The through line in my professional and entrepreneurial endeavors - from my work in the digital assets space to Charles Winnsboro to my State of the Diaspora podcasts - is my concern about the economic development of sub-Saharan Africa. By 2050, Nigeria will be the third most populous country in the world, behind only China and India. If we don't course correct - and soon - the result will be a nightmare of Malthusian proportions. As an example, shop owners in Zimbabwe (which has a dollarized economy, but an insufficient supply of dollars) are resorting to giving change in the form of paper IOUs. Here's the Wall Street Journal article discussing this disturbing phenomenon.

It need not, and must not, be so. Africa has most of the world's arable land, vast reserves of natural resources, including the rare earth minerals needed for the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and a young, enterprising and digitally savvy population.  Tapping into these advantages will unleash a torrent of prosperity across the continent. 

The question is, how?  I've written a number of articles proposing solutions. In the interest of full disclosure, I am convinced that a central plank of any successful strategy will be the adoption of digital assets (principally, Bitcoin) in Africa. I've linked to these articles. 

As a student of history, I also believe a historical perspective is critical - as Maya Angelou famously said, we can't really know where we are going until we know where we've been. To that end, I've also attached here the syllabus for my summer course on Africa History and Politics, which I've been privileged to teach at Lebanon Valley College the past two years. (Alas, professional obligations prevent me from teaching it this summer.)  The course discusses the history of Africa, covering the original "Scramble for Africa," the pre-independence movements across the continent, the surprising development of liberation fighters becoming autocrats, and the new (and ongoing) Scramble for Africa. It ends on what I hope is an uplifting note - Africa's bright future is assured, provided we empower her youth (and especially her women).

Look for much more from me on these and related topics going forward.