Why won't Africa ever be rich? It's rich with resources and there's plenty of agriculture. Corruption and bad government is holding back improvements (not the lack of aid, as those Live 8 morons want us to believe), but not all bad govenrments stay on forever, most are replaced by other bad governments, but in some cases it works.

lol....I wish I'd had sex when I was 10.

Anyway, they do have mineral resources. Diamonds is the #1. I think there's Uranium and other heavy metals (gold). But.....corruption is like a way of life over there. As is dislike for white people, or so it seems. So they're going to keep screwing themselves into poverty for the forseeable future, and anyone trying to help them from Europe or the US will be discriminated against due to our color. Not sure what they feel of people of arabic descent (like they'll be giving any meaningful aid to Africa) or asians.

Personally, screw em. If they manage to build themselves a future, cool.
But I'm tired of sinking monkey into worthless bastards. If the people need help, they need to pick up some guns (there're tons available) and smash the bastards that are causing them to starve. I say we quit feeding the rich.

What do you define as near future? 10 years? Then you're right. But you have to look forward.

Nigeria has oil, but that's just one country. However I wonder how long oil we'll be the #1 resource, we're gonna reach peak oil before 2020, after wich prices will rise so high (it's already too high) that it's no longer viable as an energy resource (we'll have to switch to renewables and nuclear power).
There is a lot of diamond mining in Africa (not only South Africa but also in central Africa, many wars in that area are financed by it). There're also a lot of other minerals there. Agriculture is not yet a big business, but with a growing world population comes a larger demand. Also, I wonder how long rich countries will keep up their farm subsidies. Right now, farm subsidies account for over 40% of the EU budget, with only 4% of the EU population being in the business. The main reason the EU holds on to those subsidies, is because France rejects any proposals to reform it. The reason for that is because their president, Jaques Chirac, has always had a big supporter base among French farmers, but the Chirac era is finally ending (and no moment too soon, damn I hate that ass).
I'm not saying that we should pour money into Africa like those Live 8 morons want us to, but we should invest into countries in the area that have good governments, and actively try to oust dictators like Mugabe (not by military action, more Ukrain style revolts).
Those people are very capable of making profit, if you believe it or not. one third of the investments in the third world (that's not just Africa off course) comes from the third world itself, and a company like SAB (South African Breweries) is one of the biggest breweries in the world.

I have no doubt Africa is "capable" of being profitable. But if you had money to invest, would you invest in Africa? I wouldnt.

Oh man, his AIDS talk was priceless. Anyway, Africa, like any third-world country, is a high risk/high payoff investment. Still, I wouldn't put my money there.