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Chapter 2 Elements of African Constitutionalism In speaking of "African constitutionalism" throughout this book, I am neither implying that there is a specific type of constitutionalism that is peculiarly African, nor suggesting that the experience or feature I am discussing is true or applicable for the whole continent. In particular, the elements of precolonial and colonial experiences to be highlighted below, and the notion of "retrieval and imagining" proposed there, are not intended to suggest or imply a blanket application of these ideas in the same way throughout Africa. Rather, the adjective "African" is used to refer to a regional context, without minimizing the diversity within the region, or underestimating similarities and connections to the constitutional experiences of other parts of the world. That is, the reference is to constitutional experiences, or elements of constitutionalism, that are associated with Africa on such grounds as geography, culture, and politics . To emphasize the point, such usage does not mean that the point I am making is definitive or applicable to Africa as a whole, or any other parts of it than the one being discussed. Subject to this caveat, I attempt in this chapter to generally highlight aspects of what might be called African constitutional values, institutions , and experiences, examine some relevant features of the traditional values and institutions of certain parts of the continent that can be reclaimed as antecedents of constitutionalism in each society or subregion. I also outline some of the constitutional experiences of African societies during the colonial and postcolonial periods, as integral parts of the same process of incremental success through practice for each society. Against this background, I then examine some aspects of sovereignty, accountability, human rights, and dignity as key concepts in the evolution of constitutionalism in Africa, But first, it may be helpful to begin by briefly clarifying some of the conceptual and methodological difficulties and possibilities of what I call the "retrieval" of precolonial antecedents and colonial experiences, and "imagining" how they can contribute to the present and future development of constitutionalism in various African societies. The rest of this 32 Chapter 2 introduction is devoted to an attempt to clarify some theoretical and methodological questions about the incremental success thesis in general , though the process itself would always be deeply contextual and specific to each society. One of the themes I am developing in this book is the notion that the legitimacy and sustainability of constitutionalism need somehow to tap the consciousness of a particular people, which in the case of African societies would include the recollections of relevant precolonial ideas and historical experiences of each society. Part of the difficulty is that recollections of ideas, values, and the meaning of institutions and relationships in the precolonial past are filtered through the lenses of European historicity. The question is how to avoid or transcend postcolonial perceptions of what "counts" as history and how to interpret it, as discussed in Chapter 1. A related problem is that policies emerging out of such recollections are likely to be inhibited by the present realities of postcolonial hegemony and global capitalism. To achieve continuity of historical experiences in the process of building constitutionalism over time, Africans need to reconnect to their precolonial past on their own terms, as if colonialism and its aftermath never happened. One aspect of the challenge is therefore how to retrieve what appears to be irretrievable, namely, to recover some of the moral and philosophical resources of the precolonial past of African societies into a present that has been totally transformed by colonial and postcolonial conditions. Another aspect of the challenge is how to imagine what appears to be unimaginable, which is the ability to integrate those resources into a theory and practice of constitutional principles that were developed in Western societies, while retaining the new acculturated outcome within recognizable parameters of constitutionalism. I am not suggesting that Africans should strive to retrieve an "imaginary " history of complete and perfect sovereign accountability to the highest standards of human dignity and rights in a golden age of precolonial past. I do not think there is an original, virgin African constitutionalism waiting to be retrieved from the depth of an imagined memory. The idea of traditional society may be a "benchmark against which to measure the imperial impact and to trace the continuities of precolonial time" (Hodder-Williams 1984: 11), not an ideal experience. My point is simply that different Africans should seek to clarify, adapt, and implement what they "remember" of their indigenous...

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