Fly catching...
You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.
Why start out in such a judgemental way if you want a positive dialogue?
There are some things I can do as a pilot to raise the general level of safety. There are many more things I think I know about African aviation that are out of my remit:
How it's regulated or not.
How some of my fellow professionals conduct their flights.
How well-maintained some of the aircraft are or not.
There isn't very much use to me raising points about stuff I cannot fix that are fairly well-known unless I just want to have a good moan.
Worse yet, if I start pointing the finger at some individual pilots expect things to go down to mud-slinging pretty quickly. It's probably best to just cite anonymous examples of "how not to do it" or else just stick to my own mistakes, of which I have a few to work from.
"Cowboy pilots" might be part of the problem but what about a system that allows them to fly that way? If someone knows they are not going to get away with doing silly things then they will probably behave and follow the rules. They might even get used to doing that and find life just goes so much more smoothly that way!
If you have a place that has no approaches, lousy weather and high terrain around it you already have a hazard. If you then add a lax attitude on the part of individual pilots (Minimums are for newbies; I know what I'm doing!), commercial pressure (Fred Bloggs seemed to make it in okay; why did you have to abort and return to base with a load of pissed-off passengers? The weather wasn't all that bad was it?) and regulators looking the other way (What, we should shut the airport down just for a few low clouds?), accidents are pre-progammed.
In the final analysis we as pilots just have to make that go/no-go decision and then take whatever comes from that, when many of us are not able to face quitting the job since there is nothing else on offer. You figure out a way to fix that problem and you will really be making progress.
Until then, most of this is a waste of bandwidth, either calling poor old Joe Bloggs a w*nker for converting a perfectly good airplane to a thin film of alloy and hairy strawberry jelly on a rock face or else defending him as one of the best who was just caught by blind fate. Joe Bloggs is just one part of a system that often does not work correctly in Africa!
Try sneaking into a place in the U.S.A. when the birds are walking, some field without any approaches. You will be haunted by the thought of some horrible little man from an F.A.A. GADO (General Aviation District Office) who might hunt you down like Inspector Javert, relentless and merciless, immune to fear, favour and bribery. Not always and everywhere but it does happen, when you shall weep bitter tears for having done a really great job being a cowboy, ignoring the rules. You got the trip done, the pax were happy, the boss is happy, you are screwed!
Not least, the boss is happy because he can watch from a safe distance as you, poor, alone and friendless are ripped to shreds by this FAA hell-hound while he, wealthy and lawyered-up can just say, "Well, Joe, you know I never wanted you to bust minimums there. I have no idea where you got that idea. Okay, I might have asked you if I needed to find me another pilot but I was just joking with you there, when you must have misunderstood. Don't forget to hand in your beeper; I need it for the new guy."
Africa, ah! Not the same at all, is it? We are left alone to figure out what is safe and what is not, when that is inherently unsafe in itself.