Africa recorded high economic growth of 6-7% after independence; however, the current socio-economic conditions are characterized by unemployment, weak educational systems, and dependency. This paper adopts a systemic approach to identify factors that setback Africa in its economic development. The combination of historical data, interviews and literature provided an overview of the current structures that affect African development. From the results, the Western world's exploitation through policies and false data, external dependency, brain drain, unfair market rules, poor policies, and high taxation are key factors that take away economic freedom as well as inhibit African socio-economic development. The results illustrated that to gain economic freedom, African countries must embrace unity through inward investment from primary commodities, oil, gas, and mineral resources through integration and implementation of regional free trade to spur economic transformation. Until Africa unites to set forth its development agenda other than Sustainable Development Goals, targeted to eliminate the root cause of domestic challenges to sustainable development they will fail to develop. It is therefore being recommended that trading among African countries will assist them to be immune to agricultural prices in line with the Prebisch-Singer thesis These will unlock significant opportunities for job creation, value addition, and investments in human development making Africa the ‘’Promised Land’’ the Africans seek. Systems thinking to intervention can make Africa realize all unintended consequences of her decisions and help it find new ways to improve efficiency and development.
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