Africa: The Continent of Contradictions : Democratic Reform Is Crucial to Reverse the Many Declines of the Last Decade

Democracy is stirring in as many as nine African nations. Reform does not come easily, however.

The continent remains a study in contradictions. In a single weekend, Nigeria, Africa’s most populous state, and the Sudan, the largest, were wracked by the violence of failed coup attempts. But at the same time leaders of nations long ruthlessly ruled were making new reform commitments, including Omar Bongo in Gabon, one of the smallest nations, and Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, one of the largest.

The new expressions of democratic commitment have been heard from nations on the left and nations on the right. One of the most rigid of the ostensibly Marxist-Leninist nations, Mozambique, is rewriting its consti-tution in anticipation of free elections. Even war-torn and drought-plagued Ethiopia is hinting change. And mounting popular resistance has won promises of reform in one of the most Western-oriented, capitalist-driven nations, Ivory Coast. But in Zimbabwe, where multiracial democracy has flowered, there is talk of imposing a one-party political system.

Major lenders, led by the World Bank, have emphasized to African nations the importance of democratic reform if they are to reverse the declines of the last decade.

South Africa’s new commitment to constitutional reform and universal suffrage, at least in principle, has not been lost on the other nations of Africa, which have often diverted attention from their own failures by maintaining a shrill denunciation of South Africa. Even more important, however, has been the model of Namibia, which has come to independence with its own constitution reflecting a unique-for-Africa respect for human rights, multi-party politics and protection for its ethnic and racial minorities.

The deteriorating situation in the African nations has many causes, including the lingering legacy of decades of colonial exploitation. But another is certainly the incompetence and corruption of so many of those who have ruled since independence. There is no better way to correct those abuses of power than to open the political process to a real competition among political parties for the votes of a free electorate.