NEVIS Review No 19
Section III
Ref# 19.3
June 17, 2013
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(Ed’s
note. The following is part II of an article titled “The Promises &
Pitfalls of Pan-Africanism
Ideological and agency trajectories for African Integration”. Part I appeared
in NEVIS Review Ref#18.2.Dr Costantinos is a Professor of Public Policy,
School of Graduate Studies, Addis Ababa University)
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The Promises & Pitfalls of Pan-Africanism
Ideological and agency trajectories for African Integration
Part II
By Costantinos BT Costantinos,
PhD
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4. Ideological basis for
Pan-Africanism and African unification
Significantly, political
unification depends upon the emergence of supportive set of political
institutions that are recurrent and valued patterns of political behavior that
give shape and regularity to politics. They may be manifested as political
rules or as political organisations including customary political norms
and practices. The prospects for sustainable livelihoods partly depend
on habitual attitudes and behaviour among the population at large.
(Costantinos, BT., 1996) From theoretical perspectives, political culture best
predicts the prospects for unification. These explanatory factors
operate at different level of analysis and each has its own data
requirements. The power of a given set of factors to explain possibilities for
political unification, the susceptibility of concepts to empirical
investigation, and the potential of the approach to generate policy recommendations,
however, will no wonder lead to an imperative to adopt “an institutional
approach”. Hence, the hypothesis is
The upshot of the development of
political culture for African unification depends on the configuration of political
institutions in state and civil society. The key research question becomes:
"is the endowment of
institutions in society and state conducive to African unification?"
Here one is tempted to underwrite
the hypothesis on the formation and sustainability of the real African Unity as opposed to
the formal, vacuous institutional evolution that has been creeping since the fifties. The
development of political culture for African total unification depends on the configuration of
political institutions in state and civil society. Hence the endowment of institutions in
society and state conducive to African unification is sine qua non for ultimate political
integration. The goals may be amenable to description not only at the level of what he broadly and formally
acknowledges as the aims, but also in terms of implicative objectives and purposes and
specific tactics and processes that inform a variety of activities
leading to one politically,
socially and economically integrated Africa. True there exist insurmountable obstacles to
African unification as illustrated by Museveni, nevertheless a skilled and committed citizenry
and state leadership can prevail over this and achieve integration in a short time.
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4.1. Agency:
Participants in and around
projects of African unification generally constitutes a network or intersection of institutions and
groups: governments, opposition groups and intellectuals that operate outside official government channels and struggle for a share of power or influence. In some cases, a free, though constitutionally and legally not very well protected, press; local
nongovernmental organisations involved in promoting African unification at the
grassroots as well as in civic, professional
associations and multilateral and bilateral agencies and private sector groups which collectively exert
far-reaching external influence over political reform. Generally, the larger the number and degree
of diversity of participants actively involved, the greater the variation. Uncertainty and
complexity of forms of agency and activity possible, and the more open and free the transition
process is likely to be in its formal as well as informal aspects. Admittedly, the interesting
actors typically have their own primary "functions" quite apart from their role in promoting globalisation. Every one of the players is geared toward specific interests, concerns and
activities beyond or outside the ends of unification. Even if they are expressly committed to promoting
reform, it is always possible for participants to lose themselves in the specifics and
"forget" the process as a whole. To restate the basic point, the extent and nature of openness of
African unification are conditioned by the breadth of the range of available
participants and the degree of uncertainty and complexity that charact-erised
their agency and functional relations. Structural
constraints on possibilities of African unification are reinforced by
specific, more or less conscious, uncertainty and complexity;
reducing activities of key participants that may be characterised
by rules and forms of political engagement that are in constant flux and
may lead to any number of unpredictable
alternative outcomes. Also, the proliferation of varied aid conditionalities tied to specific
policies and sectors - structural adjustment programmes to be implemented, good governance
reform measures to be taken, administrative codes to be followed, human rights to be protected, and so on - often outpace the development of coherent unification
standards, rules and concepts by and within nation-states. (Ibid)
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4.2. Ideology:
Beyond the sphere of political
agency, possibilities and problems of African unification openness can be grasped in terms
of the related domain of ideology. Ideological elements and constructs might be seen as the
very constitutive structure of process openness and closure. Transition to African unification
will commonly be characterised by a number of distinctive and shared additional elements,
including concepts and rules of government, national and cultural values, traditions of political
discourse and arguments, and modes of representation of specific interests, needs and issues.
These elements, or complexes of elements, will tend to assume varying forms and to enter into
shifting relations of competition, co-operation and hegemony during political reform.
