African governments do seem to be supporting these industries are they not? This despite, even maybe because leaders are greedy and corrupt. Would not a greedy and corrupt leader seek to encourage industry, people like Hitler and Stalin encouraged industry in their country. In fact wouldn't a corrupt greedy dictator almost be more motivated to develop industries than someone who cared about his people?
Both of these people are probably psychopaths thus having a lack of empathy for other people. Despite this they encouraged industry in their nation, Joseph Stalin protected Russia from foreign domination from Germany meaning fighting against foreign domination showing that even a psychopath would prefer not to be ruled by foreigners. That Stalin killed millions of people is beside the point
Both cases show African governments promoting industry but being undermined by the west and the Africans couldn't retaliate. In these cases it isn't because African politicians were greedy and incompetent it was simply being pushed into a corner and not having any choice. As for greed and corrupt politicians look back to Hitler:
"European Union Polices Block African Agricultural Exports" From Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) July 2002
A World Bank report concluded that Mozambique could earn between US $130 and $230 more for a ton of shelled cashews than for a ton of raw nuts. However, in 1995 the World Bank and IMF forced Mozambique to phase out the tax that it used to discourage the export of unprocessed cashews. As a result the cashew processing industry collapsed and 7000 Mozambican workers lost their jobs.....
"US AND EU COTTON PRODUCTION AND EXPORT POLICIES AND THEIR IMPACT ON WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA:" from the ethical global association May 2004
More importantly, overproduction leads to widescale export-dumping. Cotton dumping has been a serious issue since 1997, and the US is the largest source of dumped agricultural commodities. Between 1997 and 2002 US cotton went from being dumped at an average price of 17% below the cost of production to being dumped at an average price of 61% below the cost of production....
...page 7
....To prevent a collapse of their cotton sectors, WCA (West and Central Africa) governments have been forced to divert limited financial resources away from other critical areas such as education, delivery of health services and development of rural infrastructure. 15 Access to food is also threatened by low cotton prices because many WCA countries rely on export revenue from cotton to purchase food imports. This is particularly important for countries such as Togo, Benin, Chad, Burkina Faso and Mali where the export revenue of cotton accounts for more than 10% of total national export revenue.
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Gabon bans log exports and wants to promote industries in finished wood products. I wonder how common that theme is African governments discouraging export of raw materials like the Mozambique example from the last post
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