The world’s aid machine treats the poor as objects of charity. Magatte Wade argues this is not just an economic error — it is a theological one. To reduce a human being to a recipient is to deny their God-given dignity, creativity, and capacity to build. Wade draws on her journey from Senegal to Silicon Valley to make the case that freedom and ownership are not merely policy prescriptions — they are the only responses to poverty that honor the full humanity of every person. When we stop helping and start freeing, we don’t just create prosperity. We restore dignity.

Magatte Wade advocates for prosperity in Africa through entrepreneurship, economic freedom, and access to affordable, reliable, and abundant energy. As a Senegalese entrepreneur who has created companies on both continents, she knows firsthand how the absence of economic freedom and energy in Africa prevents African entrepreneurs from building life-saving prosperity. A winner of the Julian Simon Award and immortalized in a Tuttle Twins episode, she is a champion for Prosperity Not Poverty and serves on the advisory board of the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship as well as the board of Trustees of the John Templeton Foundation. She is the author of The Heart of a Cheetah. and the forthcoming Ethical Startup Cities. She was featured in three award winning documentaries, “Poverty Inc”, “Made in Mekhe” and “She Rises Up.”