Why is the United States of America so rich, while Africa is so poor? In my estimation, it can all be reduced to one simple word: Patriotism.
You see, in the United States, the Patriots won. They successfully evicted the European colonialist powers from their continent. As a consequence of this, their wealth was no longer being stolen from them and exported to Europe, but rather, remained domestically, serving the interests of their people.
Unfortunately though, in Africa, the patriots lost. Their quest to preserve the African continent for the Africans failed, and so their wealth, and hence their legacy, were both expropriated by the Europeans; a travesty that continues to this very day.
If one were to visit Africa in the modern world, one would find a people who dream not of proudly representing their people, but rather of escaping what they see as the squalid confines of Africa, and pursuing the fulfillment of their dreams in "civilized" Europe. There is no pride in being African. There is only a sense of shame, as they see Europe as being superior to Africa in every way.
Had the Founding Fathers lost their Revolutionary War, this would have been America's sad fate as well. They would not have had any pride in being American, and would have been in deference to Europe in every way imaginable.
Luckily, this was not the fate of American civilization. And it need not be the fate of Africa's either. The day when African Patriotism finally succeeds in evicting Europe from its continent will be the day Africa finally rises culturally, militarily, and economically, to forever join the annals of human history, and to live in hope and prosperity for the rest of time.
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