Description

Book Description

Africa possesses vast natural resources, an expanding labor force, and growing educational capacity, yet remains structurally dependent on the export of raw materials and the importation of manufactured goods and technology. This persistent configuration raises a fundamental development question: why has material abundance not translated into industrial transformation?

In Stupid Africa, Mogana S. Flomo, Jr. presents a systematic examination of Africa's political economy from the colonial period to the present. Drawing on classical African political thought, contemporary institutional data, and global development literature, the book analyzes the historical construction and modern reproduction of Africa's extractive economic model. It revisits the warnings of Kwame Nkrumah, Patrice Lumumba, and Thomas Sankara, and situates them within current African Union policy frameworks and global value chain dynamics.

The central argument advanced is that Africa's underdevelopment is not primarily a function of resource scarcity, but of limited structural execution in industrialization, value addition, and production governance. The book further explores the roles of education–industry misalignment, debt-financed consumption, infrastructure deficits, and psychological dependency in sustaining this condition.

Moving beyond diagnosis, the work proposes a continental production agenda emphasizing industrial policy coordination, energy and infrastructure alignment, technology transfer, financing of manufacturing, and institutional capacity for implementation.

Positioned at the intersection of development economics, African studies, and policy analysis, Stupid Africa offers a critical contribution to contemporary debates on Africa's economic sovereignty and long-term transformation.