Oh boy, how many “exploration renaissances” have we had in Africa by now, and how many of them have quietly fizzled into nothingness? I’ve lost count. Africa is an immense landmass, only slightly smaller than Asia, and its hydrocarbon potential is nothing short of staggering. Some of the best oil geologists I’ve met over the years — the kind of people who can smell a reservoir like others smell rain — all called Africa the ultimate oil and gas frontier.
So what on earth held the continent back for so long? By rights, Africa should be awash in wealth, basking in the glow of energy riches. Instead, almost all of the poorest nations on Earth are located there, seemingly locked in some kind of grim economic time loop they can’t escape.
But it’s not a lack of money, nor technology, that chains Africa down. No — it’s the local strongman conundrum. Across the continent, local leaders have carved out their little spheres of influence and wealth extraction, running them less like modern states and more like chieftains running their harems: jealously guarded, personal, transactional, and utterly opposed to broader prosperity.Africa doesn’t need another round of foreign technology air-drops or exploration booms. What it needs is entrepreneurs — people willing to build instead of loot. And when that finally happens, the irony will be delicious: they’ll stop exporting oil and gas altogether, because they’ll need it at home.