The feasibility of democracy in Africa by C. Ake

The story of democracy in Africa as a whole has been one of a constant struggle of African peoples against, colonization, tribalism, military dictatorships, one-party rule authoritarianism, imperialism and neo-liberal globalization. (Ake, 2000) This was Ake’s argument in his book The feasibility of democracy in Africa, which meant to showcase that the failure of democracy in the continent was not caused by the peoples lack of will but other external factors. In very few cases in Africa has the transition to multi-party democracy (or at least the move towards it) been smooth and uneventful. When one thinks of politics within an African context, one usually conjures up the images of military juntas, unaccountable and corrupt “big men” politicians, rigged elections, police extortions, rampant tribalism, institutionalized bribery, insatiable greed, and flagrant abuses of power. Whereas this has been typical of many African democracies and is especially true of the case selected for this study, I would argue that these outcomes are not a result of the incapacity of Africans to democratically govern themselves or an innate predisposition toward corruption but rather because of the complex circumstances that they inherited due to colonialism and its legacy. Colonialism primarily brought about an unrepresentative authoritarian form of government that was in effect simply passed on to the new found states at independence. Secondly, it forced societies that previously had had no relations with one another; societies that sometimes practiced different forms of governance were in some cases antagonistic toward one another, to practically learn overnight how to govern each other in one united polity. Lastly these same colonial powers which now...

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...stian south since 1999, there remains a long way to before this Giant of Africa by name can become so in fact.

Works Cited

Ake, C. (2000). The feasibility of democracy in africa. (reprint ed., pp. 1-206). Ann Arbor: Codesria.

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