There is a saying in certain parts of Africa which relates to why everyone must be a very fast runner. Either you need to run extremely quickly or you will be caught and eaten by a hunter or you have to have to run like the clappers in order to catch your prey. Whichever way you look at it, if you can’t run, you’re dead.

The message behind this saying is that Africa is divided into the hunters and the hunted. The strong and the weak. And the strong feed on the weak.

This goes a long way to explaining why so many rulers of African countries are corrupt tyrants with no regard for the people they are supposed to lead. Uganda’s Idi Amin, Central African Empire’s Jean-Bedel Bokassa, Zaire’s Mobutu Sese Seko, Nigeria’s Sunny Abacha and Togo’s Gnassingbe Eyadema are the most spectacular previous examples, but Kenya’s Daniel Arap Moi, Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Zambia’s Kenneth and Tanzania’s Julius Nyere weren’t much better.

The most depressing fact about all these dictators is that when they were finally overthrown, their replacements were just as bad. The world rejoiced briefly when Milton Obote was sworn in as President of Uganda following an insurrection against Idi Amin. It quickly dawned on Ugandans that President Obote was just as murderous and inept as his predecessor. That set the scene for another civil war which led to  Yoweri Museveni seizing power.

By African standards, Museveni has proven a competent leader who has done a lot for his country, but at the expense of democracy.

When Daniel Arap Moi finally bit the dust in Kenya, his successors assured the world they would rule with integrity and justice. The public relations exercise was a stunning success and the aid money poured in. And the new rulers poured it straight into their Swiss bank accounts.

Laurent Kabila. Remember him? He was going to be the saviour of Zaire after waging a 30-year civil war against Mobutu. When his victorious rebels rode into Kinshasa they promptly assumed the same corrupt practices of the previous incumbent.

The list of failures is depressingly long. Out of all Britain’s former colonies in sub-Saharan Africa, only one country can genuinely can genuinely claim to be better off. That country is Botswana, which has a population of approximately one million and relies on sales of diamonds plus tourism income to maintain its relative prosperity.

Those responsible for the mess Africa is in are unanimous about whose fault it is: the wicked west. It’s our fault because all these problems were really caused by colonialism, rather than brutal, thieving dictatorships that squandered every resource and advantage their countries had. Sadly, there are plenty of people in the west who believe that rubbish.

This explains why billions of dollars is given to Africa in the form of aid, and which is really just a slush fund for the rulers of the continent. The word “mbenzi” is Swahili for a rich person – one who owns a Mercedes Benz. In places like America, such a person might have to work very hard to become rich. In Africa, wealth is the prerogative of the ruling class. To become an mbenzi, you must become one of the rulers.

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe understood this system all too well. Notionally a Marxist, the man is really just another greedy president-for-life who enriches himself and his cronies while his people starve. Actually, the reality is far worse than this. Zimbabwe used to be a net food exporter until just a few years ago. The country was relatively prosperous and the prospects were bright. Today, the farms are mostly dust bowls. People rely on imported food aid just to survive. There is 80% unemployment and inflation is around 1,800% and rising. All this so a few can wallow in luxury.

There are ominous signs Mugabe is about to be replaced, either by a senior rival in his Zanu PF party or the opposition’s Morgan Tsvangirai. If this happens, the world will once more shower the country with aid and praise its leaders for their integrity and vision. As with previous regime changes, a reality check will not be far away. To rise to a senior position in Zanu PF, one would have to be just as ruthless as Bob Mugabe, so there is no hope for salvation from that side. As for Tsvangirai, he may be courageous but he is hardly the man of honour and decency some news agencies are portraying him as these days. Nor is his rival Arthur Mutambara, who might become a compromise candidate if Zanu PF decides to broker a deal with an outsider.

This vicious cycle is bound to continue as long as Africans view political power as the way to wealth. What is needed is the emergence of an entrepreneurial class that uses business – legitimate business – as a means of getting rich. This can not happen while the current “system” in Africa is in place. Business is too risky unless backed by political power, at which point it ceases to be free and fair trade.

The west can help a great deal to change the way things are done in Africa. The first step is to cancel all aid to Africa except emergency humanitarian assistance and skills training programmes whereby volunteers teach Africans their skills. The rest of the aid packages should be cancelled. Unfortunately, this can not happen as long as China is prepared to step into the breach and deposits large sums of cash in return for access to valuable commodities, so it is unlikely to become reality.

Aid must be replaced by genuine free trade with Africa. Trade barriers to African goods must be removed because this would allow African businesses to prosper on a level playing field, which in turn would lead to genuine, sustainable economic development. Again, this won’t happen because certain countries are averse to free trade. The French are prime examples.

Much has been said about the post colonial legacy of putting rival tribes in the same country with artificial boundaries and of the ravages of Aids and other diseases, but prosperity would enable Africans to take advantage of superior medical treatments, and tribes might get along better if there was more wealth to be shared out fairly.

As long as it is politics as usual, funded by naïve aid donors and those very same donors refuse to open their markets to free trade, these obstacles will remain in place. There will be no permanent improvements in the general living conditions in Africa. This is an entirely avoidable tragedy, and as a direct result the continent is doomed.