A Jamaican Researcher Explodes the Myths About Why Africa is Like It Is

Busting African Delusions: Intelligence, Institutions and the Path to Progress
Lipton Matthews
Independently Published, 2026

We are told by our masters that there are no race differences in intelligence or personality and that countries with Sub-Saharan African populations are poor as a consequence of exploitation by Europeans. Busting African Delusions does precisely what the title states. Lipton Matthews, a Jamaican researcher, presents in tremendous detail the case that Sub-Saharan African population countries, whether in Sub-Saharan Africa or the Caribbean, are in the chaotic and impoverished state that they are because of the evolved nature of Sub-Saharan African people.

Matthews begins by dedicating his book to the late English psychologist Richard Lynn (1930–2023) who presented a huge amount of research on race differences in intelligence and personality and its causes. Lynn would present his research in a highly detached and dry fashion and Matthews follows in the tradition, though he provides some examples of such experiences of corruption in his native Jamaica.

Matthews explores national differences in socioeconomic achievement in detail and demonstrates that these seemingly come down to genetic differences in average intelligence, which is in the region of 80% genetic at the individual level. Of course, the poor environment of Africa may mean that  the genetic contribution to intelligence differences is lower there. But, even if this is so, Matthews cites studies indicating that the prevalence of alleles that are associated with intelligence is notably lower in Sub-Saharan Africa than in Europe. Accordingly, Matthews argues in favour of Richard Lynn’s “Cold Winters Theory.” This is the idea that cold winters present difficult problems to solve and, as such, select for intelligence. There are exceptions here, such as the intelligence of Arctic peoples but this may be due to a combination of very small populations, meaning less genetic diversity, and never developing agriculture, as agriculture selects for future-orientation which is a key component of intelligence.

Having carefully refuted the many criticisms of national IQs, Matthews then turns to the consequences of this low average African IQ for African economies. Most starkly, it means very poor education systems and extremely low quality teachers. Almost 80% of maths teachers in South Africa do not meet the required national standard in Maths. There are 450 schools in South Africa that do not teach maths at all. The result is an innumerate society, with obvious consequences for economic development. I once met a South Sudanese man in northern Finland and asked him how old he was. He was actually a trained teacher but could not give a firm answer: “I think I’m about 40,” he said. Not knowing his birthday, he used the date he’d arrived in Finland as a proxy. Society is also relatively illiterate, meaning that the technological revolution does not assist in creating a more knowledgeable or innovative society.

Matthews then turns to historical African wealth and highlights the way in which there were some wealthy African countries, mainly due to highly successful slave economies. We are told to believe that there was little difference between Europe and Africa until the Industrial Revolution and our supposed exploitation of Africa. Matthews shows this to be wrong: by the sixteenth century England’s wealth was at least 3 times that of many modern African countries. This contrasts with African economic systems which Matthews demonstrates were far more clannish than European ones. In other words, African systems are not based around finding talented people and employing their abilities. Instead, they are very strongly based on who is related to you and how you can assist those who are related to you in return for them assisting you. Accordingly, they are inherently nepostistic and corrupt in a way that is not so obviously true in Europe. This is a particularly original section and I learnt a great deal about pre-Colonial African economic systems. Matthews further shows that colonialism itself was far less wealth-creating for the colonial nations than we are led to believe.

Matthews, in an extremely detailed work, also looks at a series of delusions with regard to African development. Corruption and low intelligence mean that remittances will not really help Africa and nor will international aid. Leaders will always end up being corrupt and the people there tend to be incapable of planning for the future.

Matthews then shows that far from utterly exploiting sub-Saharan Africa, European colonialism precipitated rapid economic growth in the region. The situation was nuanced however. Matthews observes that, “In French Africa, monopolistic trade policies allowed European trading companies to purchase goods from African producers at artificially low prices, sometimes extracting up to 60% of the potential revenue.” Even so, Africans generally earned well above subsistence levels and there was huge investment in infrastructure and education, particularly in missionary schools.

This is a dangerously revisionist book in terms of what we’re supposed to believe and this is no better encapsulated than in Matthews’ section on the European slave trade. He shows it was nowhere near as a big a part of Britain’s economy as we are led to believe. The UK was already well into the Industrial Revolution when the slave trade reached its peak, and Caribbean goods were far from central to the British economy.

Overall, this is a fascinating and eye-opening book which genuinely debunks the key myths about Sub-Saharan Africa and the reasons for its backward socioeconomic state. It is, however, written in a highly academic style. I think one of Matthews’ key selling points as an author on this subject is that he is Jamaican, though an obvious intelligence outlier by Jamaican standards. I would relish seeing him produce another book on this topic that is far more personal in nature. How does it feel to be a highly intelligent Sub-Saharan African, whose IQ is so many standard deviations above the mean? What unusual experiences or thoughts does it lead to?