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African History 1: Intro
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African History 7.1 Introduction 3 Views


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Description:

And now for everyone’s favorite subject: economics. Don’t get too excited. Seriously, though, there’s some pretty interesting stuff in here.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

When a lot of people picture Africa, they imagine a poor, war torn wasteland. [Pictures of deprived Africa and desolated towns]

00:09

And no doubt many African states have a lot of work to do as they recover from the fall

00:14

out of colonialism.

00:15

But right now in modern day Africa we can find

00:18

well-to-do villages, wealthy merchant companies, middle-class suburbs, and yes…even luxury

00:24

resorts.

00:25

Most people don’t think it’s possible to go sip a piña colada on an African beach, [Woman in beach chair drinking a cocktail]

00:29

but it totally is.

00:30

In the last fifty years, there’s been rapid development across Africa that has made the

00:34

lives of hundreds of millions of people better.

00:37

And now for the question everyone’s dying to ask…

00:40

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? [Owl with mortar hat licking Tootsie Pop]

00:42

Oh wait …No, hang on.

00:43

That's not it…

00:44

Here we go: which economic model has worked the best in Africa?

00:47

Well, in Africa it’s a…different strokes for different folks…type situation.

00:52

For example, Nkrumah’s extreme socialist reforms in Ghana actually worked

00:57

out pretty well in the long run.

00:58

How about that?

00:59

High education rates and good social services helped to launch a strong manufacturing industry. [Graph shows increasing rate of education]

01:05

Some other socialist states, especially Angola and Namibia, have also developed strong state-led

01:10

mixed economies.

01:12

With the rise of DJs in these areas, they’ll soon have remixed economies… [African DJ performing on stage]

01:18

Capitalist countries have many success stories too.

01:20

Oil-rich countries, in particular, have done well. Obviously..

01:23

South Africa and Gabon told the capitalist world…

01:26

Drill, baby, drill…and they raked in the cash.

01:29

Big companies, especially Shell, have set up so many oilfields in capitalist African

01:34

countries that Africa, not the Middle East, is currently America's No. 1 foreign supplier [Pictures of oil equipment all with Shell signs]

01:40

of bubblin’ crude.

01:41

Of course, these oilfields also kick people off their land, cause pollution, and contribute

01:46

greatly to global warming.

01:48

But there’s no arguing that the cash the oil industry creates has helped some African

01:52

countries stand up on their own two feet.

01:55

Nigeria has Africa's largest population but still provides many social services, paid

01:59

for mostly with oil money. [Man tries to pay at a market stall with a barrel of oil]

02:01

Oil-rich countries with less people to worry about do even better.

02:04

For example, Equatorial Guinea has more wealth per person than the EU.

02:10

How bout them apples, European Union?

02:12

Kenya, on the other hand, doesn’t have any oil.

02:15

But um well…hakuna matata baby.

02:17

Kenya’s path to development has been to create a hands-off government with strong property [Government building with arms lifting weights with property rights on them]

02:22

rights.

02:23

This has made it a banking hub and corporate headquarters for much of East Africa.

02:28

Tourism has also become a big thing in Kenya.

02:30

It’s developed a lot of tourist attractions.

02:33

Want an awesome safari?

02:35

Try Kenya or Tanzania, Kenya’s neighbor to the south.

02:38

Tourism as a development strategy has also picked up in North Africa, especially in Morocco,

02:43

where even the camels are capitalists. [Camel with lots of cash]

02:46

Socialist and capitalist, resource-poor and resource-rich, free and unfree, Christian,

02:51

Muslim, traditional, whatever…every country has its own paths to development.

02:57

And the economies of African states are catching up in the race.

03:00

Maybe they took some lessons from those Kenyan Olympic runners. [Kenyan runner leads a race]

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