Deep Currents

The Economist assures us that there’s still much progress to celebrate in Africa in spite of Nigeria’s farce of an election:

In politics, the once-predominant belief in a one-party system has faded, if not fizzled completely. Remember, it was only in 1991 that, for the first time since independence, the leader of any African country (not counting the Indian Ocean state of Mauritius) was peacefully voted out of office—in Benin, as it happens. Since then, many African countries have followed suit. Multi-party elections, though often very messy, have become far commoner.

That’s all well and good. But progress towards participatory governance relies on a country’s faith that the project can succeed. I’m no expert on Nigerian history, so I don’t know what the political attitudes are like on the ground. But generally speaking, if I grew up in a country ruled by autocrats, I’d want proof that turning power over to the people was a good idea before I’d fight to install the system in my country. Seeing democracy functioning in the West is a good start, but I wouldn’t necessarily believe that it would work in my country. It takes a leap of faith, and I wonder: having just gone through a test of their faith, how many Nigerians–and Africans–still believe?

Written: April 29th, 2007