During the international symposium on: ‘Democracy in Africa: Reality and Prospects,’ that was conducted in Asmara from 21 to 23 May 2009, many scholars participated and presented research papers on different topics. Shaebia.org interviewed Dr. Amir H. Idris, Assistant Professor at Fordham, New York City’s Jesuit University. He is from the Department of African and African American Studies.  

 

What is democracy based on African point of view?

 

I think the question of democracy in Africa is very important question. But, what we need to do is we have to put it into a context. Democracy is one form of political system and all of us know that the purposes and functions of any political system is to share specific objectives. In the case of Africa all of us know that post colonial states now exist in Africa since the 1950s and 1960s. These states face so many problems, and we can summarise them into three main challenges: first is the question of national unity or national identity; the second is the question of economic developments; and the third issue concerns human rights. And I may also add the question of ethnic conflict, civil war etc; these are some of the major challenges of many African countries and I think if you want to talk about democracy then it must be a means of resolving such challenges in a peaceful way.

 

Is that democracy is only about elections…

 

I am not one of those people who define democracy in terms of elections and vote. Democracy is a system that allows the states or governments to address specific issues that concern them. For some reasons, many African governments have failed to clearly identify the relation between democracy as political system and the functions of democratic constitution. The functions of any democratic constitution are to reduce the gap between the state and the society. The state should address the interest, the aspirations, the dreams of the society and the society has the mandate to direct the state to engage in specific activities.

 

To me the question of democracy should be perceived as a system that the society is able to hold their government accountable; participate in policy formulating and control government implementation of its mandates. But sadly, many African countries know and understand the functions, purposes, and the meaning of democracy in post colonial Africa but fail to practice it.

 

What was the reason?

 

We have to make distinction between two things: democracy as values and principles and democracy as an institution. What are the democratic values we are talking about? Are they equality, justice and equal treatment to all people from different background including ethnicity, religion, gender etc? Many people, when they talk about African democracy they consider it as if African democracy create an alternatives to, “cultural values” if we are talking about values such as justice, freedom, equality and rights, they are not European or American values; rather they are universal values. But, the meaning of freedom, the meaning of justice, the meaning of equality may differ the way Africans perceive. If we read or study the history of African societies, you begin to understand so many African societies practice some kind of democratic values and they were part of so many pre-colonial African societies. The values of democracy were practiced long years ago among Africans. The idea of living in a community in West Africa was exercised in the 15^th century. They participated in open political discussions, raised political issues based on the democratic way of the community where all the people were invited for discussion on matters that concern them. So, democratic practices existed in Africa long before the colonial times.

 

But still Africans failed to establish a democratic society?

 

The main concern is, therefore, that when we talk about democracy in Africa, either we criticize the western version of democracy or we come up with this vague and undefined term called African democracy. Africa is not a country; it is a continent. If you accept Africa as a continent, no one would speak about African Democracy. Eritrea has to come up with its own version of democracy.  It is not western values after all and we could not practice western democracy in Africa because we have extremely different social structure.

 

There is also that problem of conceiving Africa as one entity; after all Africa is a continent. So, we could not collectively talk about African democracy. Every single country has to develop a democratic system based on its society’s realities. Only when we develop our own democracy is that we could get relieved from the burdens of western democracy.

 

My position is that we have to shift the conversation from democracy as a political institution to democracy as values, principles, and norms. Democracy in the African context has to be directed to address some of the important issues in the continent; democracy should enable us to address the question of property; it should address the question of education, health…equal participation of all and so on.

 

What is the problem that is hindering the implementation of these democratic values then?

 

Many people try to interrelate it with the western democracy; but there is nothing wrong with their values of democracy. The fundamental mistake is in the way other societies including African societies interprets, perceives and implements democracy as political systems. As in the case with Kenya, for example, the way democracy being framed in Kenyan society, in my view, has not been adequately defined in the manner that incorporate the diversity of the Kenyan society. There are many people in the Kenyan society who are not part of the decision making. It is also very important to address the question of equality and inequality. The Kenyan issue also has to be put in the context of competition over land, resource, in the country. Majority of those who rioted live in the slum areas near Nairobi; they work in Nairobi during the day and return to the slum at night. Such people are deprived from basic rights while the resource of the country is exploited by few.

 

So, in order to ensure sustainable democracy, a government has to make sure that all members of the society are called upon for decision making; that they have the right to vote, present their views, to have development rights, to make change in their socio-economic life and they have to see a bright future for their children.

 

When do you expect to see a democratic and prosperous Africa?

 

Africans have to be engaged in very serious conversations that allow all members of the society talk about the problems we have. Having serious conversations on the major current challenges of national identity, economic problems and the question of freedom, equality and human right, we would be able to solve them.

 

So, having a conversation around these issues will help African governments and societies chart out special path on how they could design and formulate a policy that would be accepted by all members of the society.

 

The second issue is that we need to retain the way we look at liberal democracy or western democracy. We have to rethink about our perception of western democracy in that we have to make distinction that the values that are incorporated in western democracy are universal. The difference is in the way we practice democracy as political system. So, when democracy didn’t work, it could be of two things: either there is a mistake in the values as a whole or on the system that carries them. Critical eye and conversation is needed.

 

What is your impression of Eritrea?

 

I have not visited the whole city yet. This is my first time to be here, but last night one of our Eritrean friends took us downtown Asmara and watched the colourful Independence Day celebrations. It was really wonderful to see people celebrating their independence in such a way. We also realized that the Eritrean people, as a lot of people told me before I came here, are friendly, polite and hard working. I think they believe in conversation which demonstrates the powers of a society. I will go around and see more during my stay here and I am sure that I will return back to US with precious memories about your lovely country. But, so far I am sure that I am going to comeback regularly.