Landlocked areas typically are worse off, but there are other geographical disadvantages Africa faces. Notably, many countries are in tropical, disease-prone areas. Africa doesn’t have a lot of transportation infrastructure.

Any place with water usually has an advantage. After all, why do you think all major cities are near water? Usually they are close to the sea while others are practically on a river. Oceans provide easy shipping routes to other places in the world.

While some economists say that Africa’s lack of economic growth is due to political instability, others say the opposite. They claim that Africa’s political instability stems from an economic disadvantage. Indeed, the non-tropical regions of Africa are richer than the tropical area.

Disease ravages the region constantly. 92% of 429,000 malaria deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa. War also is reasonably frequent. When an area becomes infected with epidemic or violence breaks out, almost all trade (except arms trade) halts. This hurts years of economic progress as supply chains are destroyed and trade decreases.

Africa’s poor soil means more people are needed to farm and support the rest of the population. Consequently, less workers can be used for other purposes, impairing long run economic growth. Automation is good for the US in the long run because it means that more workers can be allocated to non-automated sectors of the economy, increasing productivity and increasing GDP per capita.