Why Africa Is So Poor. It starts with the slave trade and western investment in it.

The article mentions "unfair intellectual property laws", but that generalization is a mistake. I think the laws that are pertinent are copyright law and patent law, but they have almost nothing in common aside from unfairness.

The article cites "structural adjustment", but many readers may not know what that term means because it has been replaced by other terms. It means cutting the state's spending on the public good (for instance, education and medicine) so as to increase profits for the rich. The argument for this policy was "trickle down", which didn't work in Africa any more than it did in the US.