Generally, the broader the range of ideological elements at plays in a transition to African unification
to globalisation, and the more varied and uncertain their relations, the greater the possibilities of process openness and transparency that exist.
Like the transition to African
unification of politics and political organisations and activities to which they are often tied more
or less closely, transition to globalised ideological constructs tend to be unsettled and, at
times, unsettling. Particularly at these initial stages of transition to globalisation, they are more
likely to be uncertain rather than stable structures of ideas and values. This has the effect of
opening up the entire African unification process, of freeing the process from simple domination by
any one organised actor or coalition of actors. Yet, global ideological elements and
relations take shape and come into play within a hierarchy of global and local agencies and groups. A
determinate order of institutions, powers, interests and activities operate
through complexes of transition to African unification ideas and values, filling
out, specifying, anchoring and, often short-cutting their formal content or
meaning. (Ibid)
Thus, the fact that promoters or
supporters of African unification and development often do not efficiently realise in
practice the potential of the ideas and goals they promote, that the volume of their interventions is
not nearly proportional to their impact raises the issue of whether the ideas in question may
be fundamentally constrained at the moment of their conception and implementation by
the very institutions and technocratic structures that ground their
articulation. Within countries, the supply of ideas of African unification may
be artificially deflated by particular strategies and mechanisms used by
incumbent governments to manage entire reform processes. Conceptual
possibilities may be left unrealised, or sub-optimally realised, insofar as
governing elite are preoccupied with filling out those spaces of uncertainty in
transition to African unification political thought, discourse and action that
alternative parties would occupy in the course of their own engagement. (Ibid)
It has to do with creating
conditions for the existence of the broadest possible range of opinions and sentiments. But, as
important as it is, this is only one context or level or analysis of the breadth and depth of the
African unification process on the terrain of ideology. There is another level of analysis,
concerned with the extent and nature of openness of distinct ideological constructs to one
another, with modes of articulation of given sets of ideas and values and of representations of
specific issues relative to others. The concern here is not so much the number and diversity of
ideas, values and opinions allowed to gain currency during African unification as modes of
their competitive and co-operative articulation are. For example,
-Does Pan-Africanism enter
national transition processes as an external ideology, constructing and deploying its
concepts in sterile abstraction from national values?
-
Does African
unification come into play in total opposition to, or in co-operation with historic national values and
sentiments?
-
Does African
unification processes signify change in terms of the transformation of the immediate stuff of national
politics into an activity mediated and guided by objective and critical unification standards,
rules and principles?
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4.3.Forging Economic Alliances
and Strategies
African unification and alliances
between state and civil society face many limitations in the sphere of institutional
development. African groups have been unable to establish a clear and coherent voice nationally or
regionally on issues, which are crucial to their international advocacy work, or to the interest
of the communities they profess to serve. This contravenes the ideals, standards and rules of
effective networking management process. It also encourages well-meaning individuals to
alienate themselves from the process, rather participate in it and work to improve it. While many
proposals for remedial action have been formulated, real commitment to collaborative
processes at inter organisational level has always been limited. Mobilising the action required
has also remained a daunting challenge, as many practical and structural constraints militate
against commitment by individual groups to inter organisational initiatives nationally and
regionally. The advantages of such a process would mean wider market base and production potential,
increased competitiveness, development of secondary processing, development of
tourist potential, bring out the critical production edge, develop the requisite negotiating leverage by
developing cross national skills in international negotiations as have Asian countries have done
via the ASEAN, exchange of lessons in all of the above: Africa must reinforce its knowledge
management strategy to participate in the global arena. State institutions must accept as
a universal right that the rights and obligations of citizenship are not gifts from
the state institution or party. The relationships must be based on the following generic notions:
humility and optimism, macroeconomic prudence, and the right to development. Achieving human
security, the development of social capital and the logic of collective action relates to the
interface between the various elements that contribute directly to enhancing competitiveness;
buttressed by advocacy, public relations and affairs work in enlightening society, social
marketing in selling new ideas and ‘cultures’ and enabling
negotiations strategies.
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4.4.Regional alliances to enhance
integration leverage of African societies:
4.4.1. Mission and regional
partnership framework
The development objective in
African unification is to enhance livelihood security through regional development through a
comprehensive programme on regional and sub-regional trade development and supportive
policies and guidelines including a monitoring system for their efficacy. The
vision of the partnership is livelihood securities that promote the development
of human and social capital in
Africa; while the mission is to mobilise nations and regional and sub-regional organisations to
redirect and expand political, programme and financial commitment and action. The value
of the international partnership should embrace a set of common values and principles
based on strong African political leadership and commitment as the basis for effective action.
