Malek Bennabi (1905–1973) asked a question that still burns: why do some societies with land, resources and time fail to rise? His answer was an equation: civilization = man + soil + time.
Man is not just a body but a person shaped by values and ideas. Soil is all the material resources a society has. Time is not hours passing, but purposeful work — what Bennabi called social time, as opposed to lost time.
Africa has soil in abundance and time in its young population. Bennabi would say the deciding factor is man: whether people are renewed by meaningful ideas and moral purpose. Without that, resources are taken by others and time is wasted.
He also warned of "colonisability" — the inner conditions that allow domination. In his words, there is no colonisation without colonisability. His point was not blame, but hope: if the cause is inside us, so is the cure.
That is why The Promised Continent begins with the person.
Further reading: Malek Bennabi, The Conditions of Renaissance (1949).