In a banana republic, one might slip on a banana peel but things do work - now and then for the people, albeit inefficiently and unreliably.

Hippos kill more people in Africa annually than any other wild animal.

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.

There's a belief that since Africa got a raw deal from the colonial West, then the Chinese must be Africa's best friend. But the evidence doesn't show that, and the main criticism is that they are building infrastructure in exchange for Africa's resources in deals that are structured to favor China.

Personally, I regard myself as an intellectual 'rebel,' kicking against the 'old colonialism-imperialism paradigm' which has landed Africa in a conundrum.

Look at the history of peace accords in Africa. They have a terrible record. They are shredded even before the ink on them is dry.

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