Ep64 The Best form of leadership for AFRICA (democracy or Communism...)

The argument for democracy may be very strong for African countries, many of which have had long histories of military rule, unfair elections, unaccountable leaderships, inadequate service delivery, and popularized corruption. Many scholars particularly argue that the lack of democracy is the main cause of poverty in Africa. But despite the implementation of donor’s good governance reforms....corruption, poverty, and other challenges continue in Africa. Moreover, the wave of democratization which swept across Africa in the 1990s mainly paved the way for multiparty elections without improving the welfare of African poor masses who queue for hours to cast their votes. The implementation of Western liberal democracy in Africa has also been characterized by violence and election rigging. Some plainly call this chaotic electoral system of corrupt governance ‘African style democracy’, while some scholars attribute Africa’s governance failures to African cultural values which, they argue, are inimical to democracy. Unfortunately, those who conclude that corrupt governance is cultural to Africa apparently ignore the destructive and inhibitive impacts of over half a millennium of subjugation of African cultural systems by the West, a situation that led to the perversion of various aspects of African life including its governance systems. In actual fact, democracy is an intrinsic part of African culture. Europeans who invaded Africa met democratic kingdoms which they had to first destroy before their colonization project could be successful. However, eurocentrism denies Africa’s democratic political history and projects Africa’s culture as totally autocratic and anti-development. The impositions of Western ethos, including Western-style democracy, on Africa, have produced distortions because the culture, history, and values of the local setting are important in any development and governance framework. Western donors also contribute to these democratic failures because they always endorse any African country where elections are held as democratic, even when undemocratic leaders win. Thus, democracy has been equated with multiparty elections even when people’s votes never count. Worse still, the promotion of democracy by the World Bank and other Western donors does not change their own autocratic relation with poor African countries. Their insistence on neoliberal reforms contributes to Africa’s poverty and has continued to allow developed nations to exploit Africa. Despite donors’ rhetoric on democracy, the value of elections in Africa does not go beyond giving the people a sense of involvement even when their opinions never count and as they endure the prickles of western neoliberal reforms. Interestingly, despite these democratic failures, African countries continue to perform well in fulfilling the exploitation purpose of their creation by the Europeans at the Berlin Conference of 1884. I define Western liberal democracy in the African context as a political arrangement that guarantees the interests of the imperial capitalist countries, especially their open access to African resources and markets.

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