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

African history is filled with experiences of people shooting their way to power and then splintering into factions, like in Somalia and Liberia.

Across Africa there is what I call a colonialist mentality or orthodoxy. Orthodoxy in the sense that a lot of things have gone wrong in Africa in the post-colonial period. And time and time again, any time something went wrong, the leadership claims that it was never their fault.

Dictators cause the world’s worst problems: all the collapsed states, and all the devastated economies. All the vapid cases of corruption, grand theft, and naked plunder of the treasury are caused by dictators, leaving in their wake trails of wanton destruction, horrendous carnage and human debris.

Back in the 1960s Africa not only fed itself, it also exported food. Not anymore.

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.