Africa's colonial past has certainly left a legacy. Formal de-colonisation by the European powers and subsequent nominal independence by African countries have still to deal with borders that were drawn by Europeans quite arbitrarily across tribal and cultural groupings, and most importantly with the colonial infrastructure inherited by the indigenous rulers.

A country set up with exploitative extractive infrastructure can either continue using that infrastructure or build new self referential infrastructure. Unfortunately, very few African countries were able to afford the transition and stuck with the old extractive infrastructure that transported raw materials to ports for export, often to their former colonial rulers.

This, combined with the modern economic rationalism made it extremely difficult for African countries to rebuild and modernise, as the international globalised economy systmatically discriminated against the former colonies by raising significant tariffs to their exports, driving them further into poverty.

Along comes the IMF and the World Bank to bail out these countries, and the conditions for loans generally involved the ubiquitous "structural adjustment" schemes and high interest rates that ultimately made these countries even more dependent on the First World. Combine this with corruption and bribes by corporations and most of the people of Africa have never received more than a fraction of what could have become available to them from the riches of Africa, as these were either exported, or retained by the new and indigenous neo-colonial elites.

South Africa is a classic example of this process at work, as of all the countries in the region, it should have been able to raise the standard of living for its suppressed indigenous nations.

Where does all this lead to?

Put simply, international competitive chess is a luxury that can only be supported with decent infrastructure...lots of chess clubs, club and regional competitions, national and continental competitions and very importantly, chess federations that can coordinate all this activity internally and across Africa and beyond.

Top chess players do not normally orginate from the impoverished regions of the world. The cost of international travel, transport and accommodation and food is prohibitive for most. Even a wealthy country like Australia is way behind in chess terms as it is too costly for most to ever consider undertaking the international travel and competition so important in raising the level of talented players to grandmaster quality. Much poorer countries will have a much greater obstacle to face in this respect.

Chess development in Africa, and the development of more sub-Saharan masters will only occur when these countries will be able to modernise and engage the resources necessary to support luxury sports like chess.

<The women lost those 100 ponts quite quickly and are now back where they were without.>

You can never put anything right in this world if you start from forgetting the past.

Really? The interview he gave at Tromsø didn't suggest or reveal that he was other than a chess player, with chess playing concerns.

Do you have anything to back this assertion? And can we please move this <political> discussion to the Kenneth Rogoff page.

<Jim Bartle>

Your reply was a little inconsistent. Originally, you commented that <His good play doesn't suggest he feared other people.>, and then changed ground a little to suggest that <...I'm sure there were plenty of whites in the hall, in the hotel, etc.>.

This is difficult ground to traverse, and it really should be up to black Africans to speak to their experience as black Africans, not for others to debate.

In any case, can we please take this discussion to the Kenneth Rogoff page. Most of <International Master Gillan Bwalya>'s first page has been occupied with politics.

So, spend some money promoting African chess under this program with the goal of finding the 8 year old prodigies, develop them, support them, etc.

We actually need lots of rich guys who could be interested in this kind of philanthropy. It would be fun (I don't have any money, but it would be) to search for talent like this in one's area of interest. That would be to promote achievements of the mind, instead of ball players.