In the 1800's, when the Europeans first began to travel deep into the interior of Africa, they found societies that had never seen matches, coal or rubber; people that did not use gas or kerosene lights; who had never seen bicycles, postage stamps, or stoves. They saw cities without sewage systems, dirt roads, great herds of thin cattle, and vast farmlands where the people had only simple tools and planted by hand. This was, however, not strange to the whites because, at that time in their history, most of Europe didn't have those things either!  In fact, matches, bicycles, rubber, stoves, stamps, bathrooms, even the popular use of coal did not occur until after 1800!

     Moreover, the European "explorers" (Mungo Park, Denham Dixon, Renee Caillie, and others) saw cities and economic activity that compared favorably with Europe. In their journals, they clearly documented the fact that the Black Africans had tremendous economies, many large cities, tens of thousands of horses, great armies, wonderful fashions, leather goods, books, and guns. Not only did they write about these things, they actually published, in the days before photography, drawings of them. Click here to see a few of these drawings.

     How is it (or why is it) that the image of Africa that is commonly shown to us makes it seem that Africa is many centuries behind the rest of the world? Why is it that even today, the majority of images of Africa that our children are exposed to are those of wild animals or extreme poverty? Does Africa lag centuries behind the rest of the world??

     Let's think about this subject deeply before drawing conclusions. One key to understanding how and when this wide gap between the 'developed' and the 'developing' countries came about is demonstrated in the relationship between new ideas and opportunities to develop them.

     If I were to invent a revolutionary new product, it would have to be mass-produced and successfully marketed before it made any difference. Mass production requires large amounts of capital  and the infrastructure (roads, power supplies, worker proximity, government support) to make it happen. There also has to be room for mistakes, trial and error, and research and development. Think about how many wild and unsuccessful attempts were made to create new forms of airplanes and other motor vehicles.  The space to incorporate failure (research and development) into creating new technology is absolutely vital to the success of new technologies; and that space is spelled C-A-P-I-T-A-L. If I didn't have access to the capital to support any of these requirements (or connections with people who did) the opportunity to revolutionize society would be lost in my region.

     In Europe of the 1800's, opportunities and access connected at a fast and furious pace, fueled to a very large degree by the vast capital sums created by the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. In other words, the unpaid  labor of millions of African men, women, and children slaves and the industries that this labor supported paved the way for the radical changes in technology of the 20th century. (not to mention Black Inventors) 

     The 20th century has seen more rapid changes in technology than any 100 year period in history. It took just 66 years for aviation to progress from Kitty Hawk to the moon. But for much of the 'developing' or 'Third World', taking full advantage of the new technologies to develop infrastructure at home was blocked by a political system called colonialism.

     More interested in getting cheap raw materials - oils, timber, copper and minerals to feed Europe's expanding infrastructure; and gold, diamonds and gems to feed their capital demands - colonial governments introduced enough new technology to get raw materials out, but not fundamentally alter the way of life in the colonies, or encourage indigenous creativity, as it was doing in their own countries.

     Ironically, many important, new inventions were made by the sons and daughters of Africa, in the West. It is clear, that with full access and opportunity, Africa would would not be behind for long.

Even so, the period that saw the technological distancing of the West from much of the rest of the world was not centuries ago, but primarily the 20th century.

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