Economics: It has been a very rough ride for Sub-Saharan Africa for a decade now, as far as economic growth is concerned. Yes, all the other components of Human Development Indices show substantial and extremely heartening progress. But when you take a look at the relative real GDP per capita picture since decolonization, you cannot help but be totally terrified:

Javier Blas: What Happened to Africa Rising? It’s Been Another Lost Decade: ‘The continent’s social and political malaise are symptoms… not the causes…. An utter dependence on commodities has proven harmful…. Borrowing costs…. The legacy of the recent Covid crisis persists…. A young and increasingly urban population that voraciously consumes social media, and you have an explosive cocktail…. Sub-Saharan Africa GDP per capita peaked in 2014 at $1,936 and has since fallen more than 10%… [while] global GDP per capita has risen nearly 15%…. Lifting GDP per capita can be a grueling fight against booming population growth. Over the last two decades, the size of the sub-Saharan population has doubled to 1.2 billion… expanding at a rate of, at least, 2.5% per year…. At risk isn’t merely the prosperity of a region that would be home to more than 3.5 billion people by 2100…. Without better living conditions… there’s no chance that democracy and freedom will be sustained or that nations will have the resources to adapt to climate change. The West better start paying attention now… <bloomberg.com/opinion/features/2023-09-…>