From “Sthole” to Cornerstone — How the West Was Built on the Backs of Africa

Years ago, former U.S. President Donald Trump reportedly referred to African nations as “sthole countries**”,  a crude and widely condemned remark that sparked global outrage. But beyond the insult lies a deeper irony: the very nations he demeaned have, for centuries, supplied the raw materials, labor, and skills that built the modern Western world.

To call Africa a “s**thole” is not only offensive,  it is historically blind.

Raw Materials That Powered Empires

From the Industrial Revolution to today’s digital age, Africa has been the wellspring of the West’s industrial might. European factories in the 18th and 19th centuries thrived on African-sourced cotton, rubber, gold, and palm oil. Today, the world’s dependence on cobalt, coltan, and lithium,  mined largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo,  fuels the production of smartphones, electric vehicles, and solar panels.

Simply put, Western progress has often come at Africa’s material expense.

Slave Labor: The Original Investment in Capitalism

The transatlantic slave trade, which forcibly removed over 12 million Africans to work in plantations across the Americas, laid the foundation for global capitalism. The profits from sugar, tobacco, and cotton, grown by African slaves, enriched European banks, insurance houses, and governments. Institutions that still dominate global finance trace their roots to the blood and toil of enslaved Africans.

The legacy of this brutal labor system is not just historical. Its economic imprint remains, even as those who suffered its horrors were written out of the story.

Brains That Never Came Home

Beyond labor and materials, the West has also relied on Africa’s human capital. During both World Wars, African soldiers fought, and died,  in defense of European empires. In the post-colonial era, a steady stream of African doctors, engineers, and academics have migrated to the West in search of better opportunities. This “brain drain” continues to deprive the continent of its brightest minds, while enriching the very countries that once colonized them.

Colonial Blueprints Still in Use

During colonial rule, African economies were redesigned to serve the extractive needs of European powers. Infrastructure such as railways and ports were built to move minerals to ships, not to connect communities. Legal and administrative systems favored foreign interests, a pattern that still echoes in many countries’ weak development frameworks.

Even today, many African nations are trapped in cycles of debt, unfair trade agreements, and foreign dependency, the modern tools of neo-colonialism.

Who’s Really in the Sthole?

Trump’s remark was more than a vulgar insult, it was a stark reminder of how easily the world forgets history. The so-called “s**thole countries” have, in fact, been the engine rooms of Western wealth. The irony is painful: those who provided the timber, gold, and sweat were never invited to sit at the table.

If there is a “s**thole” in this equation, it is the moral vacuum that allows powerful nations to forget the source of their prosperity while demeaning those who made it possible.

Africa, and by extension, the Global South, is not the backwater of the world. It is its foundation.

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