State Nations and the Fate of Western Democracy in Sub-Saharan Africa: Prospects and Challenges

Abstract

This research work is premised on Western liberal democracy and its applicability to African political scenarios. Increased political violence immediately before, during and after elections in most African states south of the Sahara has raised so many questions regarding the feasibility of introducing the western conception and version of multi-party democracy to societies that are comparatively poor and vulnerable to a hodgepodge of vicissitudes. Political party formations and affiliation mirror a diversity of irreconcilable ethnic identities that are as old as African history itself. Inter-ethnic hostilities within the colonial territorial framework of states were only temporarily pacified by colonialism, but were earnestly revived under the guise of democracy. Even those western states that claim to epitomize the principle of exercising political power by elected governments through the consent of the governed have themselves not been able to convincingly practically demonstrate and uphold democratic values admirably. Rather, they have prioritized economic self-interest to the point of fuelling ethnic discord within states by rendering financial support and military backing to ethnically motivated political parties- all in the name of democracy! This paper analyses colonial and post-colonial challenges confronting Sub-Saharan Africa which stifle its efforts at substantive democratization. It highlights that territorial entities south of the Sahara are state nations and not nation states as a result of colonialism, and that ethnic homogeneity, even through the most brutal forms of authoritarianism to maintain cohesion and coerce people into unanimity, is bound in the long run to face serious disintegrative and separatist tendencies.