Last Wednesday at Rose Cafe, Professor van de Walle of the Department of Government spoke to us about African economic development. I knew little about Africa’s political and economic history to begin with, so I was very interested in learning more from an expert. The world is becoming increasingly interconnected and Africa’s economic and political state will affect every other country.

Due to Africa’s richness in natural resources, it was victim to colonization by European powers. However, after countries slowly started gaining independence, their rate of economic growth was still very slow, and Professor van der Walle attributes this lag to bad government and its immense corruption. Bribery and stealing entire budgets were common occurrences. Professor van de Walle suggested combating corruption by cutting off money aid to offending countries, and offered a set of criteria to determine whether a country should receive international aid.

I thought it was pretty amazing how Professor van de Walle spent a substantial amount of time in Africa directly observing and experiencing their government and corruption. During his talk, I was intrigued to hear how he applied his economics and government background to exploring the reasons behind Africa’s lag in economic growth. Now that increasing number of countries see the potential for growth in Africa, they are investing more in the country. However, the current political system and level of corruption directly affects a country’s willingness to invest. Professor van de Walle concludes that a democratic system of government has proven the most successful form of government in Africa. Only very few exceptions of thriving non-democratic countries exist. I enjoyed Professor van de Walle’s talk because it gave me many new insights on the political economy of Africa.