Editor, RE: “Mugabe is right about UN, unfortunately, hes Mugabe” (The New Times, February 7). Well summed up. France, US, China, Russia, Britain…have more say in and on Africa than the entire collective that is African countries—a creation of the West less than 150 years ago. Bismarck almost jokingly created these countries. Imboko Ndiranga **************************************** I agree, but only up to a certain point. A number of African countries predate many European ones. For instance, Ethiopia is older as an organised unitary state than the majority of European countries, and as organised states, both Rwanda and Burundi far precede Belgium (created by major European powers as a weak buffer between France and the Germanic states under Prussian hegemony), Germany (a Bismarckian creation also whose founding can be dated to the 1871 Frankfurt Treaty) or Italy brought together into a single kingdom from disparate states under the impetus of General Giuseppe Garibaldi in the 19th century). And most American settler-based states, both in the north and in the south, or Australia and New Zealand are again much newer as political entities than Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi. And so as anyone can see the relative recent creation of countries is not limited to Africa but extends all over the globe. Mwene Kalinda
