Africa's quiet resurgence: it's still the world's most troubled continent, but a New York Times columnist finds signs of a turnaround.

• Author: Kristof, Nicholas D.
• Position: OPINION - Geographic overview

One of the best-kept secrets in the world today can be found in thatched-roof villages in countries across Africa: This long-struggling continent appears to be turning around.

After a half-century of underperformance, Africa's economy is growing significantly faster than America's or Europe's. In the last decade, 6 of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world were in sub-Saharan Africa (see chart, p. 10), and that proportion is expected to rise even higher in the next five years. The global economy has turned upside down: Europe and the U.S. are in terrible shape, while much of Africa is booming.

This trend was obvious on my recent trip to five African countries. It was the fifth "win-a-trip contest," in which I take a student on a reporting trip to the developing world. This year, there were two winners: Saumya Dave, a medical student from Atlanta (see essay, p. 11), and Noreen Connolly, a journalism teacher at a Catholic school in Newark, New Jersey.

The journey began in Morocco, which is a window into one of the most striking trends in Africa: democratization. The number of electoral democracies in Africa has risen to 18 from 4 in the last decade, according to Freedom House, a human fights organization in Washington, D.C.

Morocco is still a repressive monarchy, but things are improving. For example, it has freed some political prisoners and strengthened its parliament.

From there, we headed to Nouakchott (NO-AAK-SHOT), the sleepy capital of Mauritania, where we got a lesson in one of the most cost-effective interventions to save lives: food fortification--adding vitamins and minerals to food staples. Mauritania's biggest flour mill, which supplies 45 percent of the nation's flour, has begun adding iron, zinc, folic acid, and vitamin B12 to its flour--at an added cost of just one penny for six loaves.

American foreign aid money helped pay the start-up cost of fortification, which may save more lives by preventing malnutrition than a hospital could save.

In the United States, there's recently been a backlash against such humanitarian aid. Some argue that instead of helping people, aid encourages dependence and feeds corruption.

But because of initiatives like food fortification--and vaccinations--child mortality is tumbling in the developing world. In 1990, 12.4 million children died annually before age 5, according to the World Health Organization. By 2009, despite a significantly larger population, the toll had dropped to 8.1...