No shortcuts to democracy: the long march towards modernity

Abstract

Fundamental theoretical and practical issues are raised by the present commitment to democracy. A realistic democratic programme will require intellectual prerequisites, essentially in the form of a shared political language in which debate between conflicting interests and forces can be conducted without resort to violence or repression, just as much as new institutional forms of multi‐partyism. One requirement, slowly being initiated in a dialogue between historians and social actors, is to cast off the extra‐African mechanisms for dictating social thought and the dead hand of the state on independent thinking so as to generate theories about Africa, its history and its prospects; to develop an African image of modernity that goes beyond the narrow mechanical process of ‘modernisation’. One specific task of social theorising would be to articulate a method for thinking about democracy appropriate for Africa, and which therefore must be rooted in the processes whereby actual political ‘communities’ beyond the state are constituted – which have to be recognised for what they are, often based on age, gender, ethnicity, religion – and the images and languages through which they express themselves. These two prerequisites will in turn depend on the active role and involvement with popular forces of African intellectuals, who face difficult and deteriorating conditions in the availability of education, publishing outlets and the media. Nevertheless, African professional associations and journals are beginning now to set the terms of the debate on the meaning of democracy, human rights and modernity in Africa. This process will require a new social definition, a new mode of practice by intellectuals and a new kind of dialogue with the people.