Out of Africa to the World: A Long History of Extraction
From antiquity, Africa has given the world its best – without reciprocity or acknowledgement. (Imagined by Gemini AI)
Africa has been the fulcrum of a long history of unfair exchanges with the world. From the beginning of recorded history to the present day, Africa has been a treasure trove of resources that the world has consistently extracted—often without fair compensation or regard for the continent’s well-being. How is it that the narrative of poverty has become so strongly attached to a land that has made the nations of the earth rich? Africa is home to some of the richest mineral deposits on Earth, and these have been heavily exploited.
As far back as 3000 BCE, Ancient Egypt was famed for its gold. Nubian mines along the Nile fed the wealth of pharaohs and temples. Centuries later, the Mali Empire (1235–1600 CE), under rulers like Mansa Musa, dazzled the world with gold so abundant that it could destabilize currencies. Traders from Europe and the Middle East journeyed across the Sahara in search of it. Gold from Africa gilded churches, funded wars, and built palaces far beyond its shores. Gold was also exported from the Ghana Empire and South Africa for use in global currencies, jewelry, and industry. In 1886, gold was discovered in the Witwatersrand region of South Africa, sparking the world’s largest gold rush.
In the late 19th century, during the “Scramble for Africa” (1881–1914), European powers invaded and divided the continent—not just for territory, but for its treasures. Found in 1867, diamonds enriched colonial companies like De Beers. Africa’s diamonds are supplied to elite jewelers worldwide from South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), fueling the wealth of great dynasties on and off the continent. It has also been the cause of wars and conflicts, earning it the moniker in certain regions of Africa: blood diamonds.
From the 1950s onward, Africa’s vast oil fields became central to global energy markets. In 1956, Nigeria struck oil in Oloibiri. Today, it is Africa’s largest oil producer and the 7th-largest global exporter of crude oil. Angola and Algeria also rank among the continent’s major oil exporters, with oil making up more than 90% of Angola’s total exports. Despite this, regions rich in oil often face underdevelopment, environmental degradation, and internal conflict fueled by the unequal distribution of oil wealth. Nigeria, Angola, Libya, and Algeria have supplied high-quality oil and gas as major sources of global crude; which is often extracted by multinational companies, rather than local companies, until the recent entry of the Dangote Refinery in Nigeria.
POWERING MODERN TECHNOLOGIES
In the digital age, Africa powers the global tech supply chain. The DRC holds over 70% of global cobalt reserves. Coltan and cobalt are essential in the production of mobile phones, laptops, and electric vehicles, none of which are produced in Africa. Rather, Africa is a major importer of these manufactured goods. Today, Africa supplies over 60% of the world’s cobalt (used in batteries), with the Democratic Republic of Congo at its core. Coltan is also heavily mined in Central Africa, often linked to conflict zones. As of 2023, the global demand for cobalt is expected to double by 2030, placing Africa at the center of a green energy race.
Copper and Iron are supplied by Zambia, DRC, South Africa, and Mauritania for global construction and electrical industries. Africa still plays a critical role in nuclear energy. Uranium supplied by Niger and Namibia powers nuclear reactors in Europe. Niger is the world’s 5th-largest uranium producer. The mystery of the Oklo nuclear reactor site in Gabon remains unsolved as the only natural nuclear reactor in the world. The site is 2 billion years old. Namibia, too, exports uranium to China and France. Despite this, energy poverty remains widespread on the continent, with over 500 million Africans lacking access to electricity. Ghana and Guinea are also top exporters of bauxite, which is essential for aluminum production, and manganese, which is vital for steel and battery production.
LOST GENERATIONS: SLAVERY AND BRAIN DRAIN
Of all its exotic exports, human resources (slavery and brain drain) provided by Africa’s people have been among the most extracted resources. By the 15th century, a darker trade emerged. With the arrival of Portuguese ships on West Africa’s coast around 1444, Africa became the human engine of the Atlantic economy. Between 1500 and 1866, over 12 million Africans were forcibly enslaved and shipped across the Atlantic. Generations were lost. Families torn apart. African labor built the wealth of nations like Britain, France, Spain, and the United States. Africa’s greatest resource—its people—was extracted on an industrial scale. For over 400 years, more than 15 million men, women and children were the victims of the tragic transatlantic slave trade, one of the darkest chapters in human history.
Africa’s young, educated population is one of its greatest assets—but also one of its most exported. In modern times, Africa has continued to lose skilled labor and intellectual talent, as countless scientists, doctors, and academics to the West through the “brain drain.” These brains on loan are Africa’s most remarkable modern export In 2021, over 30,000 African doctors and nurses were registered in the UK alone. Thousands more tech developers, academics, and engineers are recruited globally. This “brain drain” fuels global systems while weakening African institutions and innovation
Africa’s rich heritage, history, civilizations and contributions to the world have also been mined—sometimes literally. Thousands of priceless cultural objects are housed in European museums, representing cultural and spiritual resources, artifacts and antiquities that were stolen during colonization and which remain even today in the West, such as the Benin Bronzes, Ethiopian manuscripts, and even the physical remains of African spiritual and political leaders. The remains of Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana are in Germany, where two prominent scientific collectors hold thousands of human remains, comprising the largest anthropological collection in the world, with more than 10,000 individuals. Calls to return these remains for proper burial in Africa have largely fallen on deaf ears. However, Nelson Mandela succeeded in repatriating the remains of “Hottentot Venus” Sarah Baartman, more than 190 years after she was captured and publicly paraded and displayed for the amusement and “freakish curiosity” of Europeans. She was buried with dignity back on African soil in 2002. The remains of Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman whose cells were used in cancer research and for the creation of the Polio vaccine, HIV and infertility research continue to be exploited to this day.
