How far Behind the Developed World African Countries Really Are

Kenya's most prominent writer, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Cheikh Anta Diop, the Senegalese who is often called the champion of African identity, and the less known Simon Kapwepwe, a politician in the first Zambian republic who later turned to writing, have one thing in common. Each, in his own way, figured out how far behind western nations, or the developed world, Africa really was, and knew what had to be done to "open up the minds" of Africans in a manner known of people in developed countries. These men knew Africa had to go through a rite of passage of sorts, without which setting the continent on a path to attaining its own dynamic culture, capable of standing its own in this system, was impossible.

All three men chose to write in their own mother tongue, after starting out writing in English in the case of Ngugi wa Thiong'o and Simon Kapwepwe, compiling a dictionary in his own mother tongue in the case of Cheikh Anta Diop. This need to use a local language, even when it cost them in terms of local and international exposure, provides us with an indirect clue to the step that Africa requires to take in order to be able to cope in this system. Explaining what this is from the onset is not a very good idea without first delving into issues that require comprehension for the point to sink in.

There is a misunderstanding, caused by a hangover from a period when Europeans in the main line of the study of foreign cultures saw existing native societies in the world as prototypes of their own "primitive ancestors", fossilized remains, so to speak, of stages of development that western Europe had once gone through. This was a time when cultural anthropologists and social scientists regarded the modern west as the latest point in a line of progress that was single and unilinear, on which all other people of the world could be fitted as illustrations, as it were, of western man's own past.

This euro-centric thinking has for the most part been eradicated as the west got better informed, but only for those in the main line of study and others who came accross the knowledge through research. Little has been done to change this standpoint among the common masses. It is therefore a common occurence for people to interpret time given in estimations to mean one culture is in the exact same state in which another was as many years ago. If you asked how far behind the western world Africa is, most people would say 100 years.

Social scientists who know what they are doing are estimating how long it will take to transform, for example, Africa's economic system into a likeness of the western model, rather than placing the continent on an evolutionary ladder with Europe at the top. The amount of time is usually calculated using items that differ with subject matter, the most applied of which include technology, industrialization, economic system, and culture.

Culture is unique, the odd one in this list because, when it is understood to be a comparison between shared bases of social interaction, it includes the first three items. Though it is the most used of all in this sense, it is the most inacurate and misleading. The admission has to be made culture does not easily lend itself to comparison or ranking. It may be possible to know the state of a culture, to be able to tell whether some cultural practice or trait in one is better than that in another, but problematic to apply this to the totality of the culture, unless there is an attempt to show interrelation.

It is possible to say the Zulus have better morals, but wrong to assume their whole culture is more advanced than another because it is the nurturing environment - unless one can show how other aspects are working to make the morals better, if this can be the proof the totality is better. It is even more inappropriate to estimate how many years Zulu culture is more advanced than another, if by this we mean to approximate the number of years it will take for another to catch up. Such comparison is only possible where cultures are always exact replicas that follow a set pattern of development, and some are delayed versions (prototypes) of others. Even if this was the way reality works, we would still only be able to make rough estimates and accept they could never be accurately fulfilled due to factors with the potential to delay or speed up development, attempts to include these unknown factors in the calculation notwithstanding.

The term culture can now also be used to refer to smaller segments of society, for example business culture, political culture, or to the system or mode of social provisioning. Where the system is concerned, African countries seldom have a single, or predominant one. Most countries have a combination of the tradition based, the command, and the market driven (also called free enterprise economy). This mixture of systems is a situation quite unlike Europe at any time in its history. In the west, groups advanced from one predominant system to another, for example from feudalism to capitalism or socialism. The modern African system, or even political culture, may in large part be imposed from Europe, but differs from it in many respects because of this. There is also the fact Afrca has adopted the worst aspects of capitalism. All this makes it impossible to trace the African incarnation of a western system to some period in the west's past when there is no European parallel. Talking of Africa as behind Europe by a number of years in terms of the system becomes illogical in this case because Africa just isn't in any position or place that the west has been. It is in fact hovering between semblances of cultures that have had the most influence on this continent, never really being a carbon copy of one at a past date.

Industrialization and technology are better items to use in estimating the time required for one culture to catch up, but also have their shortcomings. For example, there is always going to be a difference between how developed a group is and their potential for development if there were no inhibiting factors. I have in mind known factors working to prevent a group from doing better than they are able to with what they already have, for example unfair terms of trade, cheaper foreign products that stunt local production, poverty, and so on.

