We need to stop bringing in east asias as comparison . There has never been a period where east asia is not one of the most developed parts of the world.
When i was reading about the group of thinkers in ethiopia who were trying to copy japnas modernization I laughed. Why? Because japan was not some undeveloped backwards place before the 19th century. They had guys inventing calculus in japan in the 1600s. The same time as Newton. Even north korea as poor and as cutoff from the rest of the world as it is today. Is able to develop nuclear weapons and other technologies. Which no country in africa Even with the help of others would be able to replicate currently.
South Korea and Singapore was one of the least developed countries in the world during 50/60s. Literacy rate 20%, lack of infrastructure and no real industries to speak of. They also didn't have financing capital from agriculture say the way that Japan did. So they to me are two of the biggest points for comparison. Another one would be Oman.
Japan was underdeveloped in the modern sense, before the meiji restoration it was just a feudal mass of villages and had an agrarian economy before it was turned into a modern industralized nation with a highly skilled work force. They had many other advantages though that's not really comparable to Africa.
North Korea wasn't poor to begin with , it used to be rich in the 50s,and 60s/70s and the examples i have shown is how it went from being a rich industrialized nation with natural resources to poor one has impacted it. The guy showed a single district video which the north korean government releases for propaganda when large parts of the city is either crumbling or underdeveloped.