Government systems must be relatable to the governed who must be able to partake in government; Africa has for long looked to the US and its Western allies as reference points. But a mind shift is required for home grown solutions. If the January the 6th 2021 attempted coup d’état when the United States Capitol Building in Washington, D.C., was attacked by a mob of supporters of then U.S. President Donald Trump two months following his defeat in the 2020 presidential election does not teach us anything, nothing will.
Inferiority complex is Africa’s shortfall. Forget Western systems, our reference point and advisers must be our communities and everything about them. Contemporary Africa’s struggles are a consequence of critical errors made by the African leadership at the point of political power transfer from the evil colonial regimes to natives’ control. The military power dominated liberation movements were not primed for government and democratic processes. In their inexperience and vulnerability, they adopted the colonial state with smidgens of adaptations.
As the colonial system was instituted for the security of the colonisers’ interests against the natives, the contemporary African states are instituted for the defence of the elite against the average person. Instead of carrying out real changes and redesigning systems to strengthen civic society and enable public participation in the decision-making process, the African leader has built taller walls of separation between the average citizen and government.
Marginalisation as the basis of political process is mistaken and retrogressive. Let us build systems and institutions that promote than suppress political participation.
Greater currency must be paid to the fact every society is different and so are its needs; with that in mind, we must use our autonomy to determine our political destiny and form collaborations of our choice, but we are not blind to the fact, for various reasons, some societies make it difficult or even impossible for the average person to make decisions about how power should be distributed and/ or used in their name; we believe such societies may benefit from appropriate and proportionate external expertise to reform their systems.
Government systems must, as closely as possible, reflect society’s aspirations not just those of the elite and wealthy. This is even truer today with the USA election season and the country’s democracy being put into public scrutiny.
Watching the US politics unfold, the toxicity, and inflammatory language from the Trump/ Vance’s campaign would have many African nations whose problems have often, rightly or wrongly, been blamed on the lack of democracy rethink their position about the US.
Democracy must not be viewed in isolation neither should it be conflated with superior morals nor come at the expense of despising one’s traditions. For democracy to be a better system for us, it must be contextually appropriate; it must come through the intentional transformation of local systems so they can enable an effective integration of traditional laws to play an active role in national governance and make life better for the average person.
Until the Republicans enabled the Trump and his MAGA movement political emergence leading to Donald Trump’s presidency in 2016, the USA had literally invested a lot globally – financially, politically and militarily, to market, enforce, and protect the democratic process as the best government system across society. Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not. At least it is one system where the average person can lay claim to being an agency in how government makes decisions.
We argue here that since the emergency of Trump and his MAGA movement, it has become less difficult to make the case that, like any other government system, US democracy is not infallible, and that all systems need to be reviewed within their rightful context. What we are witnessing is that the US democracy is neither a superior system nor getting more democratic.
The American dream is not for everyone, but a few – a felony running for presidency, yet a regular citizen with felony charges cannot vote. An individual becoming president after losing the popular vote – thanks to the college system. How equal are the three branches of US government?
Arguably, the US system and constitution was founded on the expectation of higher moral standards for all office bearers and never envisaged a Trump figure. It assumed all office bearers would be patriotic and serve the constitution of the US, not partisan and serve personal interests or political leaders.
Africa must create systems fit for purpose; we must invest in the progressive integration of traditional norms and values into modern government systems as part of our globalisation efforts. Unjust practices must be addressed, and not sanitized by simply ratifying them into law; these practices could be from our culture and traditions or part of the global systems.
The basis of our political system and progress must be the right of the people to make and to alter their constitutions. How Africa is governed must be informed by its people who must also be the reference point for all adaptations to our laws and systems.
MTHWAKAZI INDEPENDENT 