Why are black-majority countries underdeveloped?

I have travelled a bit to some African countries, Asia, and Western and Eastern Europe, and I have realised that the quality of life in every country I have been to can be traced to the culture of the people. These cultures are born out of the people’s beliefs, which form the building blocks of that society.

Growing up as a millennial, I had a question about why we are poor as a country but have an abundance of natural resources and also why all black countries seem to be poor, whether in Africa or out of Africa. However, I have also seen poorer communities in Eastern Europe and Asia.

As a Christian who holds a biblical worldview and a reformer, I am burdened by how life is lived in my part of my world. I am yet to pinpoint any black African country as a prosperous nation. Is there a wealthy or developed black Country?

And I don’t know if you know one, but it is a shame and disappointing. We even seem not to understand the dynamics of us as a black society. As in Ghana, some say, “the black person is only capable of destroying things”. “The black man’s mind is darkened and full of evil”. The continent is even called “the dark continent.” Many seem to blame it on colonisation and exploitation. But is Africa the only continent colonised? I used to agree with these sayings, but after some travels and exposure to other races, I’m afraid I no longer share the same opinion. The creation of wealth and the flourishing of a nation has nothing to do with race or a country’s geographic location per se. Many have come to believe they can’t do anything transformational that transcends generations or stands for the cause of humanity because they are black and live on the continent of Africa.

What went wrong?

In recent days, there has been a push for the animalistic worldview. Once the dominant religion in Ghana’s history, some people call it the African spirituality religion, including the worship of the dead (ancestorial worship). Some claim these practices are “our tradition” as Ghanaians, but is this claim accurate? Associating African identity with a specific religion is a form of imposition and brainwashing. It is not a right to be born into traditional African worship but rather a choice. When people refer to their religious beliefs as “our tradition,” they refer to their beliefs towards polytheistic deities rather than a collective tradition. These practices have been ingrained in our Ghanaian fabric, which inform our values and subsequent actions. Unfortunately, our worldview is often characterised by corruption, injustice, dishonesty, hate, greed, lies, and poverty.

The individual who wants to be different and stand against these things in the workplace,  society, and the government become the target of persecution. Why? Because the wrong view of our world encompasses these realities and guides our daily lives. “The good person who stands in the way must be eliminated or taken out,” becoming the ideal way we solve our personally inflicted problems. Using state institutions, influential individuals in authority like a politician, a Chief or a public office holder, lying against them or blackmailing them, sometimes some even go further to invoke the spirit of the dead (ancestral spirit) to cause them harm.

On the flip side of African ancestral (dead) worship, the empirical evidence: I have seen statues of the forbears of Western and Eastern Europeans that are put up to remind their generations of what these heroes and villains have done for their country and the history they must learn from so the bad doesn’t repeat itself. These statues of the people who helped turn the fortunes of their countries into what we call a civilised world are long gone.

Yet, they are not symbols of worship but history. Why? They believe that God endows the individual who is alive. When educated and given the opportunity, that individual can do great things for himself, his family, and humanity. Switzerland, with a human population of approximately 8 million, is the world’s most innovative country.

But in Ghana, we believe we are not able to develop as a nation because we have abandoned ancestral worship or African spirituality. However, the counter-argument is when you pick countries like Benin in West Africa and Haiti, situated in the Caribbean Islands on the continent of North America. These countries’ main dominant religion is Voodoo, yet they are among the poorest nations in the world.”

According to an article published by BBC on 18 November 2011, “Titled the Reality of Voodoo in Benin.“

“Voodoo is recognised as an official religion, followed by 40% of the population. Voodoo Day is a public holiday. And there is a national Voodoo museum.”
“Benin is severely underdeveloped, and corruption is rife. While the country has experienced economic growth over the past few years and is one of Africa’s largest cotton producers, it ranks among the world’s poorest countries.”

