Promoting Sustainable Democratic Consolidation In Sierra Leone PDF Download

In this issue we discuss the major challenges to the democracy project in Africa, using South Africa, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Somalia as case studies. We pose some key questions: Are the current efforts at instituting liberal democracy and its ethos in Africa sustainable? What are the challenges facing the democracy project in Africa? How are they being negotiated? And what are the implications of all these for the fate of the democracy project itself, and for Africa's development aspirations? In an overview paper, Usman Tar discusses some of the major challenges in instituting and sustaining the democracy project in Africa, noting that in the continent, "state structures remain weak and prone to elite manipulation and abuse." He also notes that "state-society relations are erratic and contemptuous because the state is commonly perceived as serving the narrow interest of its governing elites." Dirk Kotze examines the democratic consolidation process in South Africa, arguing that the "unique nature of South Africa's democratisation is not its content but its process." Usman Tar sees Nigeria, especially after the acrimonious April 2007 elections, as being something of a paradox, having on the one hand "a plethora of factors and institutions that are potentially conducive to the construction of democracy" and on the other hand exhibiting the typical features of a failing 'peripheral' state, including operating "one of the least stable federal and presidential democratic systems in the world." Peter F. Z. Zaizay looks at security sector reform and the fight against crime and disorder in Liberia, noting that demobilised soldiers, left largely unemployed, pose a real threat not only to the democracy project in the country but also to its, peace, security and prosperity. T. Debey Sayndee discusses the post-conflict challenges in Liberia, arguing that the current scramble for the "public space by all age groups and gender" can be considered an essential recipe for building a democratic culture" in that country, and should therefore be harnessed in the rebuilding process. Mats Utas analyses the recent elections in Sierra Leone, which was won by the opposition APC, and where many voters did a "watermelon" by taking shirts and money from the ruling SLPP, while voting for APC. Abdurahman Abdullahi examines how Somali women achieved political empowerment in Somalia between 2000 and 2003 (they were "offered a quota of 11% in the Transitional Parliament of 2000") and argues that the move was a "remarkable milestone that is unprecedented in Somalia." He believes that such a gesture in a patriarchal Islamic country that is torn by inter-clan feuds, contains within it the seed of hope for the democracy project in the country. In addition to the above articles, we also brought a number of other articles, from how to reposition family planning to reduce unmet needs to a discussion of the politics of resistance to dictatorship in Nurudin Farah's novel. Adonis & Abbey Publishers opens Nigerian office After two years of trying to find a way of creating a presence in Nigeria, we have finally opened an office/bookshop in Lagos. Please visit us at 35A Bode Thomas, Surulere, Lagos (Telephone: +234 (0) 1895 0040"