Dictators are allergic to reform, and they are cunning survivors. They will do whatever it takes to preserve their power and wealth, no matter how much blood ends up on their hands. They are master deceivers and talented manipulators who cannot be trusted to change.

The election of Senator Barack Obama brought jubilation across Africa, where millions celebrated him as 'one of their own.'

Traditionally, Africans hate governments. They hate tyranny.

To be sure, dictators are crafty, evil geniuses with awesome firepower at their disposal. They are also brutally efficient at intimidation, terrorism, and mass slaughter. However, a force is able to dominate because the counterforce is either nonexistent or weak.

Western-style multi-party democracy is possible but not suitable for Africa.

Africa's salvation doesn't lie in begging and begging for more aid, and as an African, I find it very, very humiliating.

In the West, the basic economic and social unit is the individual; in Africa, it is the extended family or the collective.