“In April 2003, an executive decree by then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide sanctioned Voodoo as an official religion in Haiti. “One common saying is that Haitians are 70 per cent Catholic, 30 per cent Protestant, and 100 per cent voodoo,” said Lynne Warberg, a photographer who has documented Haitian Voodoo for over a decade.”

“Haiti’s economic and social development continues to be hindered by political instability, increasing violence and unprecedented levels of insecurity, which exacerbate fragility. Haiti remains the poorest country in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region and among the poorest countries in the world.”

Has their cultural story encouraged human flourishing?

When you shift the story to Ghana, the point would be that Ghana and these two countries could have some striking similarities in national development and be categorised as “developing nations” despite differences in their respective significant religions.

2021 report on international religious freedom: Ghana.
By the U.S. Department of State, Office of International Religious Freedom. Under section I. Religious Demography (Ghana).

“The U.S. government estimates the total population at 32.4 million (midyear 2021). According to the 2010 government census (the most recent available with this data), approximately 71 per cent of the population is Christian.”

According to the statistics, many Ghanaians identify as Christians; many churches have an all-night service every Friday. And churches are probably full on Sundays. Most often, cities are busy with Christian activities, from crusades and door-to-door evangelism to dawn broadcasts. However, Ghana is among the developing countries in the world. “Richly poor.” What has possibly gone wrong with our potentially rich country?

The problem is not skin colour, black, brown or white, and the geographical location of Ghana. Creating order, beauty, abundance, freedom, space, diversity, and leadership has to do with the people’s cultural values. Beneath or the roots of the culture is the object of worship and the stories we have been told from one generation to the other. These have Shaped our mindsets, leading to the kind of nation we are today. Most black societies are profoundly spiritual, and any highly spiritual society approaches life from an emotional (Heart) perspective rather than a logical angle (head). It creates fear and a fatalistic culture. This environment makes the people vulnerable to exploitation and oppression.

Any society that wants to prosper must have a balance between heart and head. When the individual becomes Christian, he/she receives it on top of the animistic worldview instead of reforming the relationship with God, Self, others and the universe. Even though we identify as Christians, our thoughts and actions often reflect the spiritual beliefs of our polytheistic past, which had a great deal of influence on our worldview.

Example of how worldview can impact societies

When the State of Israel was formed in 1948, the land they had returned to was desolate and void. They created farms to transform the landscape and use creative and innovative technology to farm the ground, allowing human flourishing.

One problem the Israelis had to deal with was the animistic mindset of their neighbour, the Jordanians. In Arabic folklore, the owl symbolises bad luck and death, so the Jordanians kill them. In contrast, the Israelis see the owl as a bird to advance their agriculture sector (Pet control)—two different worldviews. Animism and the Judeo-Christian worldviews

In the year 70 DC, Mark in the New Testament pointed it out clearly in Mark 7:13, which still applies today. He said we make the word of God no effect through our tradition, which we have handed down. And many things we do. In the opening book of Romans 12, Paul is imploring the brethren who are the believers of Christ, among other things, not to conform to their surrounding worldview but to be transformed by renewing their minds. To prove what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is.  Paul is calling us to demonstrate what is good and acceptable in every sphere of human life toward ourselves, others( wife, husband, children and colleague), and the Environment. God’s will talks to God’s commands in Genesis: to work the land and take care of it. Bring beauty and abundance into creation. Expanding the garden of Eden from Genesis to the City ( Book of Revelation).

Changing a paradigm is challenging for cultures and societies. When a particular mindset (culture) becomes the people’s way of life for a long time, they are reluctant to let go of it. They become so attached to it that it defines who they are. A challenge on their paradigm becomes an attack on them, and they vigorously defend it. Letting go of the wrong ways of thinking takes time and work. If we want to see a better society, we must let go of cultures that formed the faulty mindsets of our people and have led us to where we are today. If we want to see Human flourishing in our country, we must discard bad cultures and uphold good ones that reflect objective reality.

This change requires us to go to the root of the ideas or the stories that create these cultures and have held us back for generations. It is more than IMF sovereign debt restructuring or World Bank developmental projects.