Does the sending of United States of America (USA) troops to Uganda affirm that the world finally values the African person? History does not agree. The only time the global system recognized the value of the African,  it commoditized him and shipped millions of Africans into slavery. While this ought to be Africa's century, it is turning into Africa's nightmare as the continent's resources gain more global importance.

Despite the fact that both small tribes and mighty nations in Africa have been involved in war since people first carved knives out of stone, copper, bronze and iron, it is tragic that wars are still rampant on the continent. South Sudan is embroiled in war with North Sudan over the contested border town of Abyei. The Democratic Republic of Congo is at the centre of a war that has claimed over three million lives – a conflict that drew in neighboring countries (Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Rwanda).  The US has sent troops to Uganda to allegedly quash Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (in Uganda, South Sudan, DR Congo and Central African Republic) while Kenya has launched an offensive into Somalia in pursuit of Al Shabaab insurgents who are making terrorist forays into the country.

Granted that crimes against humanity in this part of the world have for decades gone unpunished; the quest for justice must not induce African nations to turn against each other. Whereas Africa's interaction with the Western Civilization is expected to have made the continent build robust institutions that can dispense justice and ensure rule based approach to conflict resolutions, the continent continues to witness state capture by ethnic minded elites to the exclusion of others. Warped governance systems with Western- imitated institutional facades dominate the continent. Any conflict occurring under this environment creates a clear excuse for outsiders to intervene.

Powers interested in the continent’s resources have used divide and rule techniques to alienate Africans from each other. Just the way chiefs were set against each other in pre-colonial days; Africa is at war with itself yet again. The trend only serves to weaken Africa's hand in the global system and prepares the continent to hand over resources cheaply to developed countries and emerging powers. At this rate, the prospect of developing an African driven economic and social development agenda is dim. Africans must urgently learn from history and put their priorities right.