corruption is huge, but there is corruption in pretty much every single country in the world.
this would cause an effect liken to liberia. the management positions are already filled with africans, giving them to foreigners, even black will set of a series of events, ones that would not help AAs. AAs are also not going back home, that is a dream one should drop immediately.
They are already doing this. You cant add value because the market is set. Copper is the same price all over the world, Africans do not have technology nor the know how on how to extract. This is where chinese come in, they are sending flocks of students back to china for free schooling exclusively for these fields, as well as medical. You pretty much summed up what the chinese are doing and how it differentiates from the europeans. most people go to the states and europe correct, however they never go back. china on the other hand do not hand out citizenship and no africans is trying to chill in china like that. Thats why the turn around for those going to china compared to the west are extremely high.
coltan is cheaper than apple correct, and so you think africans have the know how on apple products? of course not. Chinas main goal is to turn africa into its factory so that they can begin to make the new chinese apple. what youre failing to realize is that China plans on turning africa into a second world region , sort of the way the US did, with cheap labor, factories, and management in China. If africa plays its cards right, they too can be in the position china is in right now. The blue print on fast growth is already there, and the chinese are assisting Africa in doing what it did. The difference is Africa doesnt have to import minerals so actually once they begin their own innovation, they could distribute the world at an even cheaper rate than china. China will have an extremely hungry middle class looking for cheaper goods than the ones even they make, the yuan wont be dirt cheap forever....
(1) Corruption has much more devastating effects in countries with weak institutions compared to countries with weak ones. At one point corruption in Africa will literally starve African population, I don't think it has been to that extent in the Western World
(2) I was not only talking about AAs. I was talking about Africans who left their country and went abroad to work, get an education or acquire some type of advanced skill . There is a million of them in the US and probably the best educated group. If AAs want to jump on that train also the continent needs it and won't object to it.
(3) I don't understand your third paragraph
(4) Fast growth is not necessarily sustainable. All this growth comes from the sale of commodities and NOT manufactured products. Sale of commodities are vulnerable to market prices (i.e oil drop in price) When I talk about value addition I don't necessarily isolated to complex things such the manufacture of computers. That's why I referenced the simple things such as orange juice and other agricultural commodities that can be processed into food for consumption. Those also fall into the conversation. The main thing that I was highlighting is ownership of African products I don't care whether China turns Africa into a world factory. At the end of the day Africa's goal should not be servitude or subordination. I think the tech age will help Africa skip a lot of steps when I was in Africa, I noticed that the continent basically skipped the whole landline phone period straight to cell. Why does Africa need to be China's factory backyard when it can become like the Southeast Asian countries like SIngapore, Indonesia, Malaysia etc ...