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.

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.

You have to separate the humanitarian impulse from the record of aid itself. We all want to help. Many people would say that it's the moral impulse of the rich to help the poor, but the record of aid has been terrible.

Radio is the death and life of Africa.

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.

The only good dictator is a dead one.

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