Africa: Sustainable Development for All?

Why sub-Saharan Africa and what is development?

Step 1.4: Where is sub-Saharan Africa and why focus on it?

ANDREW DILLEY: I'm Dr. Andrew Dilley, a senior lecturer in the Department of
History at the University of Aberdeen and a specialist in the history of the British
Empire, focusing on politics, business, and economics. Thus my research touches
on colonialism in Africa and issues of development.

The continent of Africa is huge and is the size of China, Europe, India, Japan,
Mexico, and the USA combined.
Before the colonisation of Africa in the 19th century, Africa looked very different.

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The map shows the main empires and kingdoms known to have existed prior to
1500. These empires coexisted with societies with loose state structures and little
hierarchy. Mighty cities such as Benin, Great Zimbabwe, or Timbuktu stood
alongside predominantly rural societies. Nomads coexisted with settled societies,
hunters with traders, pastoralists with agriculturalists.
Pre-colonial Africa was neither isolated nor unchanging. There were extensive
movements of goods, ideas, and people within the continent. There were also
strong connections across the Sahara and along the coasts to Europe, the Middle
East, and across the Indian Ocean to Asia. After the 15th century, the notorious
transatlantic slave trade connected the continent to the New World and saw
between 10 and 15 million Africans exported over the Atlantic.
Neither harmonious nor chaotic, complexity, diversity, and fluidity were the
defining characteristics of the pre-colonial past. Appreciating this diversity and
rejecting the easy generalisations about the past so common in the present laid a
firmer foundation for understanding sustainable development in the 21st century.
MARK IGIEHON: I'm Dr. Mark Osayomwanbo Igiehon. I'm a Fellow with the
University of Aberdeen's Centre for Energy Law. I'm a lawyer by training, and I
have spent a lot of time in the oil and gas industry, working internationally.

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I'm of African origin, have lived, studied, and walked across parts of Africa, Asia,
Europe, and the Americas. My research focus is to see how it is that countries
that are richly blessed with mineral resources across Africa, Asia, and South
America, how these countries can use those resources to produce good, rather
than the trouble it is for many of those countries right now.

Now turning to Africa, the subject of this discussion, particularly looking at subSaharan Africa. Sub-Saharan Africa comprises of 49 countries all lying south of
the Sahara. Apart from those sub-Saharan countries, we have six other countries
that are not in sub-Saharan Africa, and that is Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia,
Morocco, and Western Sahara.
As a result of its size and history, there is a tremendous culture of linguistic and
religious diversity among the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa, including amazing
architecture. You only need to look at places such as Djenne and Timbuktu
mosque in Mali and the Great Zimbabwe ruins in Masvingo and Zimbabwe to see
this richness. You can also consider the famous empires, such as Akan, Ashanti,
Congo, and Mali Songhai, which empires left incredible wealth of monuments,
jewellery, and art pieces which can be viewed in all the leading museums of the
world today.
Countries in sub-Saharan Africa have produced great inspirational leaders. I mean,
I can name Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Nelson Mandela, Emperor Haile
Selassie, Bishop Desmond Tutu among some of these inspirational leaders that
Africa has produced, and they are recognised today as global inspirational
leaders.

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Let's consider writers and poets. Africa has produced the likes of Chinua Achebe,
Chiamanda Ngoze Adichie, Ama Ata Aidoo, Steve Biko, Chiekh Anta Diop, Nadine
Gordimer, Wole Soyinka, Nguigi wa Thiong'o. All of these are world-renowned
writers and poets. We also have famous filmmakers Tsitsi Dangarembga,
Ousmane Sembene. Also some famous sculptors, such as Tapfuma Gutsa and
Ptika Ntuli.
We also have famous musicians come from this subcontinent. We have Franco.
We have Salif Keita, Angelique Kidjo, Fela Kuti, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela,
and Youssou N'Dour. All from sub-Saharan Africa.

In addition to the cultural richness of sub-Saharan Africa, the subcontinent is

incredibly blessed with abundant minerals, timber, extractives, agricultural,
fisheries, on and other mineral resources. In 2014, President Macky Sall of Senegal
nicely described the wealth and potential of sub-Saharan Africa this way. He said,
Africa is a land of opportunity. Business opportunities are there. Growth is there.
And the population is there.
The 2010 Africa Wealth Cheque Report estimated that the stocks of oil, natural
gas, coal, and uranium in sub-Saharan Africa were worth some $13 to $14 trillion
dollars. According to the African Development Bank report in 2013, sub-Saharan
Africa hosts 30% of the world's mineral resources and an even higher proportion
of the deposits of gold, platinum, diamond, and manganese.
South Africa is one of the leading mining economies of the world. It produces 75%
of the world's platinum, 40% of the world's chromium, and over 15% of the world's
gold and manganese. Other countries in Africa occupy significant market share in
one or two mineral sectors of the world.

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53% of the worlds total cobalt comes from Democratic Republic of Congo
(DRC)
46% of the worlds chromite is extracted from South Africa
22% of the worlds diamonds are extracted from Botswana
21% of the worlds industrial diamonds are from Democratic Republic of
Congo
16% of the worlds uranium comes from Namibia and Niger
About 9% of worlds oil production comes from sub-Saharan Africa

Given the paradox of so much wealth in sub-Saharan African countries, why do we

have a higher number of people living in poverty in countries of sub-Saharan
Africa than anywhere else in the world? The map of data from the World Bank
shows you the number of people living in poverty, classified as living on less than
$1.25 a day. The orange and red shows you the percentage of population living in
poverty.
In 10 countries of sub-Saharan Africa, between 50% and 60% of the population
live in poverty. And three countries have rates higher than 80% of its population
living in poverty. Madagascar has 81% of its population living in poverty. Liberia
has 84% of its population living in poverty. And the Democratic Republic of Congo
has 88% of its population living in poverty. The Democratic Republic of Congo - as
we have seen - is so rich in cobalt and industrial diamonds and yet has the
highest proportion of its population living in poverty.

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This is an incredible paradox. And during this course, we will be examining further
why it is that some countries are able to do better than others. Does this have
anything to do with effective governments?

The map here shows us that the countries with darker shading are those
considered to have more effective governments, while the countries with lighter
shading are those we consider to have lesser forms of effective governments. This
is almost an inverse of the previous map. Clearly this is one critical issue which we
must explore in this course.
Do we all have a common understanding of what human development means?
Let's consider that together.

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