Episode 18: Why Africa is Poor

Explaining Africa’s poverty is by no means a straightforward exercise. Unsurprisingly it has generated polarised debate. On the one extreme are those who see a congenital problem with the African race, summed up as intellectual inferiority. The other end has those who heap the blame on external hedonistic forces called imperialists. So, is Africa a victim or a culprit? Choolwe Mwetwa, author of Why Africa is Poor, joins Tyrell to discuss this subject.

0:00:00—Introduction
0:05:45—Meet Choolwe Mwetwa
0:07:30—Geography and Politics (Colonisation/Slavery) as Explanations
0:29:42—Hierarchism
0:55:50—Communalism
1:18:45—Traditionalism
1:31:50—Closing