WE MARKED Africa Day this week but it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same for the Mother Continent.

WE MARKED Africa Day this week but it seems the more things change, the more they stay the same for the Mother Continent.

Africans should long have conquered and outthought foreigners' agendas. There is the Chinese agenda, Israeli agenda, European agenda, American agenda and more.

So it is not amusing to often hear the continent being described as a neo colony, a Dark Continent, by those determined to keep Africa from thriving on her own ideas and abundant resources.

Unending wars and poverty have not made it easier, even after some of Africa's most innovative minds plotted the African Renaissance.

Africa has allowed individuals to set us up against one another while they scramble for what we have.

Think of Mark Thatcher, son of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, who could have unleashed bloodshed in Guinea just to take control of its natural wealth.

Our leaders dilly-dally - 50 years after the formation of the Organisation of African Unity, now the African Union.

We need to break with the past. Europe has already latched on to an African idea with the European Union. We should have led the way. There is little to celebrate while the continent is still being torn by tribal and religious differences.

Our forebears were spot on. Bana ba thari (born of the same womb) should never allow themselves to be divided, lest they be annihilated. The AU means nothing until Africa pulls together.