This sort of argument doesn't sit well with me.
3,000 years ago the Chinese, the Indians, the Greeks were doing their thing building their empires and economies, were they using Africans?
Did the Japanese use Africans to develop? The Koreans? The Singaporeans? Which are these minerals "building" the East? Can we consume all the minerals? The coffee? The tea?

They used their brains, laid down their priorities, put their houses in order and rolled their sleeves for serious business.

Blaming the size of our continent or oue countries on maps or turning them upside down won't take us anywhere. We should instead be looking at those maps,their geology, ecosystem etc, in order to help our country and our counties to develop.

I take the green part with both hands and legs.

In the West, Africa is referred to or thought to be the World’s cesspool.
Much more seriously though, it is reported that more than half of the 10 most rapidly growing economies are in Africa. The engine of growth in these economies is export of raw materials to the East. This is fake growth and is not sustainable in the long run. Sample this:

.The East buys raw materials from Africa, builds finished goods and sell the same to Africa at much higher cost.
.The East gives cheap loan to Africa so it can develop infrastructure, but the contractors, consultants and key materials are sourced from the same East. Then Africa is left paying back the loan for generations
.The East borrows ideas from the West, develops new / cheaper technologies to make more competitive products compared to those in West. This way, the East has been able to compete with the West.
.50 years after independence, we do not have any local contractor with capacity to build Thika Superhighway
.100 years ago after the British built the lunatic express, and 200 years after America built it’s railways, we still have to borrow funds and import labour to upgrade / build our own railway
.Who has ever heard of an African contractor winning a contract in the West or in the East?
In other words, we point accusing fingers to our fore fathers of 100-500 years ago that they were outsmarted and exploited by both the West and the East, yet in our time and age, under our very own eyes, the West and the East are indeed exploiting us in the very same way if not worse. Why can’t Africa build it’s own smart technologies (like M-PESA), exploit solar energy, make and export cheap finished goods etc. and compete with both West and East?

We can build those solar panels right here and export them as well. If need be we can still import some of the raw materials used in their manufacture and export finished goods just line the East is doing.
Those rare earth minerals in Kwale - Illumenite,Rutile and Zircon – Rather than exporting the raw materials and earn peanuts, then import finished goods, we can use them to make finished goods right here such as paints, ceramics & tiles. These we can use when building our houses and export the remainder. I have never understood why we have to import tiles, sanitary fixtures, light fittings etc made in the East when building our houses.
Those rare earth minerals in Congo – Why can’t Kenya import them (at an advantage due to the short distance), make finished goods and export finished goods to the West and East? Why must the raw materials be exported to China, then we pay for finished goods including cost of transporting raw materials and then finished goods? What a waste?

@masukuma, Isn't @limanika saying we should start building our own? How is that retrogressive?

Ama lazima maps zi-change first before anything can happen?

Help me understand. Start with local road contractors for ease of understanding.

I ditto everything here.

And cars/machinery, why in heavens name can't we manufacture our own machinery? We have the machines here.. Let's 'copy' what we have (improve on it if need be), rename the same and use it! Unethical someone might say, but we've been dealt with unethically for hundreds of years.. We would call it 'sharing'.

We should STOP export of any raw materials! If someone has found a use for what we have, let them come here and build a factory and we can discuss how to share the profits!!! We are the regional godfather, we don't take care of ourselves and thereafter our neighbors, who will?