His response states French colonialism is NOT responsible for their poor outcomes 60 years later (which I actually agree with)

Being a vassal state to China is in their best interest. China invests in infrastructure and improves the quality of life of their vassals/colonies, much like Great Britain did back in the day. China is an extremely attractive partner who they can have a mutually beneficial relationship with

This post was edited by El1te on Aug 11 2023 01:11pm

Russia for sure much better

countless numbers of cobalt miners would disagree.

there are pros and cons to be sure, but unfortunately i dont think there's any ally (us nor china) that will result in a net positive for african nations.

whomever it is will only invest enough in infrastructure to effectively remove whatever natural resources they can strip from them. no one is interested in creating an agricultural powerhouse or manufacturing base in Africa, currently. im left wondering what china/russia will do with all of that Uranium ore.

what do you think would be best for these african nations?

hard to say really, as you're starting from such a low point.

but in general an isolated economy without western overlords so you can become a seller nation of your own natural resources, instead of a labor nation while the west strips said resources. currently officials get paid off to give bullshit mining permits to china or the west, the company pays next to nothing for labor, then runs off with untold riches at bottom price. cobalt, uranium, diamonds, gold, its all the same.

then take the profits of sold goods and reinvest in agricultural infrastructure directly, reinvest in roads and education. start off with very little domestic taxation and transition from a governmental structure of ownership of mining into a more privately run sector. buy just enough military goods to crack down on illegal mining.

but its hard given how poorly structured it currently is. they're sitting on a pile of gold, and they're accepting money to load that gold into someone else's truck. quite sad really.

If you read what I wrote, I accept that colonialism has been a scourge for many nations but it is not the only or the main reason for countries like Nigers problems now.
Corruption is likely the biggest problem. Geography has always been a huge debilitating factor for Africa. Mainly a lack of deep water ports and continuously navigable rivers.

Tldr is those statements are not mutually exclusive.
Both can be true or false.
Both statements are, in part correct.

What currency would those isolated seller nations use for their transactions?
Hypothetically.

the CFA franc is an ok concept, link nations together under a single currency to create more stability. but the reality is its more like 8 leaky boats tied together.

in the short run they'd need to figure out how to hold a balance of a more stable currency, western $$ or even BTC. then in the long run HOPEFULLY economic stability is good enough to keep your own currency stable as well.

this is all from a very ignorant standpoint for me, im not confident on how such transactions would realistically work in a $$ for CFA conversion.

Why are you making the assumption that these African nations have the means to gather, process, and sell their resources without help from Western or other developed foreign nations?

How would they build the infrastructure? How would they build the machines? How would they operate the machines? How would they keep their records? How would they organize and manage their inventory? How would they have a banking system to collect revenue? How would they have a system of law and enforcement to keep peace and order on the worksites?

They're sitting on a pile of gold but they don't have the ability to collect and benefit from it without the intellectual labour of Western or other developed nations.

Why didn't they profit off of their own rich resource reserve prior to the Age of Discovery?

They've had nearly 50 years to transition from a laborers economy to a mining economy, and they havent. Every dime that could have accomplished that has gone into the pockets of officials, not the country. i'm simply stating that needs to stop if they are to improve. its not going to happen over night, but it needs to happen eventually if they want true GDP growth.

that will surely be more difficult for some things, but its not as if all african mining is a ridiculously complicated process. plenty of strip mining and pit mining takes place. start there, build up.