Why is Africa so poor?

Why is Africa so poor?

Anthony Daniels reviews The Shackled Continent by the Economist's African correspondent, Robert Guest.

"...Robert Guest, the Economist's African correspondent, tries to answer these perennial questions [several questions about Africa's poor economic record - Ben].

On the whole, he succeeds. The main problem in Africa is that personal advancement is possible almost exclusively by the political route: to become rich, or even minimally prosperous, you have either to seek political power yourself, or at the very least cultivate and become a client of those in power.

For many years, the whole purpose of education in Africa, from the pupil's and student's point of view, has been to obtain a position in government from which to extort and expropriate from others...

The more African bureaucrats and politicians extort and expropriate, the less there is to extort and expropriate, which makes the competition for power ever more desperate and violent...

Mr Guest is less good at explaining why such a political culture should have taken root in Africa..."

I learned about this from Institutional Economics.