Maponya Mall attack shows we cannot afford to be complacent

It has been documented in history that great empires don’t just fall overnight, nor does their demise come as an event that history takes a privileged vantage point to record for future reference.

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It takes years of negligence and someone not doing their part for empires to eventually self-implode, and not necessarily in an explosive manner.

We don’t have an equivalent of the empires of old in the world today. In their place are nation states, and in many instances, especially in postcolonial Africa, borders drawn with total disregard oof ethnic and cultural identity.

The typical modern African state is comparatively very much in its infancy as people across the continent are grappling with the mammoth task of fashioning functional states from the rabble of colonialism and the neo-imperialism that followed it. Africa in general, doesn't have the memory bank on which to rely as we build the type of state we need to pull the continent out of the rut.