Generation Of African Leaders Research Articles

Ending party cleavage for a better polity: is Kwasi Wiredu’s non-party polity a viable alternative to a party polity?

Africa’s current democratic outlook is a relic of the crowning vestige bequeathed by the colonial metropolis as a sign of the African’s attainment of political freedom. As if to suggest that at the occasion of the attainment of that freedom, the African had become human, the metropolis demanded that formerly colonised territories had to democratise. This democratisation had to be of the same hue as of the metropolis. A particular aspect of Western democracy that has been deemed problematic on the African continent is its adversarial form crystallised by open and vicious competition for power between political parties. First to reject this party-polity were the first generation of African leaders. Disastrously for them, both their theories and practices were to be discredited, and as the personae fell so did their theories. The prominent African philosopher Kwasi Wiredu has led a sustained onslaught on the party-polity. He has attempted to show that this polity has several problems including that it is a poor version of democracy as well as that its structures promote considerable harm in the form of unb ridled competition for power, which all result in exclusionary politics. In the process of arguing for a more inclusive polity, consensual democracy, Wiredu has set his sights on outlining the precise nature of how such a polity is more democratic while at the same time shunning party politics. What I seek to do here is to present an assessment of some of Wiredu’s arguments in support of consensus as a non-party polity. I wish to argue that the attempt of doing away with party politics is not very compelling. I also wish to show why those who read Wiredu’s position as a return to a one-party state should receive a sympathetic hearing.

Africa in the War on Terrorism

Locating the African political scene within the new global paradigm of the war on terrorism, we inquire into the impact of the events of 9/11 on the international relations of African states within emerging new transnational forces, centering on American foreign policy toward Africa and on possible scenarios of African responses. We explore pressures and opportunities emerging and contemplate practical reactions by a new generation of African leaders. Africans have a stake in resisting terrorism and playing a role in a winning coalition. Their interests in development, security, open societies, and decent governance are enhanced by cooperation in the war on terrorism that also include elements of the African diaspora and the North American Africanist community.

Military rule in The Gambia: An interim assessment

On 22 July 1994 the political system of the small West African state of The Gambia was subjected to an abrupt and dislocative change. On that day a group of very young junior officers from the Gambia National Army (GNA) staged a coup d'etat which succeeded in overthrowing the government of Sir Dawda Kairaba Jawara and his People's Progressive Party (Ppp) which had ruled the country since independence in 1965.1 Before the coup Jawara had enjoyed the distinction of being the very last of that generation of African leaders who had led their countries to independence in the 1960s to remain in power.2 Since independence the Gambian political system had exhibited a level of continuity which was unique in the region. Although control of government had remained continuously in the hands of Jawara and his party, the country had experienced an unbroken run of multiparty politics in which opposition parties competed (rather unsuccessfully) for power in a regular series of free and relatively fair elections. While the operation of Gambian democracy was certainly not without flaws, it was real enough, and President Jawara had established an international reputation as a defender of human and civil rights.3 With the exception of a failed coup attempt by members of the paramilitary Field Force (this was before the creation of the army) in 1981, in conjunction with discounted urban elements, which had been defeated with the assistance of troops from neighbouring Senegal,4 the Gambian political system had also been markedly stable. It was thus rather ironic that, at a time when the regional trend was away from authoritarianism and towards the restoration of multiparty civilian rule, the Gambian political system was moving in the opposite direction and experiencing military rule for the first time.