Africa Today
Politics
The modern political landscape of African has evolved over the years with many countries embracing democracy. It began when pioneers like Dr. Kwame Nkrumah had a mind to liberate the whole continent from the hands of the colonial rulers. This was eventually supposed to lead to a one-body Africa.
In an attempt to generalize the political landscape of Africa, we will touch on the progress some nations are making with improving their political environment. The year 2005, was referred to as the second Year of Africa, recalling that 1960 was the year nations in Africa won Independence one after the other. From then, there was a journey to embrace the democratization of their political leadership replacing the military rule and single-party state. While some countries like Ivory Coast had issues with the democratization process, there were other countries that proceeded gracefully like Kenya and Zambia experiencing one or more successful free and fair elections.
Countries that had civil unrest in recent years are recovering from the repercussions and turmoil of the aftermath of those activities, as gleaned from Liberia and Burundi. Since then, progress on good governance has been encouraging but of course there have been challenges. At the moment, there are issues of corruption and transparency that plague the governmental system so much that it has become a norm in as much as it is a social menace.
Aside from the current political issues, the overarching body which is the African Union (AU), has shared a 50-year development and transformation program to aid African countries reach their full potential. African countries continue to build on the advantages gained from the 90s where Ghana for example has diligently undertaken governance reforms including the designing of a new constitution that places emphasis on the separation of powers which checks and balances in the political system. According to the African Development Bank, good governance should be built on a foundation of effective states, mobilized and civil societies, and an effective private sector. The keys to good governance then are accountability, transparency, combating corruption, citizen participation, and an enabling legal/judicial framework.
References
Akira, S. (n.d.). African Politics Overview. Institute of Developing Economies. Retrieved July 14, 2021, from https://www.ide.go.jp/English/Research/Topics/Pol/African/overview.html
Christensen, J. B. (n.d.). African Political Systems: Indirect Rule and Democratic Processes on JSTOR. JSTOR. Retrieved July 14, 2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/271910
Crutcher, J. (n.d.). Premises of Modern African Politics on JSTOR. JSTOR. Retrieved July 14, 2021, from https://www.jstor.org/stable/1405281
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