Africa is certainly not a "lost cause", that is a very defeatist comment. There are parts of Africa that are quite stable and doing fairly well, unfortunately however this cannot be said for the whole continent. Africa is much like the middle east in that there is a lot of consistent turmoil in regions of it, particularly in the northern and eastern parts.

There is much hope for Africans, they just need to get out of the cycles of exploitation they have found themselves in. Nigeria for example would be a lot better off if it wasn't for Shell, who rapes the land and takes all the profits. The little that the government gets is kept for itself and not invested into infrastructure like it should be.

They just need to straighten out their economies and perhaps develop a system of government more appropriate, and more democratic, than the current systems many of them utilise which often ends up with their subservience to foreign corporations.