"eating parties"; refers to political parties created for the purpose of enriching their leaders, not to advance an ideology, specifically in the context of Africa in recent years (I think)
In place of the old party-state, hundreds of parties were established—many of them simply ‘partis alimentaires’, ideology-free ‘eating parties’ designed to sell their support to various power-brokers, and filled with hungry cadres in search of (often pathetically small) financial rewards.