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Leadership in Africa: Trends, Triumphs and Challenges ((Guest Editor: Gerrie Swart)

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ISSN : 1744-2532 (Print) 2516-5305 (Online)

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From the Editor

Leadership in Africa: Trends, Triumphs and Challenges

Guest Editor: Gerrie Swart

(Gerrie Swart, a lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of South Africa, (UNISA) is the Guest Editor of this volume. Gerrie, who has been a frequent contributor to the journal in the last year and half, solicited and ensured a timely delivery of all the articles in the lead theme in this edition. We are deeply grateful to him.)

In Volume 4, numbers 3&4 of the journal, we discussed the major challenges to the democracy project in Africa, using South Africa, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia as case studies. We posed some key questions: Are the current efforts at instituting liberal democracy and its ethos in Africa sustainable? What are the challenges facing the democracy project in Africa? How are they being negotiated? And what are the implications of all these for the fate of the democracy project itself, and for Africa’s development aspirations?

In this issue, we focus on the quality of leadership in the continent, looking at the challenges, triumphs and trends. In his paper, Gerrie Swart, argues that any “mention of African leadership today regrettably always tends to conjure up the negative associations with Africa’s so-called ‘Big Men’ and the ravages of dictatorship that has on frequent occasions laid waste to many African states’ political and socio-economic stability”. He contends that while there are instances to buttress such observations, it is also necessary “to evaluate the important initiatives, trends and responses that have emerged from the African continent to the challenges posed to, and by African leadership.” He maintains that Africa’s leadership crisis is in a state of flux and is actually moving towards “achieving stable, responsible and accountable leadership that the continent is in dire need of.”

Henning Melber and Roger Southall discuss continuity and change in Africa’s leadership dynamics. In particular they discuss retired African presidents and their potential roles in African politics. Faten Aggad assesses the progress made so far with the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), which was launched in 2003 with the purpose to “foster the adoption of policies, standards and practices that lead to political stability, high economic growth, sustainable development and accelerated sub-regional and continental economic integration through sharing of experiences and reinforcement of successful and best practice, including identifying deficiencies and assessing the needs for capacity building”. Yolanda K. Spies examines the role of leadership in Africa’s quest for the transformation of the Security Council of the United Nations and argues that there has been a manifest failure of leadership in that quest. He blames the African Union for understandably, but idealistically and unsuccessfully trying to foment a Common Position on Security Council reform. His position is that it is “time for a new strategy – not necessarily conceived as an AU project, but certainly as an African one, and leadership is required.” Gilbert M. Khadiagala discusses the December 27, 2007 elections in Kenya and argues that the electoral malaise and the violent convulsion that gripped the country stemmed from the failure of Kenya’s leaders to structure politics around solid institutions.”

Besides the articles in the lead theme we also brought together a number of other articles - from an interview with the legendary Professor Ali Mazrui on the occasion of his 75th birthday to an analysis of Olusegun Obasanjo in the popular imagination in Nigeria.

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African Renaissance becomes 4 years in June

African Renaissance, which made its debut as a bi-monthly multidisciplinary journal in June 2004, turns four next years soon. The journal became a quarterly in 2007 and is now generally regarded as one of the most important, multidisciplinary independent journals on African politics and society. To take the journal to the next level, we will be inviting Guest Editors for various editions of the journal. The aim is to bring other intellectual ferments into the journal and ensure that issues and themes covered are not only those that appeal to me as the editor and publisher. Marcel Kitissou will be the Guest Editor for Volume 5 No.2 while Issaka Souare will be the Guest Editor for Volume 5 No 3. Both Kitissou and Souare have been very closely associated with the journal, from the time of its inception in 2004.

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