More than a half century after most African states gained nominal independence, the continent is still economically and politically dependent on “external actors,” said Ndubuisi Christian Ani, a scholar at the Institute for Security Studies, in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Union solicits US and European support for “peace-keeping” and other missions, which amounts to “re-inviting the erstwhile colonizers to come and perpetrate imperialism,” said Ani.