Watch my interview (click on above) from August 23, with podcaster Amanda Akalonu, host of The Amanda Show, from Nigeria.
August 25, 2025
Many western historians, and analysts, when discussing contemporary Africa, overlook the long waves of history that have contributed to the challenges facing nations in the continent of Africa, including poverty. There is no way of ignoring the effects of over half a millennium of forced deportations, slavery, oppression, and manipulation against the African people.
In truth, poverty in Africa today has its roots in the early 1400s, when the Portuguese forced over two hundred Nigerians into slavery. For the next 600 years slavery ripped apart the culture and identity of African societies. This was followed by the notorious Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, which divided the continent according to the imperial wishes of the European colonizers. The liberation movements of the 1960s did not completely achieve the freedom they fought for. In addition to coups and assassinations directed by the Western financial-political oligarchy, the newly independent African nations, fell under the control of the Western financial institutions and their commodity conglomerates. Through their actual “debt-trap” and the imposition of the infamous structural adjustment programs, they controlled the economies of these nations, preventing them from achieving economic sovereignty. China’s emergence as a friend and investor in the last twenty-five years has brought a new potential for development.
The elimination of poverty and hunger in Africa, which is eminently feasible within a generation, requires:
- Massive investments in hard infrastructure, particularly electricity and a high-speed transcontinental railroad system
- Prioritizing the expansion of its miniscule manufacturing sector
- Modernizing its agricultural sector with increased mechanization and the application of irrigation
- Bringing into existence Industrialized economies
In my interview, we discussed in particular, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, and China’s input. We also identified the failure of the foreign policy of the Wests’ rules-based order to understand the essential need of physical economic development for Africa.
Read below my earlier posts on pverty in Africa:
Energy Poverty Is Killing Africans & Preventing Industrialization
My Thoughts: Poverty & Ethnicity Kill Democracy in Africa
Africa’s ‘poverty trap’ more dangerous than so-called debt trap
To Prevent More Coups Like Niger: Eliminate Poverty in Africa
Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X @lkfreemansafrica