnic makeup or natural boundaries as European boundaries were drawn, but based on extractable resources and other deals between the global powers. The goal was not nation building, but satiating greed. Then, as suddenly as it began, African colonialism became unfashionable and the Europeans cut their ties and left.
[6] The Washing of the Spears
At the southern tip of the continent, colonialism proceeded at a different pace and in a different manner. This story of the rise and fall of the Zulu empire gives a glimpse of the interaction between white settlers and a native power and the conflicting pride that often led to wars disastrous to both sides during the initial stages of colonialism. While South Africa is a unique case on the continent, the large economy and mixed racial population offer tales both positive and cautionary regarding worldwide dealings with the continent as a whole.
[7] The Elusive Quest for Growth by William Easterly
In modern times, since the end of World War II, the rich West has generally paid lip service and sometimes more to the goal of improving the state of development in Africa. Why should we continually work at this problem if the task turns out to be impossible? This book addresses that part of the question. Mr. Easterly explains why those initiatives did not take into account the economics of what people said they wanted to accomplish setting up the wrong incentives for development, or not putting sufficient capital behind something that did exactly what it was supposed to. While somewhat pessimistic, the problems Mr. Easterly uncovers are correctable as he explains, if we choose to structure our aid and other economic programs with the goal of actually realizing greater development in Africa.
[8] The End of Poverty by Jeffery Sachs
Taking the optimists perspective, Jeffery Sachs explains how targeted programs can substantially and sustainably change the economy in places like Africa. Showing how these same problems that face Africa today have been successfully dealt with, he demonstrates that this is not an intractable situation, but one that has real solutions only requiring some courage and determination on the part of policy makers. Some disagree with his placing of responsibility on the West, but regardless of the causes of past problems, we would be more prosperous and secure with a more developed Africa. While reasons for the current state of affairs in the past are important, the causes of the problem that continue to exist in the future are entirely our choice.