48 Quotes by George Ayittey

Getting rid of the dictator is only a first step in establishing a free society. The dictatorship must also be disassembled.

The richest persons in Africa are heads of state, governors and ministers. So every 'educated' African who wants to be rich - and there is nothing wrong with wanting to be rich - heads straight into government or politics.

What you and I understand as a government doesn't exist in many African countries. In fact, what we call our governments are vampire states. Vampires because they suck the economic vitality out of their people. Government is the problem in Africa.

Across Africa there is what I call a colonialist mentality or orthodoxy. Orthodoxy in the sense that a lot of things have gone wrong in Africa in the post-colonial period. And time and time again, any time something went wrong, the leadership claims that it was never their fault.

There's a belief that since Africa got a raw deal from the colonial West, then the Chinese must be Africa's best friend. But the evidence doesn't show that, and the main criticism is that they are building infrastructure in exchange for Africa's resources in deals that are structured to favor China.

Africa has more dictators per capita than any other continent.

The solutions to Africa's problems lie in Africa, not in Live Aid concerts.

In the West, the basic economic and social unit is the individual; in Africa, it is the extended family or the collective.

The election of Senator Barack Obama brought jubilation across Africa, where millions celebrated him as 'one of their own.'