Welcome to Africa, or better yet welcome home. By examining fossils dating back several million years, scientific data supports the fact that human life began somewhere in Africa. However, not everyone knows this, in fact, unless you study some type of archaeology, or a class of ancient civilisations, many are not aware of it. However, what people are not unaware of, when it comes to Africa as a whole, are the problems. such as AIDS, war, conflict, poverty, hunger, corruption, slavery, piracy and genocide are all synonymous with Africa. Africa is by far the poorest continent, where the bottom eighteen countries in the Human Development Index all belong to Africa, 36.2 10% of the population lives on less than a dollar a day and the total GDP of the entire Africa amounts to $1.184 trillion (about one-sixteenth that of the United States). Researchers, journalists and NGOs go to Africa and bring back images of the West; images that society as a whole connects to Africa; images of homeless people, completely distressed people, displaced people and the hungry. This is the Africa that the West knows as a whole. So the question is asked; How can a continent of over a billion people, spanning over thirty million square kilometers, simply be a land of desperation and tragedy? Where are the good stories, where are the stories of business, of social programs, of success? To answer this question, let's look at where Africa is going. Africa seems to be, in its own way, booming. Overall, incomes have doubled since 2000. Life expectancy is increasing by one year every three years. HIV rates have declined significantly in South Saharan Africa, to the point that 600,000 fewer people contract the disease each year. The fight against malaria is being won, where... middle of paper... one could say products, running water. This is what works in Africa, opening businesses, creating free markets, allowing them to self-sustain. These recently adopted fundamentals have changed the face of Africa. Africa's GDP as a whole is expected to increase by at least 6% per year for the foreseeable future. The middle class in sub-Saharan Africa is growing and in the last 10 years incomes have increased 30%. Consumer power is growing, where in 2000 less than 50% of sub-Saharan households earned more than $2,500. By the end of this calendar year that figure will reach 75%. Africans as a whole are better educated, healthier and more urban than ever before. Where almost 15% live in cities with more than one million people, making it comparable to Europe where that number is 19%. Secondary school enrollment has increased by almost 50% in the last 6 years.