The only issue with Africa is that they don't get enough globalisation (which is what I assume you mean by "global economic system"). In 2000, only 0.6% of North America's imports came from the poorest countries (which will mainly be sub-Saharan Africa), 0.5% of Europe's, and 0.3% of Japan's. Indeed, of the total imports in 2000 of the richest countries (NA, Europe, and Japan), only a total of 0.5% came from the least developed countries. This is actually less than the 1980s, where the figure was 0.9%.
And it's obvious why, Africa simply doesn't make much worth importing. They should be, however, the continent in rich in land, labour, and a whole range of minerals and fuels - but there isn't the investment to tap into it. Many often blame the situation of the poorest countries on the fact that the wealthiest exploit them, this isn't true. Multi-national corporations often get the blame, and yet, they simply don't exist in any meaningful way in these countries - the latest data for foreign direct investment in Africa that I can find is 1998, where FDI into the entire continent was a mere $8.3bn (down on 1997, btw, by 12%). This is pitiful, foreign direct invesment into just the UK in 2005 was $165bn.
Simply put, it's not that the West exploits Africa, it's simply that the West doesn't interact with Africa. Aside from aid (which is wasted money), the West might aswell just not exist for modern Africa. But, can you blaim the multi-nationals? They want to invest in places where they can get high returns on their investments. Poor infrastructure, high crime rates, uneducated work forces, and corruption at every level prevents this. All of these are results of poor governance from the leaders of Africa itself, you can blame this on the colonial days of old Europe, but not on the modern global economic structure.
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