This paper considers Africa’s human development capacity through a talent management and development framework. It uses information from the United Nations, the Transatlantic Slave Trade Database, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the African Union, and a variety of other sources to illustrate both the talent challenges and opportunities facing African countries, institutions, and organizations. Through a comparison of management models, historiography, content analysis, and case studies, it argues that the five options for talent development (stealing, buying, borrowing, developing, and retaining talent) that have impacted its past and present access to talent can be redirected towards the continent’s future advancement.