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Obstacles to progress

Challenges

“ Evidence suggests that Africa's slave trades played an important part in the shaping of the

continent not only in terms of economic outcomes, but cultural and social outcomes as well.
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We have shown that within Africa low levels of trust can be traced back to the legacy of the
slave trade. Individuals' trust in their relatives, neighbors, coethnics, and local government is

lower if their ancestors were heavily affected by the slave trade
The evidence suggests that the slave trade had an adverse effect on the external environment,

which continues to affect trustworthiness to this day. We also find evidence that the slave
trade altered the trust of modern Africans through internal factors, such as norms, beliefs, and

values. 8
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Combining contemporary individual-level survey data with historical data on slave shipments
by ethnic group, we find that individuals whose ancestors were heavily raided during the slave
trade are less trusting today. Evidence from a variety of identification strategies suggests that

the relationship is causal. “
"The Slave Trade and the Origins of Mistrust in Africa." 175
Nunn, Nathan, and Leonard Wantchekon
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Racism

" Slavery was not born of racism, rather racism was the consequence of slavery.' With this
racial twist was invented the myth of colour inferiority. This myth supported the subsequent

rape of our continent with its despoliation and continuing exploitation under the advanced
forms of colonialism and imperialism."

"Africa Must Unite"
Kwame Nkrumah 168
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" Take up the White Man's burden--

Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild--

Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child."

"The White Man's Burden" (1899)
Rudyard Kipling