SIDEBAR DIGRESSION:
...democracies in Europe succeeded and democracies in Africa failed. We've had ethnic parties spring up all over Africa and they seem to inevitably lead to civil war.
Perhaps.
But it's also worth remembering that much of the political struggle in Europe -- and almost all of the European wars from early 19th C right into our own time -- was/is to more-or-less align the political (state boundary) reality with the ethnic or social reality. In other words, to get the political boundaries to more or less correspond with the social reality on the ground: Frenchman (mostly) in France, Germans in Germany, Italians in Italy, Serbs in Serbia, etc, etc. See the ongoing saga in the Balkans, or the recent spat between Georgia and Russia. Even the 39-44 War in Europe was driven by Hitler's ostensible desire to unite the millions of ethnic Germans living outside Germany in E Europe and Russia.
Now I'm not sayng ethnic identity is the most important thing (for me it's actually rather primitive, something to evolve beyond), but historical experience cannot simply be ignored.
Looking at Africa through this lens, we can see why almost of all of the continent is doomed to petty dictatorships and ethnic wars.
The state/political boundaries in Africa bear little if any relation to the reality on the ground. That's because the state boundaries were drawn up by colonial governments HQd in Europe.
Other than a few single-
ethnos-dominant states, such as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland for example, I can't think of a single sub-Sahel African state that is really a proper nation in the original sense of the word.
Who says South Africa is a country? Or Zimbabwe? Or Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, DRC ... or almost any other African country? It's European colonialists who drew our boundaries, and I for one believe it's insane to expect Africans to suddenly do what others have found impossible.
The ethnic/party examples you cite are quite apt: UNITA-MPLA-FNLA, ZANU-ZAPU, etc, etc, and these are indeed disastrous for any country. But African political movements decay into ethnic factions for the same reasons they did in Europe, Asia and elsewhere: in the winner-takes-all Westphalian state system currently obtaining, the quickest way to securing or increasing political power is by building 'identity' blocs, and the easiest route is ethnic identity because it has direct personal and cultural appeal to each member of the
ethnos.
In my view, the following are necessary (but not sufficient) if Africa is ever to develop:
1) The current European-imposed state boundaries must disappear. The map must be redrawn to reflect social realities. Why must Africans struggle to live together in boundaries they had no hand in creating? This will require a major revolution, which is not in prospect. It's worth noting that the OAU and its successor AU both enshrined the principle of
uti possidetis, which prevents the issue from being tackled or even discussed.
2) The role of the State in controlling and allocating economic resources must be dramatically reduced. For over a century we have seen the State's role expand beyond anything seen since the last days of the ancien regime in late 18th C France. The notion that states must provde housing, education, health care, utilities, employment, etc is a relatively recent one. The authentic new states in Africa (see 1 above) must avoid these temptations and do everything to foster private development. If they do, I am quite sure Africans will stun the world with their innovativeness, creativity and hard work, and rapid development.
/sidebar
Brilliant for democracy too!
