What is it that keeps African Nations from advancing and ...

[Sandstorm]

Its a vicious cycle:

1)People don't invest
2)Poverty leads to radical solutions
3)Radical governments lead to corruption
4)Corruption and radical governments lead to violence
5)Violence leads to lack of investment -->go back to step 1

Another underlying factor is that when imperialistic powers carved up Africa back in 1880 and again when imperialism fell in the late 1940's and 50's, they did not take into account all of the diverse ethnic groups that already existed there. Thus, many tribes soon found that they had been split from their preexisting tribes and forced into new territory with other tribes, leading to ethnic violence and general disagreement.

[penguins]

The "governments" have fewer resources than the warlords.  That's basically the problem in all of the countries that suck that bad, regardless of the continent.

Look at Central and South America and you have the same problem, the drug cartels have more money and resources than the government.  Same deal in Afghanistan, only it's the opium warlords.

It's all over the place.

Africa sucks because their governments were too weak to prevent warlords from capturing diamond and gold mines.  We didn't really care, and bought their products anyway.  They used our money to buy AK-47s and wage war on any entity that tries to usurp their power.  This formula applies to pretty much all the crappy countries out there, just insert "cocaine" or "opium" in place of diamonds and gold.

[Hawke]

I'll give you the economic perspective:

Countries in Africa, for whatever reason (mostly culture or their way of life), can't produce anything because they're too busy trying to survive. I'm not sure if you're familiar with the term "opportunity cost," but it can best be described as what you COULD be doing instead of what you are doing. For example. When I get home from school, the first thing I want to do is check Facebook, and my second is to do homework. If I check Facebook, my opportunity cost is doing homework... it's basically what I don't do because I'm doing something else.

Similarly, African nations don't produce capital because they don't have time. Their opportunity cost for surviving is producing capital... something which unfortunately they will never get to. So, without capital, the country drastically reduces it's production possibilities, rendering it almost useless in the international market.

Ultimately, I would say that it's just their way of life that put them at this disadvantage. In Western culture, we are always in a state of "becoming." Meaning we always are into what's the next big thing... or what can we invent. You know? Whereas in African culture, they are always in the state of "being." They don't care what's next, and they don't want to become, they just want to be. Then that was taken advantage of during the European colonization period, thus, making them helpless.

[j_sun]

the continent itself.

[federox]

European Imperialists, International Monetary Fund, World Trade Organization, and the World Bank just to name a few.