African Geography: Unintelligent Design

The humility to admit the true cause of African underdevelopment

Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep.
'Cause every hand's a winner
And every hand's a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep.

(Kenny Rogers, The Gambler)

[Image: Africa at the poker table. What a hand!]

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If ever there were an argument against intelligent design, it would be African Geography. When one looks at the economic development of Africa, using whatever metric you choose to select, it falls tragically behind that of any other inhabited continent. Which seems surprising because it is there where human civilisation began. In a 10,000 metre race, it was they who were out of the blocks while their continental competitors were still sleeping.

When trying to explain this anomaly, we have gone down one of two dead ends. At least traditionally. On one hand, the white supremecist community have dabbled in discredited racial theories; of these we feel no need to elaborate. On the other hand, it has become voguish to blame Western colonialism for all the continent’s ills. This is a hugely complex issue. Many libraries could be filled with arguments back and forth. And they are. But even if we were to condemn the imperial project in the most damning of terms, without qualification, nuance or the merest balance, Africa’s status as the poorest continent would still likely be the case. Not because of human actions one way or the other; but rather because of the vagaries of inhospitable geography.

The tendency to ignore natural ontology in favour of human agency is a product of monotheist religion. As explored in previous articles, it is the monotheist case that God exists beyond nature and just as He is able to create without the boundaries of natural law, so we too are capable of overcoming our natural limitations. I too subscribe to this mode of thought. It is empowering, non-determinist and leaves hopelessness knocking vainly at the door. Although we may be marked deeply by our genetic nature and unchosen environment, we have the power to rise above and create a new world. It may take generations. Indeed it most certainly will. But with patience and intergenerational conversation, we will progress.

But though this view is attractive and backed up by the evidence of great lives past and present, it doesn’t tell the whole story. Since the release of Kenny Rogers’ greatest hit, it has become common to make poker analogies. And this essay will be no exception. For though Africans have freedom to decide; to act wisely and with economic transparency; to act towards a better future untainted by calamities of the past; they have been dealt the cruelest of hands. They can win, playing with cunning unprecedented, but the odds are against them. China and India have been dealt a high pair, Europe the King and Jack suited and America a pair of pocket aces. It is not impossible for they with a 7 and 2 unsuited to win, but it would be improbable. And when fate delivers you that hand time and time again, you would be forgiven if you cursed Heaven above for your wretchedness. You too may be made in the Image of God, graced with the subjectivity to advance beyond the natural prison walls, but the suggestion that He designed this maze of geographical vexation intentionally, is an insult that only the sadist would accept. The African can accept Divine freedom; but Intelligent Design must be indicted with charges most grievous and be condemned to a dustbin marked foolishness.

When speaking of how African geography has condemned it to development hell it is hard to know where to start. But let us begin with the power that has spurred economic progress from China to the Mississippi basin: Rivers. In particular, navigable rivers that calmly flow through relatively flat plains into the sea. In Europe, the Creator was most generous. And within His most benificent gift to humanity - the United States - the mighty Mississippi and its voluminous tributaries took 19th Century trade gratefully from the great interior of the North American continent all the way to the ocean at New Orleans. Having secured control of the entire river system from its European rivals, the American nation was near-guaranteed booming trade and eventual domination of the world economy. Many millennia before, the Chinese people had been gifted such a blessing in the Yangtze river which brought in its flowing wake a history defining civilization with a common language and relative “national” solidarity. And back on the European continent, the gallic-loving Creator proved to be at His most beneficent. With high mountain ranges protecting the future France from the South East and South West, ocean boundaries to the West and North, dense Walloonian forests to the East and vulnerabilities only limited to the North East, a natural nation, united by language and destiny, was assured of creation. Whilst other territories were splintered by ethnicity, language and indefensible borders, the French King was able to make his Writ law throughout a vast territory. And gifted with green vegetation, fertile plains and - crucially - navigable rivers that flowed to oceans, the wealth of the French Kingdom was predetermined.

Yet Africa was denied all such luxuries. The Niger river, often seen as one of the more hospitable waterways on the continent, can only be seen as such in relative terms. Its source may be located close to the West African coast, but having wound its way circuitously through the semi-arid countryside, it only eventually crawls its way into the sea beyond. Its navigability is intermittent at best. Vast swathes of the river in Northern Nigeria are only open to trade in certain months of the year, leaving just the portion up to 200 kilometres from the Southern Nigerian coast (to Onitsha) permanently open to shipping. This explains the relative prosperity and booming population of the South of that country as compared to the regions and nations there about.