The only reason it took the Europeans hundreds of years to get where they are is because there was no example. They had to engineer the wheel from nothing. As an analogy It's the difference between henry ford working out the bugs on the world's first assembly line and Tata motors or Hyundai copying ford's notes to build their own.
I will have to disrespectfully disagree.
There's a lot to the idea that we can just "Copy and Paste" Democracy.
- Free and Fair elections
- Mandatory voting
- Ranked choice voting
- Multiple Parties
- Freedom of the Press
Except for the fact that they(the US, the West) keep doing it and it keeps failing. (See the rise of right wing populism all over the "civilized" nations)
It fails when the West tries to impose it. (Afghanistan)
It fails when it springs up naturally (aka the Arab Spring)
Even in places where it supposedly took root - Mexico (PRI) and Japan (LDP) - you're really looking at one party rule for DECADES.
On the continent, for Ibrahim and the rest, the people with the guns have to agree to put the guns down.
The people in charge can't censor the news, kill journalists, or "turn off the internet"
Why would any of the current regimes voluntarily give up power? Especially if they, and their close friends and associates are paid?
That was the problem in Europe for centuries.
Why would any of the monarchs willingly give up power?
It's the same issue with the dictators...
The thing itself (democracy) is relatively straight forward - but getting there will be sweat, tears, and lots of blood.
Black nations have had dozens of examples, so I don't believe black people should accept the excuse of taking hundreds of years to develop. And while we most certainly had it bad, we're not the only people on Earth to have had it bad. As we speak, we are slowly watching the Vietnamese and the Malaysians develop and the French and British were horrible to them. I mean for God's sake Vietnam was bombed out without a single school or factory after fighting france, America, and China in quick succession. And they faced slavery, colonization, and cultural erasure from france. Yet Vietnamese are already lapping most of Africa.
I have to iterate what I mean by development.
There's economic development.
And there's political development.
There needs to be some semblance of law and order (political development) to build economic development.
In the case of China and Vietnam - the law and order was with the communist party. And both of those countries paid HEAVILY to build that law and order.
Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos = all neighbors of these two - have tried and failed. They're definitely repressing their people - but they can't develop their economies.
Economic growth is basically a tricky thing
I do in fact believe that Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, and South Africa can grow the same way.
And they may even do it by adopting liberal democracy + capitalism.
On the other hand - authoritarian capitalism (aka China) might also be a good model as well.
I just don't think it's easy.
It's only easy - if all the people with the guns - agree to move forward on it.
But all of them want a piece of the pie.
And if greed was the only thing to worry about - that'd be manageable - but then you have the Islamic Question.
Its Unacceptable that 56 black nations spread accross the entire world, with various conditions on multiple ccontinents can't figure this out.
I think they know what to do, the same way every fat person knows they need to put down the doughnuts and pick up the dumb bells.
It just ain't easy.