FEEDING AND HEALING THE WORLD
Africa’s agricultural commodities have been feeding the world for millennia and providing input for the capitalist production of global conglomerates for decades. Many staple foods and luxury crops have African origins or were extracted from the continent for global trade. When it comes to food, Africa shaped the world’s palette. Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana together account for more than 60% of global cocoa exports as of 2024 for the production of chocolate products and beverages in the West, which are consumed mainly in Europe and North America, but also exported to Africa at premium prices. Coffee is native to Ethiopia and Africa remains a key supplier of beans consumed globally. Ethiopia remains the spiritual and agricultural home of coffee, with the sector employing millions.
African traditional medicine and spirituality have inspired global wellness and esoteric systems but are often wrongly attributed to Western origins, misrepresented, or commercialized. Ancient African traditional medicine and the use of medicinal herbs have had profound contributions to surgery, modern medicine, and pharmaceuticals. Many practices and plant-based remedies from Africa laid the foundation for healing methods and drug discovery worldwide. Ancient African traditional medicine has significantly shaped surgical practices, drug development, and medical systems worldwide. Techniques such as caesarean sections and fracture setting influenced modern surgical procedures, while numerous herbs led to the discovery of life-saving drugs. Today, pharmaceutical companies continue to study Africa’s vast ethnobotanical knowledge for new medicines.
Cotton and rubber were extracted during colonial times for global textile and industrial needs. Spices and medicinal plants, including the kola nut (which is the secret ingredient used in early Coca-Cola production), as well as shea butter, and African ginger, are all ingredients in many cosmetic and food products in the West. Palm oil, originating from West Africa, is widely used in the global food and cosmetic industries. Africa’s cotton exports, particularly from Burkina Faso, Benin, and Mali, make it the 5th-largest cotton-exporting region in the world.
Africa’s wealth goes beyond the physical. It includes culture, heritage, and knowledge systems, which are purloined and displayed elsewhere. In 1897, British troops looted the Benin Bronzes, now scattered in European and American museums. Thousands of Ethiopian manuscripts, Congolese carvings, and Egyptian relics remain locked behind glass, far from their cultural roots. Even Africa’s spiritual and medicinal systems—such as Ifá, Nsibidi writing, and plant-based medicine—have inspired wellness and esoteric industries worldwide, often with little credit or compensation.
CARBON ABSORPTION: A SKEWED DEBT
Africa’s ecosystems are invaluable, not only for the continent but for the world. It’s forests and biodiversity (such as Central Africa’s rainforests in the Congo Basin) are crucial for global oxygen and carbon absorption. The Congo Basin rainforest is the second largest on Earth, absorbing over 1.2 billion tons of carbon annually. Logging and poaching are however endangering these invaluable ecosystems. Land grabs by foreign nations and corporations for agricultural use in the Nile, Congo, and Niger rivers are essential to life, also pose a threat as these water sources are exploited for hydroelectric power and industry. Between 2000 and 2020, over 100 million hectares of land in Africa were leased or sold to foreign companies for agribusiness or biofuel production.
Let us take a look at Africa’s Modern Exports (2024–2025 Snapshot)
| Resource | Sector Top Exporting Countries | Global Share / Value (2024) |
| Crude Oil | Nigeria, Angola, Algeria | ~$150 billion annually |
| Cocoa | Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana | >60% of global supply |
| Cobalt | DRC | ~70% of global production |
| Gold | South Africa, Ghana, Mali | $40+ billion annually |
| Coffee | Ethiopia, Uganda | $4 billion annually |
| Uranium | Niger, Namibia | 10% of global exports |
| Cotton | Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali | 2.5 million tons exported |
| Diamonds | Botswana, Namibia, Angola | 30% of global gem-quality diamond exports |
Africa has given much, yet injustice and a lack of fair trade practices prevail. Multinational corporations continue to profit disproportionately from African resources. Many African countries remain trapped in resource dependence, where wealth doesn’t translate to development. Africa’s riches rarely benefit local communities. Instead, they fuel profits for foreign corporations, often under exploitative conditions. Despite their centrality in global markets, African farmers still earn only a fraction of the value generated by these industries. Minerals are exported raw, with limited local refining or industrialization, leading to lost revenue and jobs.
Climate injustice is stark. Africa contributes the least to global emissions, yet suffers some of the worst impacts of climate change. Africa has given the world gold, oil, diamonds, intellectuals, culture, and food—but often without receiving just returns. The challenge today is to reverse the tide by ensuring fair trade, local benefits, and the return of stolen heritage.
The year 2025 has been designated by the African Union (AU) as the “Year of Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations“
Recommended: Ancient African Medicine: Blueprint of Modern Healthcare
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