Algiers shows Africa's struggle between radical zeal and dependency

African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. [AFP]

There were two overlapping African conferences in Algiers, Algeria's capital on the Mediterranean Sea. Algeria and Kenya have a few colonial and demographic similarities.

In terms demography, while Algiers is roughly the size of Nairobi, each boasting of populations of seven million people, Kenya and Algeria fought bitter anti-colonial wars in the 1950s, the Mau Mau War in Kenya against the British and the Algerian War against the French, which accelerated decolonisation across Africa.