Another factor is the known paucity on funding third world governments put into Science, Technology and Innovation (STI's), compared to western countries. The most reliable approximations of STI activity are patent filings. When they are correlated to Research and Development expenditure, the worst performers internationally are also the worst spenders. According to data compiled by the World Intellectual Patent Office (WIPO) in 2006, Africa was the worst performer. With the exception of Kenya (71 patents) and the island of Madagascar (44 patents), all patent offices in African countries recorded zero filings from locals. Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Chad and a few other places saw more patents filed by foreign nationals than the total from Kenya and Madagascar which, for such a big continent, is much less than underpopulated Iceland.

If it were really possible to equate standards, and it were true that Africa is at the same level of development as Europe 100 years ago, then the creativity and inventiveness Europe entered the 20th century with would be evident in Africa today. 100 years ago was the time in Europe when motorized vehicles had already been invented, when the Wright brothers had already made their first flight, when Nicolai Tesla had already filed his patent for a basic radio. This was a time when Europeans were inventing radar, when the printing press, the paper, the machine gun, had long since been invented.

The STI activity that characterized Europe 100 years ago is nowhere near that seen in Africa today. Africa could only be considered at par with Europe 100 years ago if it was assumed there are factors preventing Africa from showing its potential, such as lack of investment by African governments in Research and Development.

That fact of the matter remains it is not possible to find Africa in any developed country's past by any of the criteria mentioned before, except in fragments. There is actually something else that I have not mentioned thus far, an item we can apply to this case that will enable us to pinpoint Africa's position with regards developed countries accurately, that will also help us know what is wrong with Africa today, why the continent is performing so poorly. This item will enable insight that will take us more than two thousand years into the past, to the efforts of Socrates, Plato and the like, efforts to which Simon Kapwepwe comes very close if not equals. We will find the answer in Greece, 2000 years ago, without this implying Africa is as many years behind the west, or that it will take as much time to catch up. The hint as to what this is comes from an unlikely source.

Nobel Laureate Gumar Myrdal concluded in his major development study, Asian Drama, that institutions and attitudes are the most important factors in economic development/progress, a factor extensively illustrated in Africa. I concur wholeheartedly with him on this. Though Myrdal does not show how attitudes and institutions are related, which would have helped make the solution easier to see, we can do the math ourselves. Attitudes build institutions, and though institutions impact attitudes, they can be considered more the means rather than the end in itself. It is therefore to attitudes that we must look in order to know where in time a group is in relation no another, as well as why a given group is failing when compared to others.

There is indeed an era in western history more important than others, an era without which the creativity that characterises the western world would have been impossible. The foundations for this culture (civilization) were laid then. This happens to be the step that African has not taken, a step as prerequisite to mature entry into this western system as knowing the alphabet is a prerequisite to learning how to read, a rite of passage without which the system will remain alien. Keep in mind as we go along the undeniable reality I have already inferred above that this system, even if a mere variant, imposed on Africa through conquest, is the one the continent lives by.

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Playing With Fire: Ignoring or Stoking the Ever Present Portent of Inter Ethnic Violence in Africa

People in Sub-Saharan Africa are sitting on an ethnic time-bomb, and, unless it is diffused, can never rest assured the potential for inter-ethnic violence is a thing of the past. This is true for any African country where multiple ethnicities live in countries that are run as nation states - a multi-ethnic mix united in such a manner it can lay claim to a singular national identity - in which power is not, and often cannot be de-centralized.

The manner African countries are arranged, especially regarding efforts that go into blinding people to the truth, reminds one of the film "Men in Black" in which those who are not on the inside and have seen an alien get their memory erased. The gadget in the film is very effective and, apart from memory, leaves no other side effects. In this real life example, however, the methods employed always work against the good of everybody. It results in unbelievably hateful and violent dispositions, and a general, intense malaise that takes away the creative force of the group. The harm is permanent and the damage is perpetuated for generations to come.

We have to remember when dealing with the prevention of ethnic violence in Africa that these are countries characterized by the failure of the state apparatus. What this says about the leaders of the regimes on duty is that they are grossly inept at almost everything except pulverizing their own fates and people, and, of course, self aggrandizement. Ruling party conduct where prevention of inter-ethnic unrest is concerned is the same as with everything else. It is inept, often irresponsible, ignores the problem hoping it will go away, abuses the problem for political gain (inadvertently worsens the issue), or feels it is doing the right thing but is in fact applying uninformed and ineffective methods that harm the people, and subsequently the welfare of the state.

