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Representations of the dynamics of African development are often caricatural: the afro-pessimist point of view is influenced by the “curse of natural resources” approach, whereas the afro-optimist thinks that economic growth and a growing middle class will allow emerging countries to flourish on their own. Using research on the impact of new extractive industries in Sudano-Sahelian Africa, we argue that the convergence of internal (demographic and urban growth, democratization) and external (investments, circulation of norms and values) dynamics favors the advent of critical junctures that could allow African politico-economic systems to escape their historical condition (exporting raw materials to the world market in a marginal position). The materialization of such turning points will depend on endogenous dynamics and social struggles within the different national African societies.