Why is Africa so primitive in terms of civilization? ?

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I'm not racist, I'm black, so I don't want anyone to get a wrong impression.

Anyway, why is Africa premature? I've noticed no major cities or technology. So, anyone got an answer? No racist crap by the way.
 
Africa's sharp decline took place around the time of colonisation and slavery.

Before that it wasn't all exactly civilisation as we may define it, but there were healthy agrarian and pastoral societies throughout the whole continent and relatively advanced Islamic culture throughout northern Africa (in the middle ages some of the most advanced scholarship in the world took place in Saharan Africa).

Basically slavery, colonisation and industrialisation advanced European capitalism largely to the expense of Africa.

Independence of African nations is a recent phenomena and still to this day their development interfered with by international big business and agencies like the WTO and IMF. This plus rampant corruption, constant wars, etc. paint a bleak picture.
 
They don't get it.
Service to ones community is the highest calling.
Serving others make everyone live better and profits you as well.

It is counter intuitive .
 
Jared Diamond had an interesting theory. Basically stated, it is easier for technology and people to travel at the same latitude. It was more difficult to cross deserts and tropical areas. Technology was exchanged from Asia and Europe and that contributed to the Europeans eventually gaining a higher level of technology. Africa was behind by a few centuries but in terms of military technology, that was obviously enough. The Zulu had sophisticated iron blades very much like Romans but they couldn't compete against guns, germs and steel which was the name of Diamond's book.
 
In anthropological terms...

Periphery: Least developed countries. They produce raw materials, such as lumber and ore.

Semi-periphery: Semi-developed countries. They produce mostly raw materials, but some technology.

Core: Most developed countries. They manufacture technology and "ideas".

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Most of Africa (if not, all) falls under the periphery. Without the periphery, there could be no core.

Why is Africa the periphery? Some would blame early imperialism (from already more developed countries, such as Italy, Holland, France, etc) for raping Africa's resources and, culturally speaking, imposing their values upon it. Thus, the peoples of Africa could never develop themselves as others have.

I don't know what your educational background is, but taking any kind of Anthropology class (such as the 101 class that I learned this from) is pretty interesting. Of course, it's all theories, but at least you become informed of all the different theories so that you can theorize, yourself :)
 
They did have some ancient civilizations that were defeated by the Arabs. I keep reading about the problems the desert caused in trade but why wasn't sea trade developed, I haven't been able to find, the Phoenicans were able to build large ships because of the type of trees, cedar, which doesn't rot easy, perhaps, there wasn't the correct wood for ships. Without trade to bring in new ideas then progress will go slow. They were out of the loop, so to speak.

Here is a site you might read:
http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CIVAFRCA/CIVAFRCA.HTM
 
Look at history: Egypt and Ethiopia and Sheba. Africa was a major player in the ancient world and lost their footing to the Greco - Roman empire, who in turn lost their hold to Europe, who in turn lost their hold to the US, etc. It's just the rise and fall of nation-states through time.

Many great cultures have thrived when the time was right for them. Currently Africa is a real tough place - lack of resources, civil strive, and there is still the trauma of human harvesting (slaves) and the stigma put on African peoples as a result of it.
 
History of corrupt leaders who fill their Swiss bank accounts instead of investing in their country's social and educational infrastructure.
 
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