Examples of African leaders who didn't just get their country into a terrible state by meddling with ethnic issues, but put their own selves in a lot of trouble as a result include Laurent Gbagbo of the Ivory Coast. According to Amnesty International, quoting UN refugee agency figures, some 670 thousand people remain displaced after Ivory Coast's post-election violence that happened in April and May this year. They are afraid to return for fear of ethnic reprisals. Aljazeera reports that ethnic cleansing is still going on in Ivory coast.

As is customary for the continent, the new president, Alassane Quattara, appears to have come into office eager to observe this African tradition. He is reported to be turning a blind eye to abuses of Gbagbo's ethnic group by his tribesmen, or others loyal to him. It is either the case that he doesn't care. Maybe he doesn't know he is making things worse. It could just be that his behaviour is due to helplessness, the kind felt before a formidable foe the likes of which the previous unscrupulous regime conjured up from the nether world, and then left without disclosing the incantation.

Regimes in Africa do not understand the power of the ethnic instinct. If they did, then they would never apply remedies akin to self harm to the issue. They do not care how their actions are interpreted, how they are judged and in what ethnic light they are viewed (regardless they are multi-ethnic). They definitely only realize how much harm they have done when it is too late. It may seem from this behaviour that a good number of leaders in this region appear to want a continent that can achieve very little, if by this they are easier to control, and take their people for granted. The conduct of many leaders on the continent also suggests they are more than convinced they have the situation under control. They feel they have done the necessary work and left no stones unturned.

To give an example, the Zambian regime has of late been very busy ensuring the multitudes in the country can count on timely consent by those political parties that will lose the elections. In light of post election result violence witnessed in a number of African countries, the fear has set in, and no politico in his right mind will act irresponsibly by procrastinating, let alone egging his supporters into battle, when election results are announced and the loser disagrees with them. It is now considered a duty for all involved to concede defeat in as timely and orderly a manner as can be, to settle disputes through available channels, in the name of peace and tranquility. This mood is being induced by constant repetition in words or pictures, those behind the campaign sure it will be effective. There is nothing wrong with this, but the problem is the ruling party is not considering the effects its own actions will have on how people react to results. They are sending this messge out while stepping on toes. This same tactic was actually also employed in Kenya prior to the post-election violence of 2007.

The failure of measures aimed at preventing inter-ethnic violence lies in the reality there is never likelihood, nor is there a fitting mentality where inter-ethnic violence is concerned. People will not always respond to a switch, and there is no social institution or technology that can control inter-ethnic violence. This truth is immediately verifiable if we check accounts by those who witnessed ethnic unrest first hand, and noticed that, every time it happened, it was sudden, not in the least anticipated, and ugly beyond belief. Charles Dickens wrote quite a bit on what he considered the forgetful nature of human beings. He described how difficult it was for people to imagine the neat clad, good mannered English gentleman engaged in lowly acts of violence, yet he had witnessed men of this stature turn from well clad gentleman into monsters, overnight, in major wars between European nationalities.

We can talk to, or read about, the living, today's Bosnians, Rwanda's Hutus and Tutsies, and others. They will most definitely inform that neighbours mass murdering each other, neighbours wielding machetes on each other, people hiding out in swamps and marshes for fear of being hacked to pieces, was the last thing they ever thought possible. In Rwanda before this tragedy, people were aware there was discrimination and tribalism, but thought the country was full of big cowards. They did entertain the idea, but always dismissed it as an impossibility because of this. Remember here that this is how those in Rwanda who were not too careful how they treated others felt, those who abused power in an impoverished environment where everything is in place for the ugly tribal instinct to materialize.

Today, most people in Rwanda who remember this mind-set regret it. In hindsight, they see they were not attentive enough. They believe a little bit more attention from a critical number of people is all it would have taken to avert the nightmare. I, however, do not see attentiveness to be much of a help in such a situation. The instinct never lends itself to such easy detection. It usually lies buried beneath veils of loyalty, ideology, political cause, etc. Usually by a precipitating event, the instinct comes to the fore, when least expected.

According to Jarle Simensen, Professor Emeritus, Department of Archeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, ethnic unrest usually starts out as something else, "...But once the feuding parties have resorted to violence, be this on an ideological, political or other non-ethnic basis, we see in Africa, just as in the Balkans and the Caucasus, that ethnicity overrides all other forms of loyalty with a ferocity that belies belief, but is easier to understand if we bear in mind the role that nationalism has played in European history".

