Consensus as Democracy in Africa

Bernard Matolino

Description

Some philosophers on the African continent and beyond are convinced that consensus, as a polity, represents the best chance for Africa to fully democratise. In Consensus as Democracy in Africa, Bernard Matolino challenges the basic assumptions built into consensus as a social and political theory. Central to his challenge to the claimed viability of consensus as a democratic system are three major questions: Is consensus genuinely superior to its majoritarian counterpart? Is consensus itself truly a democratic system? Is consensus sufficiently different from the one-party system? In taking up these issues and others closely associated with them, Matolino shows that consensus as a system of democracy encounters several challenges that make its viability highly doubtful. Matolino then attempts a combination of an understanding of an authentic mode of democracy with African reality to work out what a more desirable polity would be for the continent.

Informations

• Publié par: NISC (Pty) Ltd
• Date de parution: 28 décembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781920033378
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Dedication
To my loving wife, Phocenah
About the Series
The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd. The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality.
Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a manuscript mentor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript.
The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world.
The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa.
AHP Editorial Board Members as at November 2018
AHP Series Editors:
Professor Adigun Agbaje, University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa
Consultant:
Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology)
Board Members:
1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa)
2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program)
3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies)
4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies)
5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory)
6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy)
7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History)
8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies)
9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology)
10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics)
11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology)
Published in this series
Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema , 2014
Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014
Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English , 2014
Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe , 2016
Pascah Mungwini, I ndigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights , 2017
Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa , 2017
Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse , 2018
Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: the making of an organic intellectual , 2018
Romanus Aboh, Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel , 2018

Published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za
First edition, first impression 2018
Publication © African Humanities Program 2018 Text © Bernard Matolino 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-920033-31-6 (print)
Manuscript mentor: Andrew Nash Project manager: Peter Lague Indexer: Sanet le Roux Cover design: Advanced Design Group Cover photographs: © Jake Lyell / Alamy Stock Photo (front), © Mike Goldwater / Alamy Stock Photo (back)
Printed in South Africa by Digital Action
The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Preface
I NTRODUCTION
C HAPTER 1 Democracy by consensus
Introduction
Carew on transformative politics
Wamala on traditional consensus
Wiredu on traditional consensus
The contexts of democratic challenges
Conclusion
C HAPTER 2 Conceptualising consensus
Introduction
The issues
Consensus as superior to majoritarianism
Conclusion
C HAPTER 3 Democracy and consensus
Introduction
What democracy is not
What democracy is
Is consensus truly democratic?
Conclusion
C HAPTER 4 Political parties in consensus
Introduction
Problems with political parties
Consensus as a non-party polity
Is a non-party a one-party?
Conclusion
C HAPTER 5 African aspirations, democracy and African democracy
Introduction
Africa
Socio-politico-cultural reality
Purpose of democracy
African aspirations and democracy
Beyond consensus and majoritarianism
Conclusion
C ONCLUSION
B IBLIOGRAPHY
I NDEX
Acknowledgements
The manuscript for this publication was prepared with the support of the African Humanities Fellowship Program established by the American Council of Learned Societies with a generous grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
In the AHP family, I am grateful for the support I received from Adigun Agbaje, Fred Hendricks, Elisabeta Pop, Andrzej Tymowski, and Barbara van der Merwe.
In the 13 years it has taken me to think this book through and bring it to completion, my colleagues have suffered greatly from hearing my (attempted) arguments over and over again; I owe them a great debt. At UKZN I am indebted to Jacek Brzozowski, Julia Clare, Patrick Lenta, Heidi Matisonn, Deepak Mistrey, Motsamai Molefe, Munyaradzi Murove, Beatrice Okyere-Manu, OA (Tony) Oyowe, Adriano Palma, Jacqui Poltera, Martin Prozesky, Deborah Roberts, Richard Sivil, JA (Jannie) Smit, David Spurrett, and Monique Whitaker.
At St. Joseph’s Theological Institute I am equally grateful to James Calder, Neil Frank, Tendai Gandanzara, Hansel Jaison, Wenceslaus Kwindingwi, Raphael Mahlangu, and Olga Yurkivska, who at various points of the development of this manuscript, have engaged with my ideas. And at St. Augustine College of South Africa, I am most grateful for the patience and wisdom of Stuart Bate and Gerard Walmsley. From Prof Bate and Prof Walmsley, I learned what a proper scholar does.
I owe a very special debt to my university philosophy teachers. Simon Beck deserves a special mention for the kindness he showed me in the eight years I was his student, and for the role he played in the early part of my career. It was Prof Beck’s most amazing delivery of philosophy lectures that made me convert to the discipline. Ian Jennings was not only a great teacher but very supportive of my then nascent desire to become a philosopher. I am also grateful for having been taught by Deane-Peter Baker and Douglas Farland. These four gentlemen left a lasting impression on me.
More than anyone, my manuscript mentor, Andrew Nash, read this manuscript carefully, and his comments were absolutely invaluable.
I am grateful to my students who played the role of research assistant whenever I called upon them; Simon Makwinja, Lungelo Mbatha, Mutshidzi Maraganedzha, Ovett Moore, Sakhile (Mr. S) Nkosi, Xolile Ntshangase, and Chris Oyoo Yaye.
Last, but not least, I thank my wife, to whom this book is dedicated, and our daughter Ropafadzo, for their love and support. Also for their continued love and support, I thank my parents Henelika and Violet Matolino, all my siblings (Owen, Nomsa, Matilda, Paula and Pauline), their spouses, and all their children.
If there is any value in this book, I owe the success so registered to the support and time of all individuals mentioned and not mentioned here. I, however, take full responsibility for all incoherencies contained herein.
Preface
Majoritarian democracy, chiefly identified by its visceral and adversarial competition for p