jkotieno2000 on "Africa's democratic pains"

jkotieno2000 — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:34:11 +0000

Your comparision of the situation in Africa's biggest economies is useful. Kenya is indeed the latest evidence that Africa's examples inevitably disappoint. Just five years we were an African example; the first major country to oust a very entrenched oligarchy in free and fair elections. Five years later we are the opposite, a weak state fast sliding to failure.
The economy; respect for strong, reliable institutions; cohesion; and free interaction in competitive politics have emerged as the basic minimums for the future stability of any African country. As noted Kenya made many gains in the recent past; a growing economy, fairly free media and a growing connection with the rest of the world.
But corruption, exclusion on ethnic basis and marginalisation of the periphery were just bad ingredients for Kibaki's continued stay in office, in a democracy. What Kenyans did in this election was to tell Kibaki and his corrupt elite boldly that they could no longer take the people for granted.
What is urgent now is for the international community to help Kenyans get back the value of the vote. Peace will logically follow justice.
John Otieno-Onyando,
Nairobi.

Africa's democratic pains, Greg Mills Michael Holman

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 14:03:20 +0000

Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Kenya: four African countries regarded until recently as successes of political reform and economic progress, and with wider potential.

They could - so it appeared - turn their respective regions in west, central, eastern and southern Africa around, and in so doing drive the continent forward. The resources are there: together the four contain more than one-third of sub-Saharan Africa's 750 million people and represent over half of its combined economy.

Michael Holman was Africa editor of the Financial Times, 1984-2002. He is the author of the novels Last Orders at Harrods: An African Tale (Polygon, 2005; republished by Abacus, 2007) and the sequel, Fatboy and the Dancing Ladies (Polygon, 2007)

Also by Michael Holman in openDemocracy:

"Welcome to the aid business!(20 June 2005)

"Africa: celebrity and salvation" (22 October 2006)

"Trees for Africa" (18 December 2006)

"Eugène Marais, The Soul of the White Ant" (19 February 2007)

"Dizzy worms in Zimbabwe" (19 March 2007)

"The Commonwealth: punching below weight" (3 December 2007)

"African legacies: settler-colonialism, land-politics" (11 December 2007)
But elections in each country in the eighteen months since July 2006 have reversed or at least stalled the optimism, raising a series of doubts: over the true path of these countries, the impact on their regions and the role that external actors might play in ensuring stability.

* In the DR Congo, the first elections since the end of the Mobutu regime and the war which ensued led which in October 2006 (after a two-round process extending over four months) to the election of Joseph Kabila; but this has been followed by months of instability, culminating in new rounds of fighting in the east (see David Mugnier, "How to end a war", 3 December 2007)

* In Nigeria, the government itself conceded that the election of President Umaru Yar'Adua in April 2007 was flawed

* In South Africa, the election victory of Jacob Zuma over incumbent Thabo Mbeki as the president of the ruling African National Congress in December 2007 has created new concerns over the future stability of Africa's model state

* In Kenya, problems in the aftermath of the presidential election on 27 December 2007 have resulted in an outbreak of violence of unprecedented fury, turning a country once viewed as the favourite surf-and-safari destination to just another African country, one teetering on the brink of disaster.

Four corners, five lessons

True, these are very different countries and circumstances - from Africa's largest economy (South Africa) to its largest failed state (Congo), and from a key ally in the west's war on terror (Kenya) to a giant with volatile sectarian faultlines (Nigeria). But out of each of these democratic experiences, five commonalities can be drawn.

First, tribalism and sectarianism still matter. In Kenya, the race was between Mwai Kibaki, a member of the Kikuyu tribe (the largest in Kenya) and Raila Odinga (a Luo), and battlelines were drawn countrywide according to these differences (see John Lonsdale, "Kenya: ethnicity, tribe and state", 17 January 2008).

In Congo, President Kabila responded to the prospect of electoral defeat in the second-round run-off by bolstering his support by making deals with some of the more extremist yet powerful elements in Congolese politics, and threatening the Banyamulenge in the eastern South Kivu province.

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jkotieno2000 on "Africa's democratic pains"

Africa's democratic pains, Greg Mills Michael Holman