Built to Loot

Africa is rich. So why are so many Africans poor?

For decades, the answer has been blamed on corruption, bad leadership, and poor governance.

But what if that explanation is incomplete?

In Built to Loot, PG Rowlings investigates the hidden historical and psychological forces behind Africa's poverty. Through the stories of leaders such as Patrice Lumumba, Thomas Sankara, Kwame Nkrumah, Mobutu Sese Seko, and Sani Abacha, this book uncovers a recurring pattern: leaders who attempted to build independent nations were often removed, while those who enabled extraction remained protected.

Combining history, politics, psychology, and economics, Built to Loot explores why corruption persists, why institutions fail, why trust collapses, and why millions of young Africans increasingly see emigration as their only path forward.

This is a challenging, thought-provoking examination of one of the most important questions of our time:

Was Africa built to prosper—or built to be looted?