Political ideology of Sub-Saharan
African states
Political ideology
= a lifeguiding system of beliefs, values and
goals affecting political style and action
• individuals use ideologies to help them
understand and explain the world, interpret
both their history and events around them
• examples: Catholicism, Islam, liberalism,
anarchism, socialism…
African nationalism
• was the dominant modern political ideology,
present in all African states
Nationalism = the desire that the nation should
be housed in its own sovereign state
• A nation is a group of people with a sence of
common identity based usually on common
values and tradition, same language, common
history and teritory
• The difference between „a nation“ and „an
ethnic group“ is mainly in the stress given on
the demand for its own state
African nationalism
• Anti-imperialist
• Autonomy
• Unity
• Economic development
• State led
• Against „tribalism“
• Strong executive
→All african states
African socialism
• Reduce dependence on the West and foster the local
development
• Importance of tradition
• Modern
• Skipping the capitalist stage of development
• Nationalisation
• State marketing monopolies
• State distribution
• State control of imports and exports
• State control of banking and finance
• Curtailment of political pluralism
→ Senegal – Senghor, Tanzania – Nyerere, Zambia – Kaunda, Guinea
- Touré
Ujamaa
• What was the concept of ujamaa about?
• Whom is it connected with?
• In what period of time was this policy
excercised?
• What were the political and economic results
of the ujamaa ideas?
Scientific socialism/Afro-marxism
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Application of Marxism-Leninism (not special kinds of socialism)
Importance of working-class/peasant alliance
1970s – early 1980s
Fraternal links with the Soviet Union, but nationalist (no „proletarian
internationalisation“ – Moscow called them just as „socialist in orientation“)
Still an African version of socialism
Nationalization
State marketing monopolies
State distribution
State control of imports and exports
State control of banking and finance
Curtailment of political pluralism
Internal conflicts and dependence on international economy
Mozambique – Machel, Angola – Neto, Dos Santos, Ethiopia - Mengistu
Populism
• Advocates people’s representation/participation –
putting the „ordinary person“ in society to the fore –
to return the power to the masses, mainly where
existing governments have become too selfinterested
• Morality, probity, accountability – proclaimed
values – in fact authoritarian rule of one person,
reluctance to devolve too much power to local
committees
• Often formed in the wake of military coups
→Burkina Faso – Sankara (1983-87), Ghana – Rawlings,
Libya – Kaddafi (1969-2012)
Thomas Sankara
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Burkinabé military captain, Marxist revolutionary, and President of
Burkina Faso (1983-1987)
charismatic leader of revolution, referred to as "Africa's Che Guevara"
seized power in a 1983 popularly supported coup at the age of 33
Goals and policies:
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elimination of corruption
elimination of French post-colonial dominance
• ambitious program for social and economic change:
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nationalization of all land and mineral wealth, doubling wheat production by redistributing land from feudal landlords to peasants
tried to make an alternative to the neo-liberal development strategies and to decrease the influence of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) and the World Bank
preventing famine with agrarian self-sufficiency
nation-wide literacy campaign
promoting public health by vaccinating 2.5 million children against meningitis, yellow fever and measles
planting over ten million trees to halt the growing desertification
suspending rural poll taxes and domestic rents
ambitious road and rail construction program
called on every village to build infrastructure with their own labour.
outlawed female genital mutilation, forced marriages and polygamy, appointed women to high governmental positions
renamed the country from the French colonial Upper Volta to Burkina Faso ("Land of Upright Men")
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authoritarian control over the nation, banning unions and a free press, which he believed could be manipulated by foreign powers
set up Cuban-style Committees for the Defense of the Revolution
his policies alienated Burkinabé middle class, the tribal leaders, and France and was overthrown and assassinated in a coup d'état
led by Blaise Compaoré on October 15, 1987
Jerry Rawlings
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a military dictator in 1979 and from 1981 to 1992 and then the first
elected president of Ghana (1993-2001)
seized power in a coup d'état (1979, 1981), in the 1990s introduced
multiparty system and was elected president in 1992 and 1996
1979 - failed state coup, Rawlings was sentenced to death but after another coup
released
he managed to safe large sums of stolen government money and stabilize inflation
daily radio announcements named suspected fraudsters and demanded their
responsibility
Established People’s Defence Committees (PDCs) to bring the masses directly into the
governmental proces, theoretically to oversee the work of state officials
Elections held that year were won by Dr. Hilla Limann of the People's National Party (PNP)
End of 1981 - Rawlings overthrew Dr. Limann's government, due to alleged economic
mismanagement, and installed the Provisional National Defence Council (PNDC)
government with himself as chairman
1992 - Rawlings won 58.3 % of the votes in the first multiparty elections
1996 - Rawlings won 57 %
2000 - Rawlings barred by the constitution from candidacy
State capitalism
• Tolerant of private capital, encouraged private
enterprise
• Lively small-scale capitalism – mainly in agriculture,
transport, trade
• Still heavy-state intervention
• State still the largest producer and distributer in the
economy
• Nationalism/economic nationalism – joint ventures of
local and foreign companies rather than entirely
foreign-owned enterprises
• Curtailment of political pluralism
→Côte d’Ivoire – Houphouët-Boigny, Kenya – Kenyatta,
Nigeria
Félix Houphouët-Boigny (1905–1993)
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first President of Côte d'Ivoire (1960-1993)
originally a village chief, worked as a doctor, an administrator of a
plantation, and a union leader, elected to the French Parliament and
serving in a number of ministerial positions in the French government
politically moderate leadership:
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maintenance of strong ties with the West (particularly France - this policy known as
Françafrique):
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Côte d'Ivoire prospered economically (uncommon in poverty-ridden West Africa) - the "Ivorian miracle":
sound planning
close friendship with Jacques Foccart, the chief adviser on African policy in the de Gaulle and Pompidou governments
development of the country's significant coffee and cocoa industries (difficulties in 1980, when prices of coffee and cocoa were low)
anticommunist foreign policy:
• 1969-1986 diplomatic relations with USSR suspended
• mainland China recognized not before 1983
support for
• a coup against Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana in 1966
• a coup against marxist military leader of Benin Mathieu Kérékou in 1977 (failed)
• a coup against Thomas Sankara in Burkina Faso in 1987 (allegedly)
• UNITA in Angola
moved the country's capital from Abidjan to his hometown of Yamoussoukro
built the world's largest church there, the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, at
a cost of US$300 million
at the time of his death, he was the longest-serving leader in Africa's history
after his death, conditions in Côte d'Ivoire quickly deteriorated, number of coups d'état, a
currency devaluation, an economic recession, and a civil war (2002, 2010)