What do poor countries look like?

Last week I taught a lesson in my daughter’s school. The topic was Africa. A quick, very high-level overview to two classes of 5th and 6th graders on what Africa actually looks like, as when I asked them to picture the that continent, most everyone simply envisioned the Serengeti.

I’ve been to Africa many times. My experience is far different from the Serengeti. When I visit Africa, my experience is not so different from visiting cities in South America, Asia, or Europe.

Here is a video I shot last year to share in school. Five minutes walking and driving around Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, Nairobi in Kenya, and the island of Mauritius.

Note that as measured by per-capita GDP, Tanzania is the 194th poorest country on the planet (out of 223 rows in that list). That causes a lot of challenges but doesn’t stop that country from having a city with skyscrapers and a modern airport, along with the not-shown resort hotels along the beach.

Kenya’s per-capita GDP is almost twice Tanzania’s. I’ve been visiting Nairobi for almost a decade and the number of tall glass buildings has grown more than tenfold in that time. I counted more than a dozen cranes earlier this year, just in the CBD, Upper Hill, and Westlands.

Then Mauritius is five times larger still, with a per-capita GDP above Brazil and slightly below Mexico. An African country that has no subsistence farmers or abject poverty. An African country whose next challenge is growing from “middle income” to “high income” as they strive to be the financial capital of Africa.