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When a lot of people picture Africa, they imagine a poor, war torn wasteland. [Pictures of deprived Africa and desolated towns]

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And no doubt many African states have a lot of work to do as they recover from the fall

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out of colonialism.

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But right now in modern day Africa we can find

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well-to-do villages, wealthy merchant companies, middle-class suburbs, and yes…even luxury

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resorts.

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Most people don’t think it’s possible to go sip a piña colada on an African beach, [Woman in beach chair drinking a cocktail]

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but it totally is.

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In the last fifty years, there’s been rapid development across Africa that has made the

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lives of hundreds of millions of people better.

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And now for the question everyone’s dying to ask…

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How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? [Owl with mortar hat licking Tootsie Pop]

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Oh wait …No, hang on.

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That's not it…

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Here we go: which economic model has worked the best in Africa?

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Well, in Africa it’s a…different strokes for different folks…type situation.

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For example, Nkrumah’s extreme socialist reforms in Ghana actually worked

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out pretty well in the long run.

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How about that?

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High education rates and good social services helped to launch a strong manufacturing industry. [Graph shows increasing rate of education]

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Some other socialist states, especially Angola and Namibia, have also developed strong state-led

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mixed economies.

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With the rise of DJs in these areas, they’ll soon have remixed economies… [African DJ performing on stage]

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Capitalist countries have many success stories too.

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Oil-rich countries, in particular, have done well. Obviously..

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South Africa and Gabon told the capitalist world…

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Drill, baby, drill…and they raked in the cash.

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Big companies, especially Shell, have set up so many oilfields in capitalist African

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countries that Africa, not the Middle East, is currently America's No. 1 foreign supplier [Pictures of oil equipment all with Shell signs]

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of bubblin’ crude.

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Of course, these oilfields also kick people off their land, cause pollution, and contribute

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greatly to global warming.

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But there’s no arguing that the cash the oil industry creates has helped some African

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countries stand up on their own two feet.

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Nigeria has Africa's largest population but still provides many social services, paid

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for mostly with oil money. [Man tries to pay at a market stall with a barrel of oil]

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Oil-rich countries with less people to worry about do even better.

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For example, Equatorial Guinea has more wealth per person than the EU.

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How bout them apples, European Union?

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Kenya, on the other hand, doesn’t have any oil.

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But um well…hakuna matata baby.

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Kenya’s path to development has been to create a hands-off government with strong property [Government building with arms lifting weights with property rights on them]

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rights.

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This has made it a banking hub and corporate headquarters for much of East Africa.

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Tourism has also become a big thing in Kenya.

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It’s developed a lot of tourist attractions.

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Want an awesome safari?

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Try Kenya or Tanzania, Kenya’s neighbor to the south.

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Tourism as a development strategy has also picked up in North Africa, especially in Morocco,

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where even the camels are capitalists. [Camel with lots of cash]

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Socialist and capitalist, resource-poor and resource-rich, free and unfree, Christian,

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Muslim, traditional, whatever…every country has its own paths to development.

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And the economies of African states are catching up in the race.

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Maybe they took some lessons from those Kenyan Olympic runners. [Kenyan runner leads a race]

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