Editor,

RE: "Is imperialism Africa’s biggest challenge?” (The New Times, July 25).

I think that we must strive not to remain obsessed with ideas reflecting a certain extremism that cannot lead us anywhere in our relations with the West.

We must not cling too much to the mistakes of the past that were committed by the coloniser since we ourselves have a certain share of responsibility in all this.

If you say that African resources are being looted for the benefit of those who rule the world in their interest, you must at least recognise that the Africans themselves facilitate this plunder.

The African Union is there, but we Africans do not know exactly what the heads of state are doing (during AU Summits) to fight against this scourge.

Barnabe

****

The tone of your comment that downplays the role of imperialism (including its persistent neo-colonial form) in our continuing state of subjugation and underdevelopment, and your attempt to share the blame for the continuing looting of Africa between the looters and the looted only underscores exactly what I meant with indoctrination of seemingly intelligent Africans.

Undoing such a degree of alienation will be a truly Herculean task.

Mwene Kalinda