Ah! Europe. The place where the French fought the Germans because they were German, and vice-versa. Europe is the one place where we can ascertain that ethnic violence is a human condition, the place where the power inherent in the instinct is demonstrated in, for example, Napoleon's unwitting awakening and underestimation of German nationalism that cost the Holy Roman Empire dearly. Europe is one place that, unlike Africa, has found its own solution to this issue and, today, one of the few places where one would expect inter-ethnic violence (yet it does occur).

The most frightening reality is that a good number of Africans harbour some form of ethnic resentment. If things were to go wrong, the number of people who would milk the tribal instinct for all it is worth - particularly politicians with some bone to grind with ethnic groups they feel are the bane of their existence - far outnumber those who would be busy damming the flow, who would as such be fighting an uphill battle.

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When Adjusting to Hardships Means Going Backwards in Standards, It is Time to Change Regime

"...investing in a healthy, well fed, literate population is the most intelligent economic choice a country can make" - 'A Fate Worse Than Debt', by Susan George.

In today's Zambia, neighbourhoods are a shadow of what they used to be. They have lost much of the shine of old, a shine a developed country would not have been ashamed of. The infrastructure built in the past, though dilapidated today, is still being used by a significant if not majority of the urban population, and though it should rightly have been phased out in a perpetual modernization process if the investment made by the first government had paid off, and the momentum set had been followed through, it is still in reasonable condition within the local framework, better than some modern era neighbourhoods.

Gone are the street lamps, the free and dedicated trash collection, the reliable water and electricity supply. Pre-installed geysers that hung on many a wall have all but been cast into the waste dumps as citizens found them impossible to maintain on low budgets. The roads have all but disappeared, replaced with rocky or overgrown terrain where they used to be.

People have responded to these changes by either reverting back to the ways of their ancestors who migrated into towns from the villages, inhabitants of thatched mud huts that knew no electricity or clean tap water. They have also adopted practices that do not do much for the visage of their neighbourhoods, or personal hygien or morale.

Due to the unreliability of water supply, people have resorted to buying drums to store water they can use in moments when the supply is cut off. Taking showers or dipping one's self in a warm bath tub are for the most part luxuries of a short lived past. The usual way to bath is by boiling water on a stove or charcoal burner. Having taken the water into the bathroom, most people simply squat, dip their hands into the bucket and splash it on their body.

Flashing a toilet can only be done from the tank when the water is flowing through the pipes. What happens most of the time is that people draw water by bucket from their water reserve that they either take with them before, or after they are done.

Medical care is no longer free. A visit to the doctor has to be paid for, and most of the better medication can only be had for cash at a local chemist. The amounts asked are not much, but in a third world country where 65% of the people live below the poverty line, this just means most people go without routine checkups, or a visit to the doctor when ill. Most simply self medicate, while others force themselves to go on. Self medication in an impoverished environment means buying cheap, usually stolen or expired medications.

For physical ailments such as tooth issues, most people simply ignore the problem until it gets out of hand. In almost all public places, be they frequented by the rich or poor, a decaying odor permeates, be this nasal or otherwise. Autopsies usually reveal gradual, undiagnosed harm that ate the individual from within, from which there must have been a lot of discomfort. I know a case of a man who lumbered on with a burst apendix until his lower abdomen was all rotten. He died sitting upright, waiting to be seen by a doctor. It is no surprise that dying suddenly is very common. In fact, most deaths I know of occured without warning. One moment the individual was up and about, the next they were gone.

Chemists and other vendors of medication, especially those selling natural remedies, are doind good business, seen very clearly in their proliferation.

Unsightly wall, hedge, wood or reed mat fences that are covered.with a remarkable layer of fine dust in the dry season have marred the appearance of the average neighbourhood. The practice of erecting all manner of fences is a reasonable response to a common feature of most African countries, which is the failure of the state apparatus, in this case the failure to provide security and enforce or foster a culture that respects privacy. The sad thing about this is people behind wall fences are virtually imprisoned in their own yards, without much of a view. Also, though having a wall fence is now seen as a sign of prosperity, they are an affront on an aesthetic sense, and, in the case of unkempt hedges and the like, the source of vermin. Without fencing, however, people would have to accept their yards becoming pathways for all manner of travellers, even at ungodly hours. Some people would not sleep a wink without these large brick walls around their domains for commotion and security concerns.

