The present day borders of the countries in Africa are a colonial legacy, that is, they were drawn with the specific purpose of exploiting the resource potential and assuring colonial control as opposed to what would best serve the interests of the people in those countries for future development. Africa is suffering the long term effects of this colonial legacy, coupled with the aftereffects of the Cold War and its massive infusion of weapons into African militaries and society.
The colonial powers, especially Britain, were sure to draw borders around resources they could use, and to do so in such a way that minority tribes who had long been oppressed by majority tribes would end up in the same country together. Britain would then empower the minority tribe with education, government jobs and privileges. In return, the minority tribes would remain loyal to the British and assure the flow of resources was unimpeded. This was called indirect rule, and while it worked well from a colonial standpoint, it built up long term resentment from an African one, and assured that wars and civil strife would be the order of the day long after the empires had left.
Post-African independence, that is, starting around 1961, both the Soviet Union and the United States courted African leaders with foreign economic and military aid. This served to reinforce dictatorships and oppression as those same leaders played the two superpowers against each other and lined their pockets at the same time. As the Cold War eventually came to a close, the same enemy tribes stuck with colonial borders were still armed to the teeth.
I believe it is these two legacies which are directly responsible for the lack of economic development in African nations, and the ongoing human tragedy in most of them today.
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