https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/13e8e398-0bf3-4116-97b1-ed6ca323e923 Sri Lankan economist Howard Nicholas dismantles one of the most persistent narratives used to explain Africa’s condition. Speaking on The Breakdown With Sandra Babu-Boateng, he rejects the familiar claims of corruption or inertia as the root of underdevelopment. Instead, he points to something far more structural, and far more deliberate. Africa’s vast natural wealth is not a curse. It is precisely what makes the continent strategically significant, and, in his view, systematically constrained. Nicholas argues that the barriers to African industrialisation are not accidental failures of governance but the outcome of a global order that has little interest in seeing the continent fully realise its economic potential. A self-sufficient, industrialised Africa would not simply uplift its own populations. It would redraw the balance of global power. From this perspective, underdevelopment is not a mystery to be solved, but a condition that has been managed. The language of “resource curse” begins to look less like analysis and more like narrative. A way of explaining away inequality without confronting the structures that produce it. What Nicholas ultimately challenges is not just a theory, but an entire worldview. One that places responsibility on the exploited, while obscuring the systems that benefit from their stagnation. And in doing so, he reframes the question. Not why Africa has failed to rise, but who has prevented it from doing so. Tue, 07 Apr 2026 07:21:00 GMT https://validator.w3.org/feed/docs/rss2.html PeerTube - https://tankie.tube https://tankie.tube/lazy-static/avatars/3ba3ff73-a8b6-49c9-add8-9653ef090c7f.webp https://tankie.tube/videos/watch/13e8e398-0bf3-4116-97b1-ed6ca323e923 All rights reserved, unless otherwise specified in the terms specified at https://tankie.tube/about and potential licenses granted by each content's rightholder.