Mahatma Gandhi was born on 2 October 1869 – 150 years ago. I write this in honour of this great man; and make a brief assessment of his life and philosophy, and the enormous legacy he left behind.

Since March of 2015, the United States has engineered and guided a genocidal war against the people of Yemen. Daily bombing operations by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition has killed tens of thousands of people, injured and sickened hundreds of thousands more and created the worse humanitarian crisis in the world.

A person who labours for the general good of all serves society and is worthy of his hire. Therefore, such bread-labour is not different from social service. What the vast mass of mankind does for self or at best for family, a social servant does for general good. – M. K. Gandhi.

The author shares a number of lessons that African countries can learn from North Korea, especially the country's self-reliance ideology through economic, political and military independence.