State Renewal in Africa: The Lessons

Abstract

The various case studies in this volume on democratizing states in Africa have mapped out the travails of the difficult task of reconstituting the postcolonial state. Each of the case studies discusses the major shortcomings of the particular postcolonial state, and the efforts by each of the countries to address these challenges through the state reconstitution project. Clearly, the countries examined in this volume have made laudable strides in addressing the plethora of cultural, economic, political, and social problems that have hamstrung the reconstitution of the postcolonial state. While they have made important strides in addressing their horrendous past records, they still have a long way to go. As crucial as the reforms undertaken in the past few years have been, they have fallen far short of meeting the expectations of the vast majority of the African people. As Adebayo Olukoshi aptly observes, “Of course, the reform process is itself incomplete in many respects, and there are still many important missing links that need to be in place.…”1 In other words, irrespective of the level of progress made, all of the democratizing states addressed in this volume continue to face the enduring conundrum of reconstituting polities based on democratic processes.KeywordsGender EqualityCivil LibertyCivil Society OrganizationAfrican StateHuman SecurityThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.