This edition contains four main articles:
Richard
Joseph takes a critical look at the challenges of democratic development in
Africa, more so within the framework of a distortive new world order. He tender
new approaches to reviewing the diverse crises afflicting the continent, tagging
"catastrophic governance" as a core factor and the "endemic
practice that steadily undermines a country’s capacity to increase the supply
of public goods … (which) has been mainly responsible for Africa’s failure
to realise its immense development potential."
Bonny
Ibhawoh traces the three faces of the human rights movement in Nigeria, from
the fight against colonialism, through the independence period, to the new face
of NGO activism, which Ibhawoh sees as a response to the failure of the
post-colonial state to award the aspirations of the previous periods, and as a
response to breakdown of constitutional rule and the authoritarianism and
repression, especially as associated with military dictatorship.
Patrick
Johnston & Chris Lee examines the relationship between political
protest and dissent, both in violent and non-violent forms, and liberalisation,
and between liberalisation and democratisation, testing empirically several
hypotheses on these relationships based on available data. Their findings seem
to indicate that political-institutional historical and structural factors,
rather than various forms of protest and dissent, are the main explanatory
variables for different outcomes of liberalisation and democratisation across
sub-Saharan Africa between 1970 and 1995.
J.
’Kayode Fayemi, Thomas Jaye & Zaya Yeebo make an in-depth study of
Ghana, attempting to provide a realistic mid-term review of the Government of
Ghana and its priorities for the rest of its tenure. The article is a result of
an extensive process of informal consultations in Ghana over a two-month period
from August to September 2002. It offers a nuanced description of the
intricacies of politics and policymaking since the administration of President
Kufour assumed office, and of the prospects and challenges facing the government
in its quest to achieve socio-economic and political stability.
Full article available.
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Issa
G. Shivji in his briefing offers personal reflections on the life and times
of the legendary Zanzibari writer, revolutionary and politician A.M. Babu,
offering an interesting retrospective overview of the radical intellectual
discourse and concepts of the 1960s and 70s, when "we saw ourselves as part
of a great historical movement of liberation and revolution".
In Professor
Abdoulaye Bathily’s presentation on "Democracy and the Crisis of
Governance in Africa: Learning Lessons From Cote d’Ivoire," the
resurgence of strife and conflict in the West African country was proffered as a
paradigm for understanding the pernicious effects of warped incitements towards
nationalism, and how unresolved native-settler equations and questions of
citizenship hinder development on the continent.
