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Donald Trump has set glittering standards for African leaders

US President Donald Trump speaks before signing an executive order in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, on September 19, 2025. [AFP]

Africans rode into independence weighed down by unrealistic promise and expectations.

Freedom fighters crawled out of forests bubbling with excitement. The war was over. Invitations to dine in the sprawling bungalows the colonizer had left in a huff awaited. They were eager to reclaim ancestral lands, paddle around in the white man’s pool, float in his bathtub and wench in the white man’s king-size bed – clean linen, fluffy pillows and all.

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