A review of the literature indicates that three hypotheses have been advanced as possible explanations of the LDC debt crisis: imprudent lending, the mismanagement of borrowed funds, and the international economic situation. To test these hypotheses and isolate the determinants of Africa's external debt, multiple regression analyses were performed on data drawn from World Bank sources and the Bank for International Settlement on forty-three African countries. The conclusion that can be drawn from the data analyses is that Africa's indebtedness is not due to imprudent lending policies. On the other hand, it is possible to argue that the borrowed funds were mismanaged (as assessed in terms of the rate of inflation and the maintenance of overvalued domestic currencies) by the sovereign borrowers. In addition, Africa's indebtedness can be attributed to the increased cost of borrowed capital.