Households have resorted to burying garbage in their backyards when they cannot afford to have their trash collected. People are forced to dig multiple pits on their plots to keep up with the flow of waste. Most yards are filled to the brim with garbage, so that digging new pits is sure to run into old ones. All manner of either non bio-degradable and toxic waste lies buried beneath in the very places people live, where their children play. When it becomes impossible to throw waste in the backyard, most people simply throw it out in some nearby bush somewhere, usually not very far from human habitation, the result being that there is unsorted, ignored garbage lying around everywhere, a source of vermin, contamination, diseases, leaving a constant stench in the air.

Though there is now a continent wide attempt to rehabilitate roads that is being felt as I write this, whether the efforts will fill the shoes left by the first regime remains to be seen. Countries in the European Union, The World Bank's International Development Association, the Development Bank of South Africa, etc., are all pumping funds into this project, looking to build super-highways in the case of the last. However, Indications are that those receiving the funds and coordinating activities in the country are badly organized or too deliberate. Priorities are being overlooked for political reasons, as well as those based in ineptitude. For example, many of the roads that have thus far been rehabilitated are shoddy and not up to modern road building standards. They lack pavements in residential areas and use drainage that is outdated. They do nothing to combat the dust and dirt. Roads that could simply use maintenance to preserve them are being left to deteriorate further while new ones are laid elsewhere, especially in long neglected rural areas.

People await the outcome of the road rehabilitation and maintenance venture with scepticism, but, for the time being, the destroyed roads are a source for much discomfort and repair bills for motorists, a hindrance to commerce, but crucially they are a health hazard for the dust and dirt they generate. It is everywhere, constantly wafting up and covering everything. One shudders to think of the state of lungs exposed to the finer particles. Shoes have to get constantly polished, while, due to the jagged nature of most road surfaces, most people have wisely taken to wearing steel-toe boots. In the rainy season, the roads turn into mud pools.

The questions most people ask regarding the slide in standards are manifold. The salient ones include those from people who have gone to the extent of asking whether this was unavoidable under African (black) rule? Others blame it on the overspending habits of the first government. There are those who have reason not to entertain the idea Africans are inherently inferior, or that the previous regime was incompetent. Their question is whether our lives would have been more stable or turned out better had we not changed regimes for the sake of change.

The answer to the last group's question is a resounding "yes". Evidence of this we shall find in the dedication and organizational skills the previous government showed, and also in the state of bordering countries whose leaders may or may not have answered the call for multiparty democracy, or applied the World Bank or IMF's Structural Adjustment Programs as stringently. Many, such as Angola, Namibia, or Botswana, have made leaps and bounds in progress, including standards, while we have moved backwards.It is true that hardships have followed all African countries since the mid-1980's, but then, under the previous government, we may have belonged to the club of the impoverished, but were one of the leading economies in this group rather than one of the last as economic statistics clearly show about the present.

According to the CIA World Fact Book, the country's annual growth rate, that now stands at 6%, only matched 1987 growth rates of the same percentage point in 2007. This recovery had the competent leadership of Levy Mwanawasa to thank. This man's tenure was characterized at the onset by positive changes, including a fall in interest rates. They hit the single digit figure of 8%, the lowest since 1977.

Otherwise, all else has been a downward tumble since this government came to power. The country's GDP per capita that stood at $1400 in 2007 is a mere two-thirds that at independence, making Zambia one of the poorest countries in the world today. Social indicators have continued to decline, particularly in measurements of life expectancy at birth that now stands at 50 years, and maternal and infant mortality that is at 85 per 1000.

It is preposterous to blame this remarkable decline on the HIV/AIDS pandemic, while affirming that 6% economic growth cannot support the rapid population growth characteristic of Zambia, when the latter is a valuable resource and the former has failed to impact the latter in all but demographics. Obviously, the fault here lies squarely with an inability to devise an effective coping strategy as a response to real exigencies.

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Sending the Ghost of a Cadre Party Back to the Grave

Basil Davidson's book "The Black Man's Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State" provides useful insight into the problems Africans inherited from the era of colonialism. When Europeans imposed on Africa their system of competing nation states by way of conquest and subjugation, they were motivated by their own strategic interests, not those of Africans. This impromptu initiation of a group into another culture, and the state of a people not yet ready to meet the challenges the new era brought, would linger and characterize the continent. It would become the source of much disarray for years to come.

