Folks, I'm sorry to have to say this, but your replies demonstrate an appaling ignorance about Africa and the state of that continent. Being an African born and bred, despite my Caucasian race, let me point out a few facts.
First, Africa was politically and socially "backward", in First World terms, until the so-called Scramble for Africa during the second half of the 19th century. During the Scramble, it was carved up among various colonial powers, all of whom wanted Africa's mineral and agricultural wealth for themselves, and couldn't have cared less about actually building up a strong Africa. To further their aims, all of them tried to ensure that African people would provide a low-cost workforce for their mines and plantations. They were not interested in educating Africans, nor in developing their skills in areas such as government, administration, etc. Brutality and repression were the norm. The worst example was probably the Belgian Congo, which was originally King Leopold's private preserve, and where at least 3 million people were killed by colonial authorities before the area was handed over to Belgian government control (the records of the King's administration were sealed before handover, and have never been fully published). The beginnings of the notorious apartheid policies of South Africa were instituted, not by the Afrikaners, but by the British colonial authorities, who imposed a cash-payment-only "hut tax" and "head tax" in order to force Blacks to work in the mines or industries - the only places that would pay them in the cash required to pay the tax. I could go on for pages, but you get the idea...
During the First World War, the German colonies in Africa were invaded and taken over by other colonial powers, with the assistance of their existing colonies in the region. You thus had local Africans seeing that their interests didn't really matter to anybody - military power was the only thing of importance. The same happened in World War Two with the Italian colonies in Somalia, Abyssinia, Libya, etc. and the French colonies as well: military take-overs of these places, often using local African troops to support the invaders from Europe and America.
By the end of World War Two, you had a broad-based movement against colonialism all over the world, including Africa. However, unlike the rest of the world, Africa retained a tribal and traditional system of government based on collusion with colonial authority. Tribal chiefs were paid a stipend by the colonial government, and in return were supposed to keep their people subservient to colonial interests. Anyone challenging the colonial powers would typically be imprisoned or deported as a "troublemaker". There were virtually no efforts to prepare locals for administration or political power: for example, when Mozambique became independent of Portugal, as late as 1975, there was precisely one tribal University graduate in the entire nation!
So, entire nations became independent without any group of skilled or educated politicians, administrators, etc. Coupled with this, you had all of the pressures of the Cold War. Both the US and USSR paid vast amounts in bribes to politicians all over the continent to gain their support at the United Nations, block the other side's interests, etc. As an example, it's estimated that the late President Mobutu amassed a personal fortune of over $3 billion while in power, aided and encouraged in doing so by Western powers who saw Zaire as a bulwark against Communism. His country was used by the CIA as a base for operations against Communist insurgencies in other countries, such as Angola. Foreign aid was basically a bribe paid to "friendly" governments by both sides, nothing more - it certainly never reached the people who needed it most. Military aid was more common than other forms of aid, despite Africa's poverty, and today there are probably more assault weapons per capita in Africa than in any other continent. Wars were fought across Africe, often fostered - and armed - by the major powers, to destabilize the "bad guys" - my own experiences in the Angolan War are a good example of this, where we had the CIA arming two factions, and encouraging (and paying) South Africa to intervene, while Moscow armed the other faction, and flew in thousands of Cuban troops to help the other side. Another example is Somalia, where initially the Soviet Union armed the country and bribed the rulers to help them to control maritime traffic around the Horn of Africa into the Red Sea. When Ethiopia came under a military dictatorship, the Soviets changed sides, and supported that former-US-client-state, whereupon the US changed sides and supported the former-USSR-client-state of Somalia. The two nations fought a destabilizing and devastating war, which Somalia lost, and began the long slide into social degeneracy and anarchy which led to US and UN intervention there in the 1990's (with results we all know - and instability which continues to this day).
The results of these (and many other) conflicts are still going on today. As you can imagine, none of this did anything at all to encourage responsible government, or to educate politicians and administrators, or to inculcate habits of social stability...
So, when you look at Africa's misery, it's real easy to see all the corruption, nepotism, inefficiency, etc. that dominates African governments. However, be honest about it: their former colonial masters gave them a heck of an example to live up to - grab all you can, while you can, then get the hell out of there. They never had any education or training for government, and were slapped down in colonial days if they tried to get any influence. It's no wonder things are as bad as they are in Africa: the whole continent is basically in a medieval period, politically speaking, and is only just beginning to emerge into its version of the Renaissance. They could have been much further along, if they'd had even the most basic help from their colonial masters, but this was never provided.
Sure, each individual is responsible for his/her own sins, and those now ruling in Africa will have to answer for their misdeeds. However, they come from a background virtually guaranteed to produce them, or others like them, as the only rulers available. Saying that we should let their people starve because of the corruption, immorality and incompetence of their rulers is like saying we should let Chicago starve because they've got Mayor Daley at their head.