It should also have strong country focus and orientation to locally set priorities, local institutions,
including local governments, NGOs and other community-based organisations. Institutions
prepared to join the Partnership must respect its values, a sense of shared responsibility among all
partners, transparency of action and accountability for results. This will entail development of
regional cooperation and coordination for building regional consensus on key policy areas, seeking of
solutions to global economic and social issues and promotion of capacity building better implemented at
regional level, promotion of exchange of information and appropriate techniques, technical
know-how and relevant experience; promotion of scientific and technological cooperation;
coordination of sub-regional and regional research activities and
identification of regional
priorities for research and development; coordination of networks for systematic observation and
assessment and information exchange, as well as their integration into world wide networks;
The critical role
of human qualities in meeting the challenges of Africa: We need to accord the critical role of the
human factor in creating sustained human development, its proper place within the process of
development management in Africa. The human factor underscores the rationale for the need for a
revolutionary action plan. A major contributing factor to the appalling situation is that there
is and has been a shallow understanding of, and a feeble grip on, the essential components that constitute
the required human qualities for development, and the intensive and comprehensive
nature of their development and utilisation processes. Labour administration, employment laws
and regulations and civil service policies and personnel
management practices have long
been on the books in many countries. As such, important components and commitment
required to build and use a quality labour force for accelerating and sustaining growth are not
properly addressed in the education, training and productivity programmes. Efforts have failed
to produce and retain the necessary pool of self-confident, healthy, knowledgeable and
skilled labour force, which is full of initiatives and resourcefulness with a sense of purpose, work
ethics, vision, integrity and direction.
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4.4.2.Methodological
conceptualisation of African unification:
The structural factor most
commonly cited as favouring African political unification is an advanced industrial economy which
can provide a high average of per capita national income. On the other hand, from a
contingent perspective, African unification is installed as a result of the conscious reform initiatives
of individual leaders, elite factions and social movements -- the trajectory of transitions is
driven by the short-term calculations and immediate reactions of strategic actors. Finally,
political unification depends upon the emergence of supportive set of political institutions.
Institutions are recurrent and valued patterns of political behaviour that give shape and regularity to
politics. They may be manifest as political rules (either legal or informal) or as political
organisations. As the building blocks of African unification, certain combinations of political
institutions must be extant or emergent if pan-Africanism is to occur.
A methodology and protocol which
seeks to employ all of the above perspectives and methods can be neither coherent
nor manageable. The first order of business is therefore to choose a principal conceptual
framework to guide data collection, collation and analysis. Hence, we will try to adopt an
"institutional" approach. The thesis of study is that the prospects,
nature and outcomes of political
transition depend on the configuration of national political institutions in State and civil society. An
institutional approach would appear to offer considerable explanatory power. The widespread
incidence of social conflict and political instability in Africa is directly attributable to basic
weaknesses of political institutions. African states have greatly
expanded since independence,
especially in terms of the number of public employees and the share of public
consumption in the government budget. But this growth has not usually been accompanied by a concomitant
improvement in the capacity of the State to extend authority throughout the territory, to
extract revenues, or to deliver public services. The key research question becomes: "is the
endowment of political institutions in each member country conducive to African
unification?"
We contend that political
transitions into unification can be explained with reference to two institutional factors: political
organisations and political rules. The central hypothesis is that the relative strength of
national political organisations determines the rules of the political game that are installed. In
taking an institutional perspective, we assume that national actors express preferences through
organisations and that these organisations vary in strength according to their resource base.
The relevant organisations are found both in society, where they represent and aggregate
individual interests, and in the State, where they check and balance national executive
authority that may hamper African unification. In order to determine whether African political
unification is possible, the protocol and methodology should enable Africa to document whether
effective political practices have been broadened to allow more participation, competition,
accountability, transparency and predictability in the road leading to African unification. Often this
will involve the imposition of formal rules in a situation where personal discretion has been the
order of the day. African unification in part involves the acceptance by all participants to
subordinate their political behaviour to an agreed upon set of (usually written) ‘continental’
rules.
Generic characteristics that
apply in relation to decisions related to African unification by State and non-State organisations
in any given African country setting are Autonomy, Capacity, Complexity and Cohesion. In
combination, these characteristics determine the relative strength or weakness of
a nation or organisations in the political spectrum. A Pan-African organisation that selects
its own leaders, raises its own revenues, has a popular base, has adequate staff and budget, is
organised for specialised tasks, and puts forward a common front to the world is stronger than an
organisation that lacks these characteristics. In addition, such an organisation that is
democratic in its own internal procedures is more likely to contribute positively to a democratic
transition at the national level than one that is not.
