Europe and the United States contributed to the development of China when they outsourced low-level factory jobs to China. China’s industrialization policy would not have worked if it had not become the manufacturing capital of the world. For years, African leaders have been plotting a strategy to clone that trajectory, expecting that it could disintermediate the linkage between Europe/USA and China by inserting itself, as an outsourcing hub, as wage rises in China, when compared with Africa. In this Harvard Business Review article, I posited that it would be a huge mistake if Africa tries to pursue the same strategy...