India and the Dynamics of World Politics

Chapter 3

Africa and its Challenges

Africa is a land of abundant natural resources. It contains 53 independent and sovereign countries, most of which were European colonies till recent times. These colonial powers exploited resources for their advantages without contributing in the development of the continent. And that brought to a situation where Africa remains the world’s poorest and most underdeveloped continent. Bottom ranking in the UN Human Development Report is occupied by the African nations. These countries suffer from different kind of social problems like diseases (malaria and AIDS), illiteracy, malnutrition, poverty and political problems like corrupt government, border disputes and civil wars etc. In an era when most of the countries ...