The monster feeds on us;we feed the monster

In Mali, Central African Republic, Congo, Algeria, the list is endless. They create the enemy for us, we react, they act; the cycle is forever in motion, all for the sake of resources. Once upon a time we used to be the prized resource, enter colonialism, it evolved with the industrial revolution, the land and what lies beneath became the resource in demand. We, the custodians, always an inconvenience, and it has never morphed since. A hint of vicissitudinous, but better to call a spade a spade, been consistent as imperialism. Moral regeneration, led to the countenancing of restorative action. Whatever form they took, they could not be called reparations, for to do so, would be an admission of guilt. As Europe had been assisted following World War II, not out of altruism mind you, but to keep the monster, communism, at bay. Enter aid, to appease and inebriate us. The common denominator used in the maintenance of this modus Vivendi, is the alacrity to use any means necessary to sustain the exploitation and reliance on collaborators, who are conspicuously conferred with the title of allies of one sort or another. In times gone by, they were allies against communism, today it is allies against the war on terror; irrespective of the era in question, these man, yes man, as more often than not, they are man. Capture state institutions, through patronage networks, making the distribution of the spoils of office take precedence over the national agenda. Mind you the national agenda in this states, is usually weak, as it never existed. What, existed in the space of the national agenda was a common agenda by all indigenous stakeholders to rid themselves of the coloniser. They inherited institutions, which in most cases they had no or little capacity to manage, all this was by design not default. If they had they the capacity to use the institutions or create new ones, they would in the long run become competitors. Accordingly, the potential rise of competition was circumvented by ensuring that the new states were overwhelmed by their new found reality. This state of affairs leads to crippling the ability of the state to create coherent policy, poor service delivery to the citizenry and inability to define your place in the global economy. The longer we enable this spurious existence to be pervasive, the easier it is to construct tribal wars, excogitate a plethora of ingenious schemes to address poverty, whilst synchronously feeding the monster, in order to create jobs for the boys. Ultimately the strategy is secure in its efficacy, for poverty is the status quo; Africa remains a habitual consumer of others conceptualisations. If you are, consistently consuming, you cannot create. To create, one needs time to think, hence the ubiquitous research institutions in countries, which are forever looking after their interests, irrespective of the consequence. That is how empires are built. We can only remain confounded, for as long as the quilt they have sown together with their vainglory known as African states is unmodified. It is incumbent upon us to reconstruct this quilt with similar indigenous sentiments, which better reflect the desires of our progeny or forever remain a stranger in your own land, never at ease.