You better believe that Africa matters

By Charles Ray

For too long in the West, primarily the United States and Western Europe, the continent of Africa has been viewed as peripheral to world affairs. It was thought of only in terms of the natural resources that could be extracted from it or as a place of poverty, violence, and disasters – natural and man-made. As a diplomat who has served in Africa, a journalist who has photographed and written about the continent, and now as a think-tank analyst who studies Africa, this view of Africa is short-sighted and needs to be revisited.

Although Africa is home to some of the most strategic minerals on the planet, such as gold, copper, cobalt, and oil, it does have more than its fair share of problems—some of them self-inflicted, but others either not of its own making or exacerbated by the actions of outsiders. Nonetheless, the continent is far more dynamic and diverse than most Westerners realize and for a whole host of reasons it does matter.

Resource Rich Yet Still Poor

Africa’s resources, including people – during the height of the global slave trade – have always been both a curse and a blessing to the continent. Because it possesses a significant proportion of global reserves of some strategic minerals, it has often been, and still is, a pawn in the struggles between powerful countries to gain access to and control of minerals that are vital to modern industry. Africa is estimated to contain 21 percent of the world’s total gold reserves and 85 percent of platinum, just as two examples.