Elections in Anglophone African Countries 41 Yolanda Sadie 4 5 3 Youth Participation in Anglophone Africa 79 Victoria Graham
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This book compares the progress ten select countries, all former colonies of Britain, have made towards the practice of democracy. The authors assess a range of indicators including the quality of elections, the impact of voter turnout, the importance of term limits, civil society’s various responsibilities, the presence of media freedoms, the impact of youth participation, accountability and the rising role of social media. These findings help illustrate the various periods within each country’s democracy from the immediate post-colonial experience, to the emergence of one-party states, to the surge of multi-party elections that are being influenced by key political figures and technology. This book will be of great interest to a broad readership including students of politics, international relations and history at tertiary educational institutions as well as the wider readership that is keen to understand what has shaped the post-colonial political experience of some key Anglophone African countries. Brittle Democracies? Heather A Thuynsma is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences and Communications Manager for the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria. THIS PAGE IS LEFT BLANK INTENTIONALLY Brittle Democracies? Comparing Politics in Anglophone Africa PB 1 ESI Press University of Pretoria, Lynwood Avenue, Hatfield, Pretoria, South Africa https://www.up.ac.za/faculty-of-humanities 2 Text copyright © ESI Press 2020 3 All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including photocopying and recording, or by any other information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Cover design: Stephen Symons Editor: Heather Thuynsma Proofreader: Anél Lewis Typography & design: Stephen Symons Printed and bound in 2020 First published by ESI Press 2020 ISBN: 978-0-620-91453-6 (Print) ISBN: 978-0-620-91454-3 (E-book/digital) Brittle Democracies? Comparing Politics in Anglophone Africa 2 Edited by 3 Heather A Thuynsma Table of Contents About the Contributors 7 Foreword 9 Preface 11 Acronyms 13 1 The promise of democracy in Anglophone Africa 17 Heather A Thuynsma 2 Elections in Anglophone African Countries 41 Yolanda Sadie 4 5 3 Youth Participation in Anglophone Africa 79 Victoria Graham 4 Women and Electoral Politics 115 Yolanda Sadie 5 Lawfare and accountability: The effects on democratic legitimacy 147 in post-colonial Anglophone Africa Michael Bongani Reinders 6 Political Leadership and Democratic Governance in 171 Anglophone Africa Olugbemiga Samuel Afolabi & Michael Bongani Reinders 7 Civil Society’s Roles and their Effects on Democracy in Post-Colonial 195 Anglophone Africa Andrea du Toit 8 Understanding Land Issues in Anglophone Africa 217 Francois Gilles de Pelichy & Olugbemiga Samuel Afolabi 9 Perspectives on post-Brexit Africa-UK trade: Opportunities and Challenges 249 Suzanne Graham 10 Appreciating the complexity of Anglophone African democracies 269 Heather A Thuynsma 4 5 THIS PAGE IS LEFT BLANK INTENTIONALLY 6 7 About the Contributors (in order of contribution) Heather A Thuynsma is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Sciences and Communications Manager of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria, South Africa Yolanda Sadie is a Research Fellow in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, South Africa Victoria Graham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa Michael Bongani Reinders is a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University, USA Olugbemiga Samuel Afolabi is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Political Sciences at the 6 University of Johannesburg, South Africa and Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria 7 Andrea du Toit is a MA candidate in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, South Africa Francois Gilles de Pelichy is a MA candidate in the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Pretoria, South Africa Suzanne Graham is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of Political Sciences at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa 8 THIS PAGE IS LEFT BLANK 9 INTENTIONALLY Foreword urrent African states exist thanks to the colonial partitioning that took place at the turn of Cthe twentieth century. Then the colonial powers were grappling with notions of democratic governance and this seems to be a struggle that continues to plague their now former colonies. The subsequent campaigns for liberation across Africa sought to build on the continent’s pre- colonial democratic foundations, but liberal democracy in the western sense has remained elusive. This book studies how this unfolded. African political economies are in the main influenced by those of their former colonial powers. Indeed, after independence most African countries adopted a democratic model similar to that of their former colonial ruler. This was unfortunate and seemed to reinforce the perception that the new political order simply replicated the mandate of its predecessor. Of course, the former colonial powers had a keen interest in maintaining strong ties given the heat of the Cold War, but it might have been better if these countries had adopted a democratic system that more accurately reflected their societies’ reality. 8 Studying the common colonial heritage of former British colonies, and its footprint on their 9 political application, offers an interesting comparative opportunity. This book uses various indices to measure the progress that ten specific countries have made towards the practice of democracy. These assess indicators such as the: quality of elections, voter turnout, term limits, role/s of civil society, presence of media freedoms, type of electoral system, impact of youth participation, accountability and the rising role of social media. It is indeed fascinating to note that Anglophone countries have undergone phases or waves of democratisation – from the immediate post-colonial experience to a trend of one-party states induced by the Cold War to the surge of multi-party elections that now seems to be influenced by technology. While this book details the progress made towards democratisation, it also engages with the disturbing exclusionary nature of democratic practices in these Anglophone countries. A combination of socio-political values, electoral systems and institutional designs have led to the exclusion of women, youth and ethnic minorities in key political decision-making roles – this despite these demographics being in the majority. The authors track various efforts to improve inclusivity suggesting, for example, moving away from the British influenced first-past-the-post electoral system and adopting a type of proportional representation. South Africa, for instance, is an Anglophone country that has used such a system with some success. Proportional representation might also help these systems overcome ‘third termism’ and gerontocracy (two other threats to nascent democracies) because it offers more power sharing options to facilitate a peaceful leadership transition. This book is a much-needed contribution to the assessment of democracy in Anglophone Africa and comes at a time when the established democracies themselves are threatened by nationalistic fervour. While Anglophone Africa may have passed the days of coups, the road to sustainable democratic governance still lies in the distance. And, until these countries truly incorporate the younger members of their societies as well as their women and ethnic minorities, their democratic institutions will struggle to find their feet. The role of civil society, the media and international community cannot be overstated. But, most importantly, citizens need to continue working towards an authentically African form of democracy, which is deeply entrenched in society and able to effectively counter authoritarian tendencies in a peaceful and productive manner. It is our hope that this book will nudge the process along. Henning Suhr 10 Resident Representative: South Africa 11 Preface cademics and policy makers acknowledge that elections on their own do not secure a country’s Ademocracy. There are, in fact, a number of books that have assessed individual case study countries and/or looked at specific aspects of these democracies such as their political history, the electoral system, the machinations of political parties, the veracity of key institutions and the rise of authoritarianism. Many of these studies also feature African case studies in isolation and trace development trajectories using mostly economic data. The authors contributing to this edited volume, however, take an essentially political approach to the study and compare the democratic principles, presence and performance of ten former British colonies across Sub-Saharan Africa. The book aims to see what trends are present and what challenges this subset of African democracies face. This volume, in other words, looks to examine the practice of democracy and does not intend to offer philosophical comment. Most intentionally, this project also endeavoured to expose and mentor younger scholars through the rigors of academic research and publication. Many will see their work published for 10 the first time. And this mix of seasoned and emerging scholars makes this publication audacious 11 and will hopefully inspire similar projects in the near future. This is a book that students and scholars of African affairs, politics