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By Dr. Felix Kumah-Abiwu, a Non-Resident Fellow (Governance & Democracy) at Nkafu Policy Institute


Introduction

Three decades into the new wave of democratic rule in Africa after the end of the Cold War in the early 1990s cannot be overlooked. Countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, and South Africa, are a few examples of countries that have continued to make progress in consolidating their democracies. At the same time, the continent stands at a crossroads (1) given the recent increase in military coups and the growing popular support for these coups (2) in West Africa, amid other serious security challenges facing other parts of the African continent.

While Africa’s challenges are not unique, as with other emerging liberal democracies, the disturbing aspect is when many Africans are losing faith in their democratic system of governance. The popular support (3) for recent military coups (4) in West Africa is one of the manifestations of this worrying trend. This policy paper discusses the “new discourse” on democratic decay in Africa, especially in West Africa. To help address some of Africa’s democratic difficulties, the paper argues that African governments need to take policy steps in investing resources in a curriculum-driven civic education to help sustain Africa’s democratic future. To properly situate the analysis into a broader context, the paper provides an overview of Africa’s socio-political landscape.

Africa’s Socio-Political Landscape

Africa’s democratic landscape could best be described as complex with changing trends since countries fought for their freedom from European colonial rule in the late 1950s and 1960s. For some observers, the complexities of Africa’s socio-political landscape can best be understood as a process involving past successes, ongoing perils, and future promises. This process line of thinking or argument makes sense from one fundamental standpoint. That is, unlike other regions of the world, Africa appears to be the only continent that has experienced what I will describe as seismic or earth-shattering foreign interruptions (i.e., the slave trade, colonialism, and ongoing neo-colonialism), which have punctuated its democratic pathways. While recognizing other internally-driven factors such as poor leadership, corruption, and mismanagement to Africa’s democratic woes, there is no question that the legacies of externally-driven factors have continued to adversely impact the continent’s democratic journey.

As noted, Africa’s socio-political terrain has not only faced complex challenges since the 1960s, but its landscape has also been characterized by geo-political dynamics. From the failure of socialist political ideology to one-party governments in countries such as Ghana and Tanzania, to the rise of military regimes in Nigeria and Sudan are cases in point. Dengiyefa Angalapu captures Africa’s political voyage quite well by underscoring how African nations “accepted” liberal democratic ideals, which helped them to transition to democratic rule in the 1990s(5). The transition also provided opportunities for democratic accountability through competitive multi-party elections and other democratic essentials, even when some of the founding elections faced serious challenges (6). At the same time, the commitment of Africans to sustain democracy with good governance practices such as the peaceful transfer (7) of political power deserves to be highlighted.

On the notion of how Africa “accepted” liberal democratic ideals as often articulated in the literature on Africa’s democracy, the renowned expert on African affairs, Ambassador Rama Yade, as other scholars, will critique this idea. For Ambassador Yade, as this article also agrees, Africans have been familiar with democratic values and practices in the administration of their ancient empires before their encounter with European invaders. The “African vision of democracy”(8), as noted in Ambassador Yade’s piece, illustrates how the power of chiefs can be revoked among the Yoruba traditional/political system (9), and how the village chief who is often chosen by the heads of families (a constituted village council) among the ancient Ashanti people of Ghana (10).

Indeed, space is limited in this paper to further elaborate on the idea of how an “African vision of democracy” looks like, but I share Ambassador Yade’s counsel for Africanists to continue to highlight the presence of democratic values and practices in their analysis of African political systems. In other words, the idea of democracy as a foreign concept to Africa needs to be continuously challenged. It is therefore not surprising when Ambassador Yade’s article is titled: “Why Africans hold the future of global democracy in their hands”(11), as illustrated by recent democratic gains in countries such as Liberia, Kenya, and Namibia (12). The 2023 report by the Freedom House (13), which indicates a slight progress in 11 countries with improvement in civil and political rights represent positive signs that need to be highlighted.

At the same time, critiques might wonder how Africa could hold the “future of global democracy in their hands” (14), when they cannot sustain democracy for three decades, given the recent increase in military coups in countries such as Mali, which was once praised in the 1990s as one of Africa’s model democracies (15). This democratic decay or backsliding (16), which has become the new focus of scholarly and policy discourses on Africa, raises further questions on the continent’s democratic future. Experts have given reasons such as poor governance, weak institutions, and corruption for the democratic decay (17). Others blame the inability of governments to deliver public goods for the people (18) or the unfulfilled promises of African democracies (19) as responsible for the decay. For some, the socio-economic hardships associated with African democracies have created a “democratic fatigue” (20) among the populace.