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5. Conclusion:
If the renaissance that will
bring Africa into the global arena is going to happen, we must first and foremost understand
that the authority of state derives from the will of the people and may be exercised only in
accordance with that will. It follows therefore that it is the right and responsibility of the people, not
the state, to determine what constitutes the public good. This is fundamental to the principle that
the authority of state derives from the will of the people. The State is ideally an instrument of
the people, created by the people to serve their will. Those state officials whose actions reveal an
underlying belief that their positions confer on them a superior wisdom and rights to regulate the
behaviour of others by their personal definition of the public interest engage in a misuse of
state's coercive power. They violate the public trust that has been
vested in them, and demonstrate
that they are unfit for state service. Multipartyism, electoral democracy and basic human rights
are necessary but not adequate conditions for participatory development. AU must ensure that
nations are committed to legislating the political rights of individuals, citizen's groups,
protecting, restoring and sustaining lives and cultures, develop laws and systems to monitor and
ensure the observance of human rights. Almost half a century ago, the human community
proclaimed a bold and revolutionary vision of the future.
In conclusion, the monumental
challenges in front of Africa are identifying ways and means of helping to foster institutions
which currently do not exist; reorienting institutions which have been diverted to non-democratic
ends; building in-country capacity for democratic governance on the basis of our demand. The
prospects, nature and outcomes of democratisation depend on the configuration of political
institutions (as manifest in political rules or organisations) in state and civil society. The key
question is therefore whether the endowment of political institutions is
conducive to democratisation and hence unification. While, there is a consensus
that states cannot be solely responsible for
managing the crisis and we recognise that future efforts must accord people themselves,
communities and their organisations a substantial and expanded role.
It is becoming increasingly
apparent that future progress depends on negotiating a trend toward greater institutional pluralism
and broad based participation in the mobilisation and management of resources. All of a
sudden, the concept of a benevolent dictatorship has become an illusion. Dictatorships
disrupt the foundations of social accord and the very social fabric that make people the direct agents,
goals and means of development.
The author further asserts that human
quality and capital development must feature prominently in a continent
bankrupted of its precious human capital leaving behind an ill-prepared leadership; handicapped fatally
to lead national consensus; as learning systems and cultures collapse, some, beyond
repair. These are then the requisite basis for regional advocacy, cooperation and construction and
deployments of alliances and develops the strategic framework for communities of
practice; underlining the need to develop the rights based approach to unification and
coalitions that must happen both at national and regional levels; networked into communities of
practice focussed on advocacy, public relations, negotiation, and social marketing in addition to a
systematic knowledge management. Economically, socially, politically there exist almost
insurmountable obstacles to African unification and the flourishing of international trade.
Nevertheless, there is no reason to believe that Africa’s unification is doomed. A skilled and committed
civic and state leadership can mitigate conditions that are hostile to unification.
The AU Commission (AUC) as a
central organ of the Union has yet to focus on the primary and strategic interests of Africa
because of its ideological muddle, core mission incoherence, corporate incapacity and the
tendency to be petrified of building strategic institutions. Further, the AUC is dependent on donors
that compromise its autonomy of decision-making. The glut of inter-governmental bodies and
regional organisations professing to represent organised pan- Africanism on the continent has
failed to claim new integration frontiers in the 21st century. Such a feat originates directly
from the governance frailty within the AUC and the mismatch between norms set in treaties and
institutions on one hand, and their implementation on the other. Within current projects of
African political reform, enlightenment and shared values are
either conventionalised or
sterilised on terrain of theory and often vacuously formalised on the ground of practice and enter
African society in relatively abstract, syncretic and plain form, yet are expected to land on immediate
and vital African polity's socio-political experience. It suggests itself and seems within
reach; only to elude, and appears readily practicable only to resist realisation.
Thus, operationalisation of the
plethora of existing legal and institutional frameworks should take priority. Dr
Dlamini-Zuma’s legitimacy will rest on revolutionising the Commission to make it relevant to Africans
and her term must not be another round of rule making, but of implementation. The author is
comforted by Dr Dlamini-Zuma’s view of Africa that paints a positive vista of the continent's
prospects as the next pole of growth and prosperity; nonetheless, an important dynamic in AUC
corporate maturity is the critical role of human qualities in creating a sustained policy,
strategic and organisational faculty. In order to undertake such a colossal errand, Dr Dlamini-Zuma
needs to engage, highly qualified think tanks that are able to drive the vision of Africa First.
Think Tanks continually remodel, expand, advance, renovate, cultivate
and develop mighty economies even when their models are doing well.
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