In the absence of committed leadership, many African countries have fallen prey to military exploitation, to the extent that today the generals constitute the majority at the Africa summit.

This is as it should be, because when political leadership loses the sense of internal direction, when, in bewilderment, it gives up the efforts to find solutions to people’s problems and begin to amass wealth for its own individual use, political leadership tends to become commandist in its state operations.

Logic and rationale become subversive. And when politicians become commandist, they too become redundant, because who is better fitted to command than the army?

Professor Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu

postcript to

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa - Walter Rodney

23rd November 1964: Nation of Islam leader Malcolm X (1925 - 1965), left, with General Abdulrahman Mohamed Babu (1924 - 1996), leader of the Zanzibar Revolution.

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