Intro

In this episode Kevin Coldiron is joined by bestselling author Joe Studwell who speaks about his new book How Africa Works: Success and Failure on the World’s Last Development Frontier. We discuss why many of our perceptions about Africa are wrong - why one big problem has been too few people, not too many and why the continent isn’t as resource-rich as we think. Joe talks us through some surprising success stories - like Rwanda’s emulation of Singapore and Botswana’s success in avoiding “the resource curse”. This is the time to begin researching and understanding the opportunities in a continent that has more land mass than the US, China and India combined and will eventually be home to the majority of the world’s young people.

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Episode TimeStamps:

00:01 - Introduction to the episode and guest

02:04 - Why the book was written and initial motivation

05:50 - Outsider perspective and reactions in Africa

07:22 - The core idea: population density and development

08:22 - Why Africa’s growth lagged historically

14:23 - Population growth and changing economic potential

15:39 - Colonialism in Africa vs Asia

20:14 - Land, agriculture, and development differences

23:55 - Rise of private sector and food production

25:57 - Resources and the limits of extractive growth

29:56 - Botswana and managing resource wealth

36:21 - Rwanda’s development model and governance

44:41 - Ethnic dynamics and future stability

50:24 - China’s role and manufacturing potential

56:04 - Investing in Africa and long term outlook

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