Constitutionalism and Society in Africa (review)

This book is an attempt to place important constitutional issues in Africa in their broader social and political context. It grows out of a Ford Foundation–funded symposium on the very subject of this volume, although papers included have been subsequently revised and updated. The main themes covered are the relevance of African values to current constitutional reforms, citizenship and civil liberties, ethnicity and pluralism, and democratic means of control of the military. The geographic focus tends to be Nigeria, but there is a substantive discussion by Mahmood Mamdani of citizenship issues in the Great Lakes region. A bonus is the exhortatory epilogue by Wole Soyinka, "We, the People—Our Dignity and the Constitution."

Like most volumes coming out of a conference, the individual contributions do not hang together. Although the editor has done a good job in presenting and synthesizing the main issues discussed in the volume, there is no real attempt to draw any theoretical—or practical policy—conclusions. Not surprisingly, the individual chapters vary in quality and thoroughness. There are some that go into depth and constitute original contributions to knowledge; others, however, seem to be a rehash of what the author has published elsewhere. Overall, the volume provides a useful introduction to some of the principal issues facing African countries as they embark on improving their forms of governance. The discussion in most chapters is conducted in a comparative context, drawing on the literature on constitution-making and democratization that emanates from North and South America as well as Europe. One wishes that the authors had been a bit more concerned about showing how experiences from other regions of the world really apply to Africa. What are the specific issues that arise in countries that lack a tradition of rule of law or Rechtsstaat? This and related questions could have been more thoroughly examined from both a theoretical and practical point of view.

This book would not qualify as a standard text in courses on African politics, but it may be a relevant complementary text, especially for those who are interested in probing beyond standard accounts of the subject.