Democracy and Democratization in Africa: Interrogating Paradigms and Practices

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorShivji, Issa G.
dc.date.accessioned2016-05-15T17:11:38Z
dc.date.available2016-05-15T17:11:38Z
dc.date.issued2011-11-09
dc.descriptionPaper to be presented to the seminar on Electoral Democracy - "What can make Electoral Democracy Effective?", organised by MS-Training Centre for Development Cooperation (MS- TCDC), 7-9th November, 2011.en_US
dc.description.abstractDemocracy is a model. Democratisation is a process. Democracy is a transplant. Democratisation is organic. By democracy I mean the concept of bourgeois liberal democracy imposed by the West on the Rest. By democratisation I mean the struggles of the Rest against the West and its local ‘implants’ to expand the sphere of human freedom and dignity. Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope in 1492 and blazed the trail for Western invasion of Africa and Asia. Christopher Columbus landed in Hispaniola (modern day Haiti and Dominican Republic) also in 1492 planting the seeds of first genocide of the original inhabitants of the Americas, the so-called Red Indians, and the most gruesome trade: The triangular, Atlantic slave trade. Thus began the next five centuries of the development of the world capitalist system and Western civilisation, with accumulation in the centre and dispossession in the periphery. The stories we tell our children and the history we teach them and the values we preach at the altar are spurned by the hegemonic West. This is called civilisation, progress, universal human rights, development, modernisation and now globalisation. The process of resistance against dispossession is called barbarism, cannibalism, nativism, witchcraft, juju, tribalism and terrorism. Thus goes on the story of the West and the Rest to this day as we meet here to discuss the liberal model of democracy, good governance, human rights, transparency, accountability, humanitarianism etc.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11810/2056
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectDemocracyen_US
dc.subjectDemocratazationen_US
dc.subjectAfricaen_US
dc.titleDemocracy and Democratization in Africa: Interrogating Paradigms and Practicesen_US
dc.typeOtheren_US
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
DEMOCRACY_AND_DEMOCRATIZATION_IN_AFRICA.pdf
Size:
2.6 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Full Text
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
1.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Department of Public Law