Transition to Democracy in Africa - Essay Example

Transition to Democracy in Africa Liberal democracy and economic reforms emerge as the dominant ideas that shape the economic and political structure of most countries in the last decades of the twentieth century. Beginning in mid-1970s, a wave of democratization swept through swept through most countries, especially in Africa. The decade ending 1980 saw a dramatic fall of strong communist regimes in Central and East Asia, but Africa and the Middle East showed the slowest progress towards democratic movement. However, the last decade of the twentieth century marked intense struggles by African nations for democratic reforms, with some African countries managing to transition to democracy relatively peacefully like South Africa (Boraine, 2001). This paper seeks to analyze the transition to democracy in Africa in two parts. The first part analyzes the decisive transition to democracy by South Africa and the policies adopted by the country, and the second part examines the difficulties and challenges that hinder the transition to democracy for many African nations. Part 1 The decisive democratic transformation by South Africa has been a source of inspiration for civilization across the world. Only a few analysts predicted such radical progress, considering the bloody and long history of the country against apartheid. Indeed, majority of the experts expected the country to succumb to ethnic violence common in many African nations when repression begins to transform to revolution. Today, many parts of the African continent and across the world are experiencing civil wars, with international terrorism plugging both developing and developed world into a state of anarchy. There is need to design democratic preventive and resolution methods to create a peaceful world free from hatred, bitterness, wars, enmity, and oppression (Donaldson and Marais, 2002). The experiences by South Africa may provide some invaluable insights for transition to democracy for other countries. The apartheid regime responsible for the reign of terror for more than four decades and the subsequent incarceration of thousand of people is among the most ruthless and heartless regimes to ever occur since Hitler’s reign in Germany. This is why the peaceful transition to democracy by South Africa remains one of the most significant democratic transitions in the world. The racial prejudice and discrimination against the natives of the country began in 1652 with the first Europeans from Holland. The intensity of racial discrimination against the indigenous people, particularly the San and the Khoikhoi increased during the subsequent domination by the British and Dutch in Cape Colony. However, the Dutch established inland colonies, resulting to clashes with the British coastal colonies, and ultimately culminated to the Boer war between 1899 and 1902. Nevertheless, there was some power sharing between the British and the Dutch (now refereeing to themselves Afrikaners) until in 1940s when the Afrikaner National Party gained a stronger majority (Nathan, 2004). The African National Party institutionalized discrimination after coming into power in 1948. The strategists in the party invented apartheid to enable them cement their control over the social and economic system. The concept of apartheid was to ensure white dominance and extending racial separation. Thus, the “Grand Apartheid” plan was set in motion in the 1960s, focusing on police regression and territorial separation. The party enacted apartheid laws touching all aspects of life. With the assistance of the European Community and the United States, the pressure began on the South African President Botha to dismantle apartheid in 1980s. The end of 1991 saw the revoke of the legal apartheid framework. However, internal violence continued, but Nelson Mandela and F. W. de Klerk reached an agreement for the implementation of majority rule in 1993. Mandela was able to convince the United Nation to lift the remaining sanctions on the country. Due to their efforts to a peaceful democratic transition, the two principles received the Nobel Peace Prize. The South African parliament managed to pass an interim constitution in December 1993, giving all South Africans equal rights and abolishing the homelands (Boraine, 2001). The African National Congress won the first ever-democratic elections in the country held in 1994, choosing Mandela as the head of the government of National Unity and de Klerk as his second deputy. However, the transition was not over. The government of National unity embarked on passing policies and acts to effect the transformation and move past the discrimination policies of the apartheid regime. The government dismantled the apartheid policies through a long and tedious process, replacing them with acts aimed at withholding equality, justice, and democratic principles in a racially stratified and erstwhile divided society (Nathan, 2004). These policies focused on establishing equality by providing opportunities to the disadvantaged groups. The constitution, which ranks as one of the most liberal in the world, of the country highlights these freedoms and rights. During his tenure as