Cilt: 2 Sayı: 2, 2025-09-27

This study argues that the artificial intelligence revolution represents the final and most critical opportunity for Africa to overcome its historical development constraints and achieve transformative development. The study is based on an integrated theoretical framework consisting of Jared Diamond's geographical determinism, Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson's institutional analyses, and Yuval Noah Harari's technological evolution theses. Through this theoretical lens, it examines how AI technologies can enable African nations to bypass traditional industrialization paths through technological leapfrogging. The research methodology is based on a qualitative approach. It includes a comprehensive literature review, scanning of internet news, examination of reports published by international organizations and think tanks, and a synthesis of a quadruple case analysis covering Rwanda, Nigeria, South Africa, and Kenya, which represent the continent's different dynamics. Research findings reveal that Africa's demographic advantage, combined with increasing digital infrastructure penetration, creates a unique and temporary window of opportunity for AI-driven development in the forthcoming decades. However, realizing this potential is strictly dependent on critical factors such as building inclusive institutions, creating strategic and adaptive policy frameworks, and avoiding digital dependency traps like "data colonialism" and the formation of an "economically useless class." The study concludes that this process represents a historically unprecedented "last call" opportunity for Africa, and missing this opportunity could condemn the continent to a permanent peripheral status in the global economy.

Africa, Artificial Intelligence, Technological Leapfrogging, Digital Transformation, Data Colonialism.