Democratizing or Reconfiguring Predatory Autocracy? Myths and Realities in Africa Today: Myths and Realities in Africa Today

Chapter Five - Democracy in Africa Today: A Historical Overview

Chapter Five Democracy in Africa Today: A Historical Overview Democracy is not a Western import. Rather, it is a universal, intrinsically woven principle that offers the conditions for human beings to achieve their maximum potential. Transparency (access to knowledge and information), participation, instruments of dialogue, effective monitoring institutions, bottom-up approaches, and the decentralization of institutional power are key to democracy. It must be stressed that this is the generation of Cameroon youth that has to make sacrifices and create new and meaningful identities with the understanding that there are new, emerging, Cameroon identities. This book is intended to facilitate precisely the type of intergenerational dialogue that is needed for greater democratic political engagement by youth.The idea of democracy has become so closely identified with elections in Cameroon that we are in danger of forgetting that the modern history of representative elections is a tale of authoritarian manipulations as much as it is a saga of democratic triumphs. Historically, in other words, elections have been an instrument of authoritarian control as well as a means of democratic governance. Since the early days of the “third wave” of global democratization, it has been clear that transitions from authoritarian rule can lead anywhere. Over the past quarter-century, many have led to the establishment of some form of democracy. But many others have not. They have given birth to new forms of authoritarianism that do not fit into our classic categories of oneparty , military, or personal dictatorship. They have produced regimes that hold elections and tolerate some pluralism and interparty competition, but at the same time violate minimal democratic norms so severely and systematically that it makes no sense to classify them as democracies, however qualified. These electoral regimes do not represent limited, deficient, or distorted forms of democracy. They are instances of authoritarian rule. This book on elections without democracy or electoral authoritarianism in Cameroon 28 Democratizing or Reconfiguring Predatory Autocracy? Myths and Realities in Africa Today enjoins its readers to understand that the time has come to abandon misleading labels and to take their nondemocratic nature seriously.1 Democracy is not new to Africa. Dating back to ancient times, there existed some African societies that understood and adhered to the principles of democracy (Online at: www.africasummit.org). A characteristic of these traditional societies that is most pertinent to the cross-cultural debate on democracy is the autonomous and participatory nature of their decision-making processes. These systems rested on the devolution of power down to the local units – territorial divisions, clans, lineages, and extended families, with the individual as a vital member of the community. Put in the reverse order, these political systems – which included empires, kingdoms, “republics,” and stateless societies – were structured in a hierarchy in which the basic unit was the family, extended to the lineage, the clan, on to territorially defined entities. In this participatory system of governance, decisions were generally reached by consensus and broad-based consultation through group representation at various levels. Under these types of systems, extended families in villages chose their heads that together formed a council of elders. Without the council, the chief, and even the king was powerless. In the deliberations of the council any adult could speak, and council members could deliberate for as long as was necessary to arrive at a consensus. As one African author commented, “The moral order was robustly collective.…Majority rule, winner-take-all, or other forms of zero-sum games were not acceptable alternatives to consensus decision making.” This process of sharing power at all levels and of respecting the rights of every individual is particularly pronounced in the segmentary lineage system, which emphasizes the devolution of power down to the level of the family and even to the individual. Relations among local groups are seen as a balance of power, maintained through competition in a hierarchy of levels. While relations are competitive at one level, in another situation, the formerly competitive groups come together in mutual alliance against an outside group. In view of the manner in which the segmentary lineage system functions, it should not be surprising that Somali society, one of the most illustrative of this system, was susceptible to the 29 Democracy in Africa Today: A Historical Overview manipulation of the clan rivalry by former President Siad Barre. Nor should the assertiveness of the autonomous identity of the clans under Somali warlords, which led to the...