COMING SOON: THE GRAVEYARD OF AFRICAN DEMOCRACY
For more than a century, there’s seemed to be no clearly marked modes of egress from misery for Africans. Even a country like South Africa, that recently wrested freedom from a repressive White, Apartheid regime, struggles to capitalize on acquired wealth, and thus emulate the United States, Britain, France, and other Western economies. It’s seems both a real and a symbolic opportunity lost: South Africa could have been a model for other African countries to emulate.
Zimbabwe was once admired for taking measures towards a free market economy and advancing towards democracy, but it has recently regressed into a morass of insecurity, misery, and political unrest. How was such a transformation reversed? Such understanding could illuminate the perils of other African political systems.
Nigeria is a recent African democracy. Still, it has warring factions that seem agents of chaos and reversion. In Nigeria, insufficient progress in cultivating structures that will sustain and nurture the new democracy may be its undoing.
Kabilia in Congo acquired the highest office of his country in democratic elections. There were no structures to sustain such a democratic system. As a result, he was killed and although his son replaced him, the notion of government by elected representation was lost. If Congo had sufficient structures in place, the death of Kabila would have induced succession by constitutional decree.
Libya’s President, Ghadafi, has been in power for almost half a century. The country seems to be stable, but only through suppression and repression, with no real freedom for its citizens. Kenya went through a one man, one vote election. The country is no nearer today to bettering the lives of its citizens than ten years ago. Egypt seems to be stable relative to other African countries, but there is political unrest in that part of the world that continues to constrict the economy. Morocco is ruled by a King and that kingdom, although chronologically prevailing, has not produced a globally competitive, free market economy or generated sufficient capital to obviate the suffering of its people. Somalia is a shamble with no ruler or political system. It is a field of the survival of the fittest.

 
Angola is barely on the map of Africa. Years of wars have rendered the country as globally insignificant. Ethiopia is bereft of food, but bloated with arms. Central African Republic has a swarm of French soldiers on their soil; to attain what the French call peace. Chad is still leaking the fluids of life and commerce: the consequence of civil wars waged by chiefs seeking to master one of the poorest countries in Africa. Cameroon is in the bottom of perhapsmost corrupt nations in Africa. More to come on Cameroon as a case study... Liberia is torn asunder. Let's wait and see the new regime... People are still starving there, with bullets once outnumbering loaves of bread. Rwanda and Burundi share histories of genocide. Ghana bore the man that occupies the world’s biggest office, the Secretary General of the United Nations. I wonder if African belongs in the United Nations... God bless my soul! The truth is Ghana hasn’t bettered the lives of its citizens.
All these countries share a common bond. They are products of the partitioning of Africa, colonization, and legacies of imperialism.
Perhaps African countries need their versions of democracy, predicated upon their indigenous cultures. However, many of those cultures no longer exist because the imperialist, western societies systemically destroyed them; to erect systems suitable for economic exploitation. Instead of trying to fit a square, Western peg into a round, African hole, a representative, free, and accountable system that truly reflects and honors the indigenous cultures, both viable and remnant, and the ideological heritages of African people, might sustain change.
For such democratic systems to survive, function and perhaps flourish, structures that support them must be in place. Those structures will protect free, representative governments from the natural, selfish proclivities of most men, and those governments in turn can provide protection to free market economies, thus increasing economic activity, delivering better health systems and elevating standards of living.
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USA configured a democracy structured to work with its unique amalgam of its seminal citizens’ ideological, historical and political heritages. British democracy is slightly different than the American democracy, but it serves the British population very well. France has a democracy structured for the French people. Israel has a democracy for the Israelis. Every successful democratic political system in the World appears to be modeled on the unique needs and aspirations of its citizens.
Some African countries have perhaps erred in attempting to replicate democracies based upon those of the United States, France or Britain. It’s time to recognize the value and the latent vitality of African cultural heritages. Perhaps the process of progress should begin with resurfacing and honoring the indigenous traditions for rendering justice.
I believe that democracy alone is not the solution, but a soil for seeding other factors; whose fruit could be justice and prosperity. African countries contain divisions and cultures that were unheeded in its partitioning. It is not as homogeneously sorted as the colored maps suggest. Additionally, imperialism, in the name of profit, exploited clans and cliques, and their acts of terrorism and brutality are not yet reconciled.
Then came economic, military, and financial consultants, men with fine suits and fancy titles, many of whom cultivated distrust. Such men remain in every economic sector in Cameroon today. They consult the president and they have one interest only; to provide information to their home country regarding the most expedient way of extracting resources. They seek to increase the efficacy of monitoring the activities of foreign competitors.
Additionally, deals are made between the superpowers, like children trading baseball cards: America cannot double cross France in Cameroon and France, in turn, cannot double cross America in Chile. These are unwritten and undocumented non-interference agreements. In Yaounde, the capital city of Cameroon, there are French consultants, consulting on everything from collecting taxes to awarding contracts. As long as their interests are met, whatever the Minister of Finance embezzles is ignored. It’s why the ministers in that country have become revolving doors; moving from one ministry to the next. It is so hard to change a government so pliable to the desires of a superpower.
Biya, the President of Cameroon can’t admit publicly that he is under pressure from the French government. If French interests are jeopardized, he could be imperiled. Is it then so hard to understand why Biya, a Christian raised in the Catholic Church could turn, look away from a dying population?
How can Africa cease cycles of misery? Indigenous divisions must be recognized and addressed. We need to revive the Organization of African Unity. It is an organization created by Africans for Africa’s needs. Africans should abandon the United Nations. The United Nations was created as a tool of the imperialist governments. Africans must start building structures, truly independent judiciaries, effective law and order sectors, independent legislatives, and the executive branches proscribed by sturdy constitutions. There should be a well-written constitution, tailored not to the interest of the President in power, but to the interests of the people. Countries should have an effective electoral law. It shouldn’t be established when elections are about to take place, but created to gird and protect future elections. There should be an independent electoral commission to organize elections. An independent commission draws its strength from the electoral code or laws. 
      If, for any moment, Africans believe that the West delivers food, clothing, medicine, and shelter for Africa to move from misery to sustainable progress, I tell my fellow Africans that stop dreaming. It is Africans that can best Africa, and Africans that can solve Africa’s problems. We need help but the decision is ours... to be contd.
Coming soon...

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