This week I visited Berlin for a conference on African aid, and I had the opportunity to see some of the sights - like the remnants of the Berlin Wall and the Brandenburg Gate. Ronald Reagan’s famous 1987 speech, right in front of the wall and with the Gate just behind, challenged the Communist Bloc to open up to the West. Against the advice of his advisers, he said:

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalisation: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!

He explained the success of West Germany thus:

In West Germany and here in Berlin, there took place an economic miracle, the Wirtschaftswunder. Adenauer, Erhard, Reuter, and other leaders understood the practical importance of liberty - that just as truth can flourish only when the journalist is given freedom of speech, so prosperity can come about only when the farmer and businessman enjoy economic freedom. The German leaders reduced tariffs, expanded free trade, lowered taxes. From 1950 to 1960 alone, the standard of living in West Germany and Berlin doubled.

Where four decades ago there was rubble, today in West Berlin there is the greatest industrial output of any city in Germany - busy office blocks, fine homes and apartments, proud avenues, and the spreading lawns of parkland. Where a city's culture seemed to have been destroyed, today there are two great universities, orchestras and an opera, countless theaters, and museums. Where there was want, today there's abundance - food, clothing, automobiles - the wonderful goods of the Ku'damm...

In the 1950s, Khrushchev predicted: "We will bury you." But in the West today, we see a free world that has achieved a level of prosperity and well-being unprecedented in all human history. In the Communist world, we see failure, technological backwardness, declining standards of health, even want of the most basic kind - too little food. Even today, the Soviet Union still cannot feed itself. After these four decades, then, there stands before the entire world one great and inescapable conclusion: Freedom leads to prosperity. Freedom replaces the ancient hatreds among the nations with comity and peace. Freedom is the victor.

Could Africa learn from the post-war success of Germany? I think so: Germany illustrates well the effects of different policies. There are no intrinsic reasons why Africa must remain poor. But it remains a continent to a great degree where business is hindered, where individuals lack the freedoms they need to flourish, where civil wars have destroyed lives, where many people are not allowed to really own their own homes, and where roadblocks and tariffs stop trade and discourage investment. In short, it remains a continent low in economic freedom.

The have been some improvements: Ghana has enjoyed economic growth each year since 1983, for example. The Heritage Foundation’s 2006 Index of Economic Freedom shows that economic freedom in 25 sub-Saharan Africa countries improved over the last year but declined in 12 countries. Nevertheless, the majority of sub-Saharan African countries are still classified as “mostly unfree” and two - Zimbabwe and Nigeria - count as “repressed”. Africa may not have a Berlin Wall, but pulling down the economic walls erected by African nations would have a huge effect on prosperity across the continent.