I attended the lecture give by Nicolas van de Walle on “good government” and Africa. I can’t say that before this lecture I knew anything about Africa, because geography is definitely not my strong suit. I had heard something about colonization before, but had never known that all but one country in Africa was previously colonized, mainly by the British and French, and some by the Portuguese. While The United States started as colonies, it quickly moved away from that and began statehood before much of the country had even been explored.

This brings me to the stark differences to other Continents that Africa maintains. There have been many attempts over the decades and centuries to help Africa out of poverty and into a “good” government. There have been apparently many attempts to figure out what plagues parts of Africa, be it lack of technology, lack of education, or corruption. All three have been theories put to the test, using aid from other countries to build dams, build schools, or put new people in power. Unfortunately, due to massive corruption, inequality, and strictness, nothing has seemed to fix the problem so far. It was interesting to hear takes by both Jarrett and Nicolas, as they both have been to Africa and I have never known anyone else who has.

This talk made me realize that I really don’t know much about places that aren’t very publicly talked about here in the United States, and I should take it upon myself to learn more.