Nation Building and Ethinicity: Towards a Re-conceptualization of Democracy in Africa

Abstract

This paper presents a critique of current conceptualizations of democracy in Africa by tracing their antecedents in colonial anthropological characterizations where Africans were as a people in their unity and in their diversity.  It then proceeds to offer a critique of the social, economic, and political policies and practices which have characterized post-colonial Africa.  It finally outlines an alternative conceptualization of democracy in Africa.  In this conceptualization of democracy, focus is put on peoples’ rights as individuals and as communities rather than putting inordinate emphasis on multipartism and period electioneering.  The paper argues that what have been  termed as democratic transitions in Africa have often amounted to movement from the authoritarianism of one state party to that of many state parties, with issues of social justice left unattended.  It concludes by an appeal to intellectuals to recognize other sites of emancipator politics such as factories, schools, farms, households, streets, villages, and universities.  It argues that such emancipator politics tend to take their inspiration from a discernible renewal in the search for a Pan-Africanist identify against the backdrop of the marginalization to which various social forces and communities are being subjected by the so-called “globalization”.