Negussie Siyum* Sirinka Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia *Corresponding author: Negussie Siyum, Sirinka Agricultural Research Center, Woldiya, Ethiopia, Email: Submission: January 24, 2018; Published: February 15, 2018 Why Africa Remains Underdeveloped Despite its Potential? Which Theory can Help Africa to Develop? Introduction Africa is rich in gold, diamonds, oil and many other coveted natural resources. Yet it has not managed to capitalize on its wealth: its infrastructure is underdeveloped, its economies are small and unsophisticated, and its people languish in poverty [1]. Africa’s economic performance remains dismal and prospects for the new millennium are bleak. The continent, consisting of 54 countries, is the least developed continent of the Third World despite its possessing immense wealth of mineral and natural resources. Compared with the third world, development indicators of Africa have lagged persistently behind. For example, in 1997, GDP per capita for Africa was $560, compared to $4,230 for Latin America and $730 for Asia. Economic growth rates in Africa in the 1970’s averaged only 4 to 5 percent while Latin America recorded a 6 and 7 percent growth rate. From 1986 to 1993 the continent’s real GNP per capita declined 0.7 percent, while the average for the Third World increased by 2.7 percent. For all Africa, real income per capita dropped by 14.6 percent from its level in 1965, making most Africans worse off than they were at independence [2]. Countries of the west landes asserts prospered early through the interplay of a vital, open society focused on work and knowledge, which led to increased productivity, the creation of new technologies, and the pursuit of change. Europe’s key advantage lay in invention and know-how, as applied in war, transportation, generation of power, and skill in metalwork. Even such now banal inventions as eyeglasses and the clock were, in their day, powerful levers that tipped the balance of world economic power. Today’s new economic winners are following much the same roads to power, while the laggards have somehow failed to duplicate this crucial formula for success. The key to relieving much of the world’s poverty lies in understanding the lessons history has to teach us- lessons uniquely imparted in this towering work of history. This world is divided roughly into three kinds of nations: those that spend lots of money to keep their weight down; those whose people eat to live; and those whose people don’t know where the next meal is coming from. Along with these differences go sharp contrasts in disease rates and life expectancy. The people of the rich nations worry about their old age, which gets ever longer. They exercise to stay fit, measure and fight cholesterol, while away the time with television, telephone, and games, and console themselves with such euphemisms as “the golden years” and the troisième âge. “Young” is good; “old,” disparaging and problematic. Meanwhile the people of poor countries try to stay alive. They do not have to worry about cholesterol and fatty arteries, parity because of lean diet, parity because they die early. They try to ensure a secure old age, if old age there be, by having lots of children who will grow up with a proper sense of filial obligation [3]. The old division of the world into two power blocs, east and west, has subsided. Now the big challenge and threat is the gap in wealth and health that separates rich and poor. These are often styled north and south, because the division is geographic; but a more accurate signifier would be the west and the rest, because the division is also historic. Here is the greatest single problem and danger facing the world of the third millennium. The only other worry that comes close is environmental deterioration, and the two Review Article Open Access Biostatistics & Bioinformatics C CRIMSON PUBLISHERS Wings to the Research Abstract Africa is rich in natural as well as human resources which are the basis for the prosperity of a given nation. Despite its potential the continent is still underdeveloped. Different scholars have tried to analyze the root causes of under development in Africa in different perspective. Some from the colonization perspective and others from the political set up of the continent. Based on this rational, we were initiated to review different literatures to identify the real causes of poverty in Africa, and to recommend an appropriate development theory for the continent. The socio political set up of African countries has a similarity with those of the East Asian nations which have brought economic progress through exercising developmental state. These countries were able to solve their citizens’ unemployment through implementing technical education in their education policy, which is the peculiar feature of developmental state. Therefore, African leaders have to strive for change in the continent to reverse the situation through applying developmental state theory and gradually in a way of exercising democratic culture in the region. 1/5 Copyright © All rights are reserved by Negussie Siyum Volume 1 - Issue - 2