the president, Mandela manifested nation building and reconciliation as two important tenets in the country’s constitution. Among the most important foundation cornerstones of the nation are in Chapter One of the constitution, which include non-sexism and non-racialism, supremacy of the rule of law and the constitution, universal adult suffrage, and human dignity and equality and advancement of human rights and freedoms (Boraine, 2001). Apart from the constitution, other post-discrimination society policies included enactment of the National Unity and Reconciliation Act (1995), establishment of the truth and Reconciliation Commission, the Pan South African Language Board Act (1995), Employment Equity Act (1998), the Restitution of Land rights (1994), and the Human Rights Commission Act (1994) among others (Donaldson and Marais, 2002). Part 2 The democratic experiments of Africa face many and complex challenges, including the reconstruction of the postcolonial state and entrenching constitutionalism. In order to move the continent forward, emerging democratic governments need to confront the legacy of illiteracy, poverty, underdevelopment, and militarization produced by corrupt and incompetent governments. Recent experiences in Zimbabwe and Kenya depict the daunting and difficult tasks of consolidating democracy in Africa. According to empirical evidence, new and emerging democratic regimes remain fragile, with the euphoria of the 1990s long evaporated (Falana, 2008). At the beginning of the twenty-first century authoritarianism and statist regimes was in retreat, and contested where they persisted, in aspiration for a democratic context. These aspirations had firm roots in popular consciousness, with the pluralism of associational life being integral in the political landscape. The challenges hindering democratic experiments in Africa are complex and many, including reconstruction of the postcolonial states and entrenching constitution, keeping the military out of politics, instituting structures to promote effective management of resources, nurturing effective leadership, safeguarding the rule of law and human rights, and promoting political stability and sustainable development. The respect for human rights and democratic government remain closely linked in Africa, just like in all other places. Democracy is the most viable means of protecting and advancing human rights, based on individual dignity and freedom (Boraine, 2001). On the other hand, the respect for human dignity remains the only means by which democracy sustains individual dignity and freedom and enhances its endurance. There are some significant improvements in some parts of Africa, but the continent still harbors serious human rights problems. In Sudan for instance, the armed conflict is persistent despite the division of the country into Sudan and Southern Sudan. Moreover, the dismal human rights situation indicates no sign of improvement in the near future. In Somalia, civil wars continue deteriorating human rights. Both the rebel groups and the governments commit horrendous abuses. The most worrying problem is that most of these African countries operate semi-authoritarian regimes, as they have the democracy façade. This means that they have political system, they hold regular elections, they have democratic institutions of political systems, and they have elected parliaments. In additional, they also have independent judiciaries and democratically acceptable constitutions. However, their democratic system has serious functionality problems. These semi-authoritarian regimes hold multi-party elections, but at the same time ensure that the government’s core power is not affected. In other words, the regimes do not lose power despite holding these seemingly democratic elections (Falana, 2008). They intimidate voters, manipulate state institutions, and amend the constitution for their convenience. In order to institute changes in Africa and promote transition to democracy, emerging democratic governments need to confront the legacy of illiteracy, underdevelopment, militarization, and poverty resulting from previous corrupt and incompetent governments. The personal dictatorship syndrome and practice of winner-takes-all need to be addressed, as well as full respect for rules of law and constitutional government, transparency in power wielding, human rights, and accountability of those in power (Nathan, 2004). References Boraine, A. 2001. A country unmasked: Inside South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. New York: Oxford University Press Donaldson, R & Marais, L. 2002. Preface: Transforming rural and urban spaces. In: Donaldson, R & Marais, L (eds). Transforming Rural and urban spaces in South Africa during the 1990s: Reform, restitution, restructuring. Pretoria: Africa Institute of South Africa. Falana, F. (2008). Challenges of democratic Transition in Africa. Retrieved on April 13, 2012, from http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/comment/48136 Nathan, L. (2004) Accounting for South Africa’s successful transition to democracy. Crisis States Research Centre discussion papers, 5. Crisis States Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK. Read More