The African Economy and IQ

Dennis Mangan:

Steve Sailer, writing at VDare, tackles the dreaded (to some) topic of why Africa is so poor. The answers he comes up with make eminent sense, and one can hardly understand statements like that attributed to Tim Harford that "Cameroonians are no smarter or dumber than the rest of us".

Yes, it's a touchy topic, and those who can't face the fact that not all of God's children were created equal normally resort to denunciation of those who point it out.

As anecdotal evidence for Steve's thesis, I'll just point out that while living in Sierra Leone for nearly two years,I encountered lots of people who were playing with much less than a full deck. Leaving aside the genetics, it's readily discerned that the environment played a huge role. Just about everyone is ill in some form or another just about all the time, and the reader will know how being ill affects mental wattage. A partial list of diseases that I personally dealt with there (I ran a hospital laboratory) would include: schistosomiasis; hookworm disease, which is the leading cause of iron deficiency anemia there; various other helminthic intestinal parasites; onchocerciasis, which causes "river blindness", the leading form of loss of sight in Africa; amoebic dysentery; malaria; tuberculosis; lymphatic filariasis, which can lead to elephantiasis; not to mention the ubiquitous skin and wound infections, diarrhea, etc., that poeple deal with daily.

On health grounds alone, IQ must be drastically affected, and with it the African economy.

I had lots of friends in Sierra Leone, and naturally I don't go around thinking of them as dumb as rocks. There were Africans in competent positions, for example as the lead nurse at the hospital. But facing the facts, most of them weren't so bright, and it's not a lack of education that makes them appear so.

Solving The African IQ Conundrum : "Winning Personality" Masks Low Scores

I.Q.: Why Africa is Africa – and Haiti Haiti

African–White IQ differences from Zimbabwe on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised are mainly on the g factor

Black-White-East Asian IQ differences at least 50 percent genetic, scientists conclude in major law journal

The Bigger Bell Curve: Intelligence, National Achievement, and The Global Economy