How can Africa’s “democratic winter,” as Ambassador Yade (21) has rightly captured it, be addressed? I share scholar Yade’s argument that the restoration of Africa’s democratic ideals or what I would describe as the “health of Africa’s democratic future,” requires the need to move “beyond simple rankings with points awarded according to indicators of freedoms or rights”(22). To be fair, the rankings are important, but there is the need to go beyond the rankings. I argue that African governments need to purposefully invest in curriculum-driven civic education as one of the ways to sustain the future of Africa’s democracy.

Making the Case for Curriculum-Driven Civic Education

The development of a strong political culture through active civic education has been accentuated as one of the central tenets of a democratic society. Political scientist, Steven Finkel, who has written extensively on civic education and democratic culture asked an important question about two decades ago on whether democracy can be taught (23). In other words, can the ideals and values of democracy be taught in emerging democracies? The answer, based on other studies, suggests that the values of democracy can help improve not only the civic knowledge of the citizenly, but the quality of democracy itself.

Civic education is broadly defined as processes that shape people’s beliefs, commitments, and actions as members of a community (24), in this case, a democratic community. Two schools of thought exist in the process of undertaking civic education. For some, civic education does not need to be intentional given how social institutions and communities can by default transmit values and norms to citizens. For others, deliberate programs of instruction within schools or colleges can also help to instill and enhance values (25).

I agree with the latter school of thought by making the case for African governments to intentionally invest resources in curriculum-driven civic education. I address this from two viewpoints. First, I argue that given Africa’s ongoing turbulence with its democratic experiment, it is becoming clear that the centrality of political culture, which could be argued, as the desired outcome of civic education is still in its formative stage. Political scientists define political culture as a set of shared views, values, ideas, feelings, and knowledge held by a population regarding its political system (26). Works by civil society organizations with support from African governments and external donors seem to be consistent with Steven Finkel’s study which has revealed how civic education has helped to increase political participation in emerging democracies, including those in Africa (27).

Policy Ideas and Recommendations

The linkage between civic education and political participation is a good starting point, but it should not be the end. African governments need to invest resources in curriculum-driven civic educational agencies or commissions to help transform the dividends of political participation into building a strong political culture at the primary, secondary, and tertiary levels.

In addition to the above, there are a few other steps that governments across the continent should consider. First, the timing and framing of the issue should be considered as urgent given the increasing dissatisfaction with democracy (28) among Africans in recent years. The popular support for military coups and the decreasing support for democracy further explains why it is vital for governments to initiate curriculum-driven civic education to help Africa’s democracy.

Second, investing in curriculum-driven civic education is likely to provide certainty for Africa’s democratic future, given the positive impact this might have on Africa’s young population. Third, the shifting nature of global geo-politics with the rise of authoritarian regimes as against the “war” on global democratic ideals pose greater challenge to Africa. The political indifference about coups from China and Russia (29) as these countries keep challenging the utility of liberal democracies (30) should be a wake-up call for African leaders. There is no question that democracy is messy and sometimes slow and seems not to be delivering as expected for ordinary Africans. It can be more challenging for Africa’s complex, vastly different, and polarized political landscape.

Conclusion

The democratic world is under stress and facing challenges, including those in Africa. As experts have suggested, Africa is at a crossroads as democracies are collapsing to military coups (31) in what has become known as the “coup belt” (32) of Africa. Scholars on the continent were not expecting these disturbing trends within three decades into Africa’s democratic journey. The growing dissatisfaction with democracy while popular support for coups is rising poses a huge threat to the continent’s democratic future.

While the support for democracy is declining, Africans still have stronger preference for democratic governance as captured by Afrobarometer’s recent survey report (33). One of the findings indicates that the support for democracy remains robust, which is about two-thirds (66%) of Africans who were surveyed in 30 countries (34). While the support for democracy has declined by 7 percentage points over the past decade (35), there is hope for Africa’s democratic future. This explains why I am making the case for governments to partner with civic society organizations and other political actors to seize the moment and intentionally invest resources in curriculum-driven civic education programs to help sustain Africa’s democratic future.