The tragedy of democracy in Africa

BY VICTOR TERHEMBA

In 2009, during his first visit to Africa as US president, Barack Obama opted to visit Ghana instead of Nigeria as a demonstration of his displeasure with the political situation in the country at the time. While in Ghana, Obama delivered an address at the Ghanaian parliament where, inter alia, said “Africa doesn’t need strong men; it needs strong institutions”. Since then, that quote has been touted by everyone, from political commentators to politicians, from everyday citizens to decision-makers. The statement from Obama suggests that Africa is incapable of building strong institutions and this is easily agreed to by almost everyone. I, however, do not agree with such an inference, even though I agree that one of the strongest reasons we are unable to overcome our challenges of development and corruption is because we have weak institutions. The reason the developed countries are far ahead is that they have strong institutions that neutralise the power tendencies of strong men.

The few times I have seen contrary opinions to the statement made by Barack Obama, the commenters always rephrase the statement to say “Africa needs strong men to build strong institutions”. This too, I disagree with wholeheartedly. Our historical records show that before the advent of colonialism, Africa had strong institutions that outlived even the strongest of men. Such strong institutions could be found in the Oyo Empire, the Ashanti Empire, Hausa/Fulani Empire, Bini Kingdom, the Ghana Empire, etc. In fact, even today, in certain cultures and regions, there are strong institutions that no strong man can overpower yet. While examples are replete across Africa, for contextual understanding, I will focus mainly on Nigerian examples because of the nature of my audience.

The Oyo Empire, which dates back to as far as 1300 CE, and was ruled over by Alaafin, was very powerful and huge in size and operated on a centralised system with checks and balances that prevented excessive or arbitrary use of power by anyone at all, including the Alaafin. These checks and balances were sustained by a string of several independent institutions but with oversight functions on the others. While Alaafin was the head of the government, his powers were not absolute nor was his throne. The Ogboni society, which was headed by the Oluwo, checked both the powers of the Alaafin and the Oyomesi. As powerful as the Alaafin was, he could not influence the choice of who succeeded him, nor could he choose to continue sitting on the throne once an empty calabash, which signified his rejection by the people, was sent to him.

A demonstration of how rigid and resilient the institutions of the Oyo Empire was between 1789 to 1796 when Alaafin Aoole was the ruler of the Empire. He had asked Afonja, the Aare Ona-Kankafo, to unjustly attack the towns of Iwere-Ile and Apomu in retribution for earlier grudges he held against Baales of the towns before ascending the throne (I had written on this in a 2015 article titled “Yoruba leadership and the Aoole Curse”, published in Daily Independent and YNaija).

Afonja not only refused to carry out one of the orders but it was also resolved that the Alaafin be sent an empty calabash due to his excessive abuse of powers. Despite his high-handedness and excessive abuse of powers, the Alaafin could not disregard the symbolic empty calabash. He committed a ritual suicide to complete the process but he didn’t go just go down without a fight, he tried but the institutions triumphed.

Similarly, the pre-colonial Hausa/Fulani Empire political institution was strong and resilient against strong individuals. The same assessment can be said of the Ashanti Empire pre-colonial Ghana. The Bini Kingdom in present-day Edo state of Nigeria is still revered as one of the strongest institutions that can’t be tampered with.

We can evidently see that even before the Europeans arrived on African shores, Africans had operated political systems that built strong institutions. Before Europeans and Western Worlds began to foist their own kind of democracy on Africans, Africans had practised one form of democracy or the other in the ways suited to their cultural and traditional contexts, and Africans thrived under these systems.

For example, the Ashanti Empire was a federal republic, the Igbo political system was a republican democracy, and the Oromo people of Ethiopia practised an indigenious democratic system that allowed the people to elect their leaders through a Gada voting system. Other ancient and pre-colonial democracies in Africa included the Meroe Kingdom which practised a democracy that placed competence over everything else, the Kwararafa kingdom in old Wukari operated a confederacy and the Oyo Empire was a constitutional monarchy. Before the United Kingdoms of Britain, there was the United Kingdoms of Mossi in modern-day Burkina Faso. These were all democracies that operated in strong, resilient and well-respected institutions.

While Africa thrived and prospered under democracies that resonated with their cultural, traditional and historical contexts, Africa has struggled under the democracy imposed (and continues to be imposed) on us as a result of colonialism. African democracies which were very developed in the African context were discarded as primitive and archaic by the Europeans.

Today, Africa is wobbling under the foreign concept of democracy. So, why is democracy failing in Africa when it is evident that Africa is capable of building strong institutions and has done so in the past? At the heart of it, it is the tragedy that is rooted in the enormous complexity of the collective decision of the West and our intellectuals to impose a western modern democracy on what is largely a traditional African society. Majority of African leaders are completely unfamiliar with the concepts of constitutionalism. Despite the merits of democracy, democracy in Africa has exacerbated corruption and incompetence.

What then could be the alternative for Africa? Perhaps, a traditional democracy?

Terhemba, a civil society advocate, writes from Abuja. He can be reached via @Victor_Terhemba on Twitter and [email protected].