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Democracy and the Cycle of Legitimacy Crisis in Africa: An Empirical Exploration of Selected Cases
Ahwoareno Eterigho Edwin 7
Democratic development and legitimacy crises in Africa have become persistent, endemic and cyclical. In fact, the failure of the colonialists to merge the different ethnic nationalities in Africa into a united political entity no doubt accounts for the fragile and muddy foundations of political and social failure facing the African continent in the process of nation-building and democratic consolidation. Indeed, Africa has remained a violent ridden continent in the pyscho-political map of the world in the sense that the continent is stereotypically perceived as synonymous with every political negativity known in the world. Also, in real terms, poverty, diseases, civil disturbances, revolt, insurgence, guerrilla warfare, domestic rebellion and more recently, terrorism have been defining features of Africa and these have been exacerbated by the crisis of legitimacy and of nation-building. regretfully, the wave of democracy which was expected to neutralise the above features has not been able to do so. Rather, the wave of democracy has brought with it rising tide of crisis characterised by electoral violence in various magnitudes as witnessed in Congo 2006; Nigeria 2007, 2011; Kenya 2008; Ivory Coast 2012; among others. It is against this backdrop that this paper examines the major explanations for legitimacy crises in Africa, and argues that the failure of most African states to establish democratic societies through free, fair, and credible election and party politics resulted in the resurgence in primordial allegiance, conflict, rebellion, terrorism, insurgency and legitimacy crises across the African continent. The article therefore, concludes that various attempt at nation building in Africa through democratic consolidation have not achieved the desired result.
Literature has different functions. In addition to that of simple entertainment, literary works can help nations deal with difficult pasts, through tropes of memory and reconciliation. Much has been written on commitment and engagement in African literature, in general, and even in African crime fiction “ thrillers may have come to stand in for what used to [be] seen as ‘political’ or engaged fiction” (de Kock, 2015: 28). However, the place of African crime novels in conflict management and resolution has not really been analysed; it is in local, regional and continental conflict management and resolution remains a little probed value of African literature. Ubuntu, the South African notion of brotherhood and interconnectedness – a concept found in many African societies –, when exemplified in literary texts, can be used to enable conflict management and transformation, leading to more harmonious and peaceful societies. Therefore, with evidence provided by storylines and extracts from selected African crime novels, this brief exploratory paper uses the notion of Ubuntu as a philosophical anchor to deconstruct the often presented claim that crime fiction (novels that have crime and criminal acts as their primary concern) is not useful in conflict management and resolution.
This paper focuses on the Interfaith Dialogue which has emerged recently in the attempt to manage the mutually antagonistic relationship between Christians and Moslems in Nigeria. Despite its wide appeal, its viability remains doubtful for reasons of its failure to include other religious faiths, particularly the African Traditional Religion (ATR). which provides an inclusive social ambience for peaceful co-existence between chrians and moslems in Nigeria. Christianity and Islam are however not the problem as they are merely appropriated as a tool in the power and resource struggles of societal elites. This paper is purely a literary work. Its thesis is that accommodation, solidarity and sharing peculiar to the African culture makes the environment conducive for inter-religious encounters, and that inter-religious dialogue is a tool for religious peace and harmony in Africa. The task of this paper, therefore, is threefold: One, to discuss the characteristics of the African cultural environment and advance some of the factors that are responsible for the possibility of inter-religious dialogue in African cultural environment. Two, to highlight the necessity of and hindrances to inter-religious dialogue in a pluralistic environment such as African cultural environment and finally discuss the forms of inter-religious dialogue in a globalized African community. The authors use a content analysis of materials from secondary sources such as journal and internet articles, newspaper publications and books.
While many thought modern African states would have found solution to the problem of artificial boundaries that colonialism birthed by now, Post-colonial Africa is yet to find plausible answers to inherited issues of identity and ethnicity years after colonialism. Where those lumped together into a geographical expression find similar rhythm of identity that class could afford, differing ethnic identity and religious beliefs pitch once peaceful brothers and neighbours against one another; leaving traces of war and the continent in turmoil. Efforts made at building post-colonial African states equipped with all it takes to achieve development, remain largely unproductive owing to inherent failure to address vexatious issues of class and ethnic identity as well as the fault-lines religious cleavages creates that push the continent into whirlpool of insecurity. This invariably, vitiate developmental efforts. Relying on secondary sources of data, the paper examines how colonial boundary induce ethno-religious cleavages in Nigeria and how it affects development. It traced origin of communal, ethnic-religious and political conflicts that plague Nigeria to the arbitrary colonial boundaries that bonded ‘strange bed-fellows’ in colonial Nigeria together without paying attention to inherent differences. The paper noted that artificial colonial boundaries in Africa, creates tensed relationships exploited by ethno-religious sentiments to create divisions suitable to create insecurity. The paper concludes that efforts be made to re-negotiate arbitrary colonial boundaries in Africa to give aggrieved ethnic groups with peculiar religious beliefs a sense of belonging to achieve peace needed for development.
Many South African communities are still faced with numerous service delivery challenges over twenty-three years post democracy. This has led to numerous and often times, violent and destructive, service delivery protests. This phenomenon occurs mostly at the local (municipal) level of government and it is understandable given that Chapter Seven of the Constitution (as well as other relevant municipal acts) clearly stipulate the role of the municipalities in ensuring that service delivery gets to the people. The main question this paper engages is ‘does service delivery or lack of service delivery affect the relevance of the ANC as a governing political party?’ Through the use of primary and secondary sources, the paper attempts to analyse how service delivery (protests) have impacted the ANC as a governing political party in South Africa. The paper adopts the neoliberalism theory to explain and project the ANC would lose its relevance in the next decade if service delivery challenges persist.
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