This is The Reason Interview with Nick Gillespie, and today I'm talking with Magat Wade, who was

born in Senegal and is director of the Center for African Prosperity at the Atlas Network.

She's the founder and CEO of many companies, including Skin is Skin, which sells a series of

skin products, and she's the author of the new book, heart of the cheetah how we have been lied to

about African poverty and what that means for human flourishing. Magat, thanks for talking to reason.

Nick, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure. So, uh, what's the elevator pitch for the book?

The elevator pitch for the book is what you said, you know, how we've been lied to,

how we have been lied to about African poverty and what it means for human flourishing.

So basically, so many people around the world have been appalled by why Africa to this day, including many Africans,

why Africa to these days still the poorest region in the world, despite, you know, all of its

riches, starting with very young population. I'm sure we'll talk about that. But when it comes to

that, I realize that almost no one, you know, puts on the table the right diagnosis as to why that

is the case. So the book is about what is the right diagnosis as to why this continent

is still the poorest in the world? And then so 80% of the book spends time on that because

we need to make sure that we got the diagnosis right so we can have a good solution. And then 20% of a book goes

onto solutions. And then from there, from having read the book, then we invite people into our

Cheetah Generation movement where we're actually taking all the concrete steps that the solution

Sparks talks about. Let's talk about that kind of, the controlling metaphor of the book really is the

cheetah and the the cheetah generation. A cheetah is obviously an African animal. It's pretty

cool. Where does that term come from? And what does it signify for you? Yes. So the reason why I am Cheetah, everything, is because of my beloved professor

George Ait, Ghanaian economist, who we lost earlier this year. And he taught for many years

at American University in D.C. I know he. He taught for many years, exactly, and was part at some

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