The Idea of Democracy in African Tales

If one can talk of a history of African democracy, it must be specified that it did not begin only on the eve of independence when political parties were engaged in a relentless joust over the method of acceding to national sovereignty as well as over the choice of the best regime, the one apt to ensure and increase the happiness of one and all. Precolonial Africa knew a traditional democracy. Since Africa is not a monolithic continent, democracy was not experienced there in the same manner by all.

A distinction is made between state and stateless societies. Far from being democratic, the former were slave-state monarchical regimes in some cases, but in others the people (or its representatives) were sometimes consulted when necessary. The latter were stateless societies but not without power where the people held all the powers. Before drawing out of the texts both the political and legal level of democracy, it is necessary to briefly present these types of societies and their methods of governance.

There are some precolonial African States: the theocratic state of the kingdom of Burundi had as its founding father Ntare I Rushatsi, who acceded to the throne in 1675 and brought into focus the system of Baganwa, provincial governors, who often contested the central power. Under Mwezi II Gisabo (1852) the indigenous traditional state reached its peak. The elected king had all the powers and headed an elaborate network of Baganwa (Ziegler 64). We may consequently talk of a flexibility in the royal authority in Burundi that gives the impression of democratic openness since there are elections, anti-kings (Ziegler 62), against whom Mwezi II had to fight, whereas the royal authority of Rwanda had distinguished itself by its absolute rigidity and uncontested power.

In West Africa, the various powers were monarchies, in which one could nevertheless find manifestations of democratic opening such as elections and the sharing of power with a circle of notables. The king of Benin "laissait à des conseillers le soin de diriger les affaires du royaume en son nom" 'allowed his advisers to manage the affairs of his kingdom in his name' (Davidson 111), absorbed as he was by numerous wives and religious ceremonies. A text collected by Lilyan Kesteloot, L'histoire de Biton Koulibaly, shows how Koulibaly, a Bambara, reaches the throne of the Segou Empire by divine and human choices(613-81). The text describes the human choice in the following manner:

et si nous ne sommes pas d'accord sur une seule personne
ni pour que deux personnes cherchent leurs partisans
il faut maintenant couper les baguettes.

and if we are not agreed on a single person,
nor that two persons should look for their supporters,
the die should be cast now. (ll. 860-62)

From these lines three different methods of balloting stand out. In the first case, unanimous confidence is given to one of the notables by his peers; in the second, voting is intended to settle between two personalities of equal influence; in the last, voting is a sort of drawing of lots. It is through this last procedure that Biton Koulibaly became the first emperor of Segou. Each of the notables had a stick bearing his personal sign. Three innocent persons not having any idea about the sticks were called forth: an uncircumcised man, a newly circumcised person, and a pregnant woman. All gave luck to the Bambara by choosing his stick. The gathering of notables had to recognize that power fell to this man.

What is democratic is not only the elections, but also the fair-play of the notables who accepted giving power to a stranger despite their aspirations. No doubt it is a matter of legitimation by the myth of a power acquired in reality by force, as Kesteloot recalls it (610). The description of these types of elections, however, shows quite well that they were known in their various forms...