At the time African countries were gaining independence, this new system, the colonial economy in particular, had not penetrated as deeply into African society as would allow for the rate of development seen in those Asian countries that had also been colonized. For example, Africa lacked strong enterprising groups with international connections that would have helped Africa keep up with international economic growth. Another example would be tribalism and ethnic unrest seen in much of Africa, that is a major impediment to development and persists to this day due to the manner the continent was divided.

The very first leaders of the newly independent African countries were not exempt from this rule. They had no first hand knowledge of running a state or of large scale economic development. Following in the footsteps of China's Mao Zedong, they copied from the Soviets. They learnt how to run a country while in office. Many became very good leaders, and did manage to effectively address many of the problems inherited from the era of colonialism. The task was not easy, and the unsteady and slow pace of progress testifies to this truth. Our leaders did much for us, but the one thing they all failed to achieve was move the continent up into the developed country category.

Of all the issues faced by Africa with a root in this past that it is still not very prepared for, not properly arranged for, and does not possess the means to handle as the third world, the phenomenon of cadre parties in the context of the African mode of social provisioning (that is still largely tradition based), is perhaps the most pernicious.

Cadre parties are defined as political parties dominated by elite groups of activists. They developed in the 19th century in Europe and America. They reflected a fundamental conflict between the aristocracy and bourgeoisie at a time when each class's ideology was being formed. Bourgeoisie liberal ideology.swept the aristocracy's conservative ideology away, thanks in large part to its appeal to the grassroots (bourgeoisie ideology spoke of the aspirations of this class as well), and would determine the future form the cadre party would take from then on.

Cadre parties would soon evolve into highly organized political units. Their capacity to take over and direct crucial national activity and set in motion a self perpetuating political culture is the main reason the system they created was referred to as a machine in its own right. Indeed, they were capable of creating a social machine the likes of which wayward communist revolutionaries have been at pains to emulate.

At a time when the suffrage was restricted to taxpayers and property owners in the 19th century, cadre parties went about ensuring they got power by offering various rewards to voters in return for the promise of their votes. They could offer such inducements as jobs, trader's licenses, immunity from the police, etc. Operating in this manner, they could guarantee a majority in an election. Once in control of local government, the police, the courts, and public finances, the machine and its clients were assured of impunity in illicit activities, for example, granting of public contracts to favoured businessmen, and so on.

The drawback of the system created by a cadre party was the fact the moral and material cost was very high. The corrupting effect on a people's mentality couldn't be understated. The machine was also often purely exploitative, performing no services to the community whatsoever. In the final analysis, it disadvantaged the community, especially in competition with countries that were not so encumbered, bringing nothing but untold miseries and tragedies to the common masses. This is the main reson why, in the western world cadre parties were in large part replaced by people's parties, and consigned to history books. They were incompatible with the march of progress. However, they have since reared their ugly heads among unsuspecting cultures of the world, never failing to wreak havoc in their wake. Today in Zambia, the MMD is a textbook example of a cadre party. Their every act since they came to power has marked them off as one. In the typical fashion of a paranoid cadre party, they sought and attained absolute control using underhanded tactics. It didn't take long before the MMD had become a power unto themselves. They could beat people up with impunity. They could do as they wished with public finances and property, etc. It belongs by the territory that, from the very onset, talent became as much a myth created by the previous regime, as the enemy they had to unseat at every turn. "Anybody can do anything" was their motto, and by the top down manner, this thinking soon infected the land. Nothing was sacred any more as they went about replacing experienced and often talented people in order to control vital social institutions. What became of ZNBC is a well known example to give for this.

But soon, reality came calling. Mediocrity and wantonness reigned supreme in the land and major social projects were either stripped clean of value, or they ground to a halt, otherwise they were simply allowed to dilapidate. Very little was going right but, fortunately for the machine, people were not seeing this. To the majority, the dilapidation going on around them was all that was wrong with the country. They failed to see this as the epitome of much more rot within the government.

The country was allowed to go into auto-pilot because those supposedly leading it were interested in matters that belonged by a crime syndicate. The party was a highly organized organization that didn't have what it takes to run anything other than a cadre party. In taking over the running of vital institutions, they infected the country with this quality too, so that, in time, this third world country didn't have what it takes to prosper. The dilapidated, second class third world country that became of Zambia after two decades of their rule was the inevitable outcome.

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