This Land Is Your Land

Africa is astonishingly poor. Today, in the 21st century, all the economies of Africa combined possess about 1 percent of the world's wealth, while 99 percent of the world's valuable goods, resources, and land exist somewhere else.

The map below shows the average annual earnings of Africans in 2002. In the lightest green countries, for example, the average yearly earnings were less than $800. In other words, all the money earned in those countries averages out to $800 per person for the entire year. That is simply the average amount. Most people in those countries actually earned far less than $800. As you can see, in almost every African country, average yearly earnings are less than $4000.

Most African countries are struggling to access the wealth that their continent offers. Efforts to build free-enterprise economies meet a variety of obstacles that Europeans have not faced in centuries. In many parts of Africa, issues related to land ownership make it harder for Africans to build economies like the ones that exist in most modern industrialized nations.

In the video clip below, you'll learn more about Africa's struggles to overcome the economic legacy of imperialism on the continent.

In most parts of Africa, land is not owned privately by individuals. Instead, it is owned by the government or the community. Without owning property, most individual Africans have nothing to offer a bank as collateral for a loan. Collateral is something you can use to prove to a bank (or other lender) that you have enough money to pay back a loan: If you fail to pay it back, lenders can seize the collateral for themselves.

Without borrowing money, people cannot purchase the equipment and materials needed to make use of the natural resources in their region. Thus, problems with land ownership prevent the establishment of a thriving capitalist system like the one that Europe spent centuries constructing. (Remember: Capitalism in Europe began with the division of British farmland into privately owned farms.)

Disputes over land ownership represent just one aspect of the economic legacy of European imperialism in Africa. Native Africans spent a century or longer under European rule, and during that time many were driven from their homes and forced into labor. They were denied many basic rights, including the right to own property and benefit from the natural resources found on their land. Without access to land ownership and the wealth and stability it could offer, African communities could not build the kind of economic system that would be useful today.

Transcript

Traditional approaches to land ownership in Africa simply don't work in a global capitalist economy, and European imperialists did little to prepare African economies for their independence and introduction to the global community.

Issues of land ownership in Africa are complicated. Use the question below to make sure you understand the basics.

private individuals
the community
the military
large businesses

Many people in Africa don't own the land that they live and work on. As you may remember, the first step toward capitalism in Britain was when farmers divided their land into plots owned by individuals rather then the king or the government.

Banks worry that borrowers without property will pack up and move without paying back.
Because they migrate, people without land don't have much use for currency.
They don't have the collateral that makes the loan worthwhile for a lender.

The issue is collateral: Banks only lend money to people who can prove they already own something that's close to the same value as the loan. Otherwise, if a person spends the loan and won't pay it back, there's nothing for the bank to take as compensation.

Questions answered correctly:

Questions answered incorrectly:

Question

Is imperialism responsible for African poverty today?

European imperialism placed major constraints on the ability of modern African people to make money. First, imperialism removed tons of valuable resources from the continent. Second, Europeans weren't building modern infrastructure in Africa during their reign, and they weren't introducing widespread education or offering the natives political power. They were there to make money, not to help people, and as a result their profits often came at the expense of the local populations.

Why has it been so hard for Africa to recover from the effects of imperialism?

In many African communities, who has traditionally owned the land?

Why is it difficult for people who don't own their land to get access to a loan or other forms of money?

Summary

Question