15 June: Africa's Democracy Deficit - lecture
Transnational Institute - 11.06.2007 19:11
"Why have African liberation movements failed to sustain democratic
governments?" speaker: William M. Gumede
The Annual Basker Vashee Memorial Lecture
15 June 2007, 8:00 p.m., De Balie, Kleine Gartmanplantsoen 10, Amsterdam
Across the African continent, constituting democracy has proved elusive
for many countries despite the widespread acceptance of democracy
worldwide as an alternative to dictatorship and totalitarian regimes.
William Gumede, will examine the reasons in the annual Basker Vashee
Memorial lecture, drawing on the vivid current example of Zimbabwe’s Zanu
PF’s descent into dictatorship which has shattered the dreams of many
Zimbabweans.
Gumede, a Senior Associate & Oppenheimer Fellow, at St. Anthony’s College,
Oxford University and renowned political and media commentator, asks
whether there is something inherent in the culture of African political
parties and liberation movements that makes it difficult for them to
sustain democratic platforms.
For the reality is that liberation movements who valiantly opposed
colonial powers, in the name of freedom and democracy, have behaved
markedly undemocratic once they assumed power. Political parties who have
been in opposition, and came to power after the end of undemocratic
regimes have not done much better.
Gumede argues that the reasons for Africa’s democracy deficit are both
self-inflicted and imposed from outside. But at the heart of the failure
of African attempts at democracy building is that ruling political parties
and liberation movements have failed to establish a democratic political
culture. Democracy has been interpreted in a highly limited way as meaning
elections, even if a Government’s practices were highly democratic.
The lecture will be a taster of Gumede’s forthcoming book, Democratic
Deficit: Africa's Lost Years, to be published by Zed Books later this
year.
more information:
www.tni.org
or contact Andrea Sturkenboom
 andrea@tni.org
020 662 6608
 E-Mail: andrea@tni.org  Website: http://www.tni.org
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