The author’s “understanding” of “Africa’s pre-colonial history” is as distorted as it is generic. Irreverent attitudes and sloppily researched commentary on African affairs continues as one of the reasons why the continent is sorely misunderstood. It is this type of writing that has produced the very thing that the author laments: “swarms of consultants, experts, and administrators” who have not been able to help Africa.

One thing that the Mr. Peron ( as many like him) has failed to realize is that prior to European colonization, a great number of traditional African tribal societies already had in place the very (political/ economic) systems the the West has painstakingly tried to “promote” across the continent.

My guess is that as usual, writers such as Mr. Peron, despite little to no real knowledge whatsoever of any particular traditional African society, liken themselves to experts (hence the audacity to write and have published such a poorly thought-out position on the African aid dilemma)on Africa after having only done superficial research. Why does such commentary continue to be tolerated?

At some point, this will have to stop.