Yes, but… Africa’s problems don’t come from some cartoonishly evil cabal of foreign exploiters rubbing their hands in smoky boardrooms. The problem is far more mundane—and far more immovable. Africa is simply hard to develop economically. It lacks a continental breadbasket, no endless stretches of naturally superproductive black earth like the Eurasian plains or the Americas. Its rivers, where they exist, are mostly useless for large-scale shipping—too shallow, too broken, too badly placed—or there’s simply no economic incentive to use them. The continent is immense, but fractured—geographically, politically, tribally. Like an archipelago without the advantage of water between the islands.
Then comes the permanent shadow over every plan: insecurity and corruption, the twin parasites that chew through whatever structure anyone tries to build. Theft, bribery, and the omnipresent “taxation” of petty officials who know that rules are just opportunities in disguise. These problems can be beaten, but only through decades of unromantic, grinding effort. Waving flags and chanting “equity” won’t do it.
The Western wishful thinkers love to believe you can fix this by sprinkling solar panels and ESG slogans over the dust. But reliable waste management costs money. Reliable electricity costs money. Small modular reactors? Sure, but that doesn’t make the transmission lines magically appear. Development isn’t a TED Talk; it’s trench work. Africa doesn’t need pity or ideology—it needs competence, steel, and patience, three commodities rarer than gold.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2025/10/16/connecting-nuclear-reactors-across-africa/