Africas budding democracies are taking shape
Although Zimbabwe has shown signs of backsliding into authoritarianism, the countrys recent election had more freedom than any election since independence
Hanna Wetters
Since last November, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, home to two of the oldest authoritarian governments in Africa, have both began to shift dramatically towards democracy. While the initial changes in leadership were peaceful, regional violence in Ethiopia and a contested election in Zimbabwe have made the political transitions increasingly turbulent. For the moment, Ethiopia has been able to overcome these challenges. And although Zimbabwe has shown signs of backsliding into authoritarianism, the countrys recent election had more freedom than any election since independence, and the whole process was less violent than other recent elections in the region.
At a time when democracy appears to be declining globally, the cases of Ethiopia and even Zimbabwe should be studied and cannot be discounted.
Since the dawn of African independence from colonialism in the early 1960s, African liberation leaders and founding fathers qua dictators, military junta and new breed leaders have sought to justify the one-man, one-party state and avoid genuine multiparty democracy by fabricating a blend of self-serving arguments. These arguments converge on the notion that in Africa there is a democracy before democracy.
The core argument can be restated in different ways: Before Africa can have political democracy, it must have economic democracy. Africans are more concerned about meeting their economic needs than having abstract political rights. Economic development necessarily requires sacrifices in political rights. African democracy is a different species of democracy, which has roots in African culture and history. African societies are plagued by ethnic, tribal and religious conflicts which can be solved not by Western-style liberal democracy, but within the framework of the traditional African institutions of consensus-building, elder mediation and conciliation. Western-style democracy is unworkable, alien and inappropriate for Africans because the necessary preconditions for such a system are not present. Widespread poverty, low per capita income, a tiny middle class and the absence of a democratic civic culture render such a system incongruous with African realities. Liberal democracy can come to Africa only after significant economic development has been achieved. Any premature introduction or misguided imposition of it by the West could actually harm Africans by destroying their budding faith in democracy itself.
On June 23, one of the largest-ever public gatherings in Ethiopias Meskel Square transformed into chaos when an explosion erupted near the rallys speaker, newly elected Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who had recently become the first person from Ethiopias majority Oromo ethnic group to hold the position. On the same day in Zimbabwe, an explosion in Bulawayo targeting interim President Mnangagwa occurred in the run-up to the countrys first democratic elections in decades.
For the past 40 years, we would have anticipated a brutal reaction from both governments in response to any act of violence that threatened to undermine state power. Zimbabwes dictator Robert Mugabe became infamous for his massacre of alleged members of the opposition party PF-ZAPU in the 1980s. Until recently, any anti-government sentiment in Ethiopia would have been met with an immediate government crackdown, including prolonged internet shutdowns, government-imposed states of emergency, and the arrests and deaths of protestors more than 1,000 of whom have been killed since 2015.
Abiys moves towards liberal democracy are not without opposition. In light of the opening political space, Ethiopias more ethnically factious regions are experiencing increased violence as underrepresented groups jockey for position in the changing order. In response to the reforms, the former president of Ethiopias Somali Region tested the new prime minister, allegedly supporting dissent among regional paramilitary forces in early August. Abiy responded swiftly by deploying the military, arresting the former president, and working to quell the violence. If Abiy can continue to navigate challenges and inspire trust among constituents that the government will pursue more open democratic policies, democracy in Ethiopia may slowly begin to take hold.
A couple of years ago the Economist news magazine published an article on Africas budding democracy entitled a glass half-full.
The article compared Senegal with Mali where in the former, the President conceded electoral defeat to a much younger rival and Mali where junior army officers then stormed and looted the Presidential palace in the capital Bamako, abruptly ending a 20 year stretch of democracy that had raised hopes for the wider West African region.
Although Africa has such sad tales like that of Mali, there is optimism in general about prospects for democracy in Africa.
Even in countries dubbed difficult with poor annual democratic indices, there are fairly regular parliamentary and presidential elections.
It is not unreasonable to suggest that while reflecting on what constitutes a free and fair election we should also reflect at the same time on what constitutes democracy more broadly.
We should from the outset liberate ourselves from the idea that elections are equal to democracy.
Of equal importance is the fact that there is a growing and unfortunately deepening lack of faith in national political institutions among citizens not only of Africa but the entire world.
Although each national context has its own distinctive features, the declining passion for electoral politics in some parts of the world is troubling for the future of democracy.
This is more so in the Western world where democracy is being diminished to little more than a liberal oligarchy of the rule by the few in form of elections without the substance of the will of the people being secured.
Elections in Nigeria in 2011, Africas most populous nation are a case in point. The case of Kenya following the elections of March 2013 is another case of interest. The aftermath of last years elections in Kenya is tempting to comment on.
The stalemate caused by the said elections remains a grim reminder that democracy in Africa is more that just casting the ballot paper and waiting for the outcome of the vote.
The death and carnage that arose from disputes and the hardened positions in 2007 and last year 2013 of the victors and losers coupled with the high stakes involved shows that the struggle for democracy is a hard and long road for Africa.
The said Kenyas Presidential elections that resulted in a stalemate were ultimately resolved through the countrys Supreme Court. Kenyans demonstrated to the world the triumph of democracy.
The United States roadmap for democratization published in the early 1990s listed the steps to the promised land of democracy as: struggle, transition, institutionalization, elections and consolidation.
This roadmap, prescriptive as it appears, does not seem to work for us in Africa.
It should be understood that democracy in Africa is about sharing of resources; it is about peace and security for the man and the woman on the street. It is indeed about the guarantee of basic rights and freedoms as enshrined in the constitution.
While it has been agued that democracy and a robust civil society emerge together, it can be said that in developed countries, like the United Kingdom for example, this took nearly seven centuries.
This can be attributed to power struggles between the local elites and the central monarchy, not the activity of the masses. Democracy came later. But most importantly, as it has been agued, civil society was achieved in a way that did not destroy a sense of national unity.
For Africa to enjoy the fruits of genuine democracy and avoid the devastating conflicts of the 1980s and 1990s, popularly known as the lost decades, we need to do more than just wait to cast our much cherished ballots, the seemingly magic bullet to all that we lost.
As has been aptly observed by Patrick Smith, the editor of a London-based newsletter, Africa Confidential, politics in Africa remains too often an expensive game with the spoils of office being shared between members of the same elite wearing different political colours.
For the development of popular and stable democracies in Africa, we need more that routine general elections. Democracy should strive to be participatory, consultative, transparent and publicly accountable.
Ultimately, democratic governance rests on the consent of the governed.
Eurasia Review
