Governance, Leadership and the Rise of African Nationalism in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Ethical Critical Study By C.C. Mushohwe (DEL, DPA, MPLG, MSc-1R, MPA, MBA) Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Academic Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Subject of Ethics at the School of Religion Philosophy and Classics, College of Humanities University of KwaZulu–Natal Pietermaritzburg Supervisor Prof Munyaradzi Felix Murove November 2018 DECLARATION I, Christopher Chindoti Mushohwe declare that, i. The research reported in this thesis, excerpt where otherwise indicated, is my original work. ii. The thesis has not been submitted for any degree or examination at any other university. iii. This thesis does not contain other persons’ data, pictures, graphs or other information, unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other persons. iv. This thesis does not contain other persons’ writings unless specifically acknowledged as being sourced from other researchers. Where other written sources have been quoted, (a) Their words have been re-written but the general information attributed to them has been referenced; (b) Where exact words have been used, their writing has been placed inside quotation marks and referenced. v. This thesis does not contain text, graphics or tables copied and pasted from the internet unless specifically acknowledged and the source being detailed in the thesis and in the reference sections. Candidate: Christopher Chindoti Mushohwe Signed:………………………………………Date:…………………………. Supervisor: Prof M F Murove Signed:………………………………………Date:……………………………. i DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my beloved wife and children for the support during the course of this study. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS An intellectual discourse of this extent could not come to fruition without assistance and motivation from other people and institutions. I am particularly indebted to my supervisor ProfessorMunyaradzi Murove who tirelessly read my work, advised, encouraged and provided expert power and guidance throughout the course of this study. Thank you Professor Murove for even going an extra mile by availing books and journals that made this intellectual journey possible. My words may not sufficiently express my gratitude to you. This study came about after a very long process of hard work and commitment. The researcher is indebted to a number of people whose patience and academic expertise have been indispensable in the development of this thesis. Most importantly, the researcher cannot complete acknowledgements without a special mention of His Excellency the former President of the Republic of Zimbabwe Cde Robert Gabriel Mugabe for being a lifetime mentor and source of inspiration. I dedicate this achievement to His Excellency, the former President and former First Secretary of ZANU PF. I am also heartily thankful for the encouragement, and academic support and moral drive I got from the following people: His Excellency the President of the Second Republic of Zimbabwe Cde Dr. E.D Mnangagwa, for persistently encouraging me develop a culture of reading, thank you Sir, Dr Sadiki Maeresera, Prof Bernard Matolino; Prof G.Y.I Menelik. Thank you dear Doctors and Professors for opening your doors to host and guide me during the low and high points of this journey, your encouragement and support is well worth noting.To Mr K. Mabvundwi, my research assistant, thank you for the great effort and commitment to this study. Mr Amin Matola, I thank you for your continued and ever obliging assistance with registrations, library books collection and encouragement. I wish to also thank all members of staff and students at UKZN Pietermaritzburg campus who in there different capacities gave me scholarly inspiration throughout the duration of my studies. I cannot sufficiently express my appreciation for the support I got from my family throughout this study. In particular, my special wife and pillar of support, P. B. Mushohwe and children were always appreciating and supporting my studies. You are the best people in my life. Lastly, I thank God for empowering me to attain this qualification regardless of the hurdles I encountered.I hope that the many other people who are not mentioned here explicitly nevertheless know how grateful iii I am to them. To companions and the humanity I encountered during this journey, I assure you that your effort will never be in vain. Embarking on this study was challenging and accompanied by many hurdles, but most of all it was a rewarding adventure into the world of academia that the researcher found intellectually gratifying. The researcher enjoyed every moment of this research that means much more to me than the following pages comprise. Thank you all for the input and final production of this work. iv ABSTRACT The African continent is the global region to have experienced the worst oppression under the Europeans imperialists. Colonialism was a system based on the imposition and acceptance of superiority of the coloniser over the colonised. Before the colonial intervention, many African governing systems were traditional monarchies, many of which seem, by design or accident, to have struck a viable balance between autocracy and democracy, due to the ritualised control of power. Within such systems, extensive powers were accorded the monarch but only on trust and in reciprocity. From the 1950s right up to the 1980s, the African continent was ravaged by wars of liberation which were part of the momentous mission to remake African societies, to regain Africa’s historical agency so cruelly seized by the west through colonialism. The anti-colonial wars were protracted and brutal. These were defensive, unavoidable wars, waged at enormous cost in African lives and livelihoods, driven by the desire to maintain or regain political autonomy, the precondition for establishing the social contract of democracy, the political culture of human rights, and the economic possibilities of development. Thus the hallmark of African nationalism was to establish autonomous African democratic systems that would allow Africa to develop and build institutions rooted in the African systems of governance. Unfortunately, independence brought little respite from the ravages of war for people in many sub-Saharan African countries. The instabilities and insecurities of post-colonial Africa are rooted in the political and cultural economies of both colonialism and the post-independence latched on to the shifting configurations and conjunctures of the international division of labor, especially the legacies and challenges of state-making and nation-building. Sub-Saharan Africa has been caricatured as a place of continuous civil wars and conflicts. There are also the struggles over underdevelopment, dependency, and sustainable development, and how to establish modern societies that are politically, economically and technologically viable in a highly competitive, unequal and exploitative world. The diversities of sub-saharan Africa’s nation-states, the fact that they are almost invariably multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-lingual, and multi-cultural in the midst of relatively high levels of material poverty and uneven spatial and social development, dominated by authoritarian governments, created a combustible mix that periodically erupted into civil wars. At the heart of all these conflicts and wars were struggles over power and resources; power concentrated around the state and its governance structures, developmental capacities, delegative v practices, distributional propensities, and resources in terms of their availability, control and access. Typical examples are countries such as Angola, Mozambique, and Democratic Republic of Congo who experienced conflicts soon after independence, inspired and or instigated and supported by the former colonisers. The process of trying to bring about peace, security and development by adhering to the democratic practice proved to be very difficult to achieve to an extent that many Africans in the post-colonial era began to question the relevance of the western democratic precepts in Africa. The African nationalists borrowed the values of democracy from the western philosophers and used these in prosecuting the wars of liberation but post-independent Africa witnessed the failure to adhere to this to achieve the merit of peace and security even under the western democratic principles characterized by periodic elections. This study explores the ways through which dominant democratic frameworks inherited from western liberalism can be renegotiated and adapted to account for historical and cultural realities in the Sub-Saharan Africa milieu, in order to stimulate political and economic development. This study contends that western liberal democracy can be adapted to suit African contexts although there is a lack of solid linkages between western liberalism and African democratic practices. In order for sustainable development to be realized in Sub-Saharan Africa, democracy must be implanted in the vital nodes of the African cultural and ethical values. It is instructive to note that western imperialism has affected this ethic resulting in numerous challenges assaulting both leadership and governance in post-colonial Africa. Concomitant with imperialism, Western liberal views of democracy have been appropriated in countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. In academic circles, attempts are increasingly being made to universalize such Western values on the basis of Nationalism discourse articulated by African nationalist