Gabriel Asuquo writes:

When African nations such as Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal and Cameroon claimed independence in the mid-20th century, they inherited more than borders and fragile institutions; they also inherited a political philosophy. Liberalism, born of Europe’s Enlightenment, was presented as the universal grammar of progress. It came clothed in the language of democracy, development and human rights, promising that multiparty elections, private property, free markets and individual rights would secure for Africa a swift entry into modernity.

Yet, decades later, the record is sobering. Across much of Africa, democracy often feels like a ceremony without substance – citizens queue under the sun to vote, only for results to be decided in hotel rooms or courtrooms. Nigeria’s 2019 and 2023 elections, Kenya’s post-election violence of 2007, and Zimbabwe’s recurring electoral crises illustrate how manipulation and ethnic mobilisation routinely subvert the people’s will. Economic liberalisation, hailed as a gateway to growth, frequently delivered hardship instead: Nigeria’s 1986 Structural Adjustment Programme brought mass retrenchments and inflation; Ghana’s ‘economic recovery’ deepened inequality; and Zambia’s privatisations eroded local industries. Meanwhile, sovereignty itself bends under the weight of conditional loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, and the subtle dictates of global NGOs that shape domestic policy in the name of aid. On paper, citizens are free; in reality, their autonomy is trapped in the web of foreign dependence and internal elite capture.

This failure cannot be explained solely by poor leadership or weak institutions. It reflects a deeper misalignment: liberalism, shaped by Western histories of individualism and capitalism, sits uneasily with Africa’s communal traditions, relational ethics and socioeconomic realities. If Africa is to find a political path that truly resonates with its people, it must interrogate liberalism’s limits and begin the work of decolonising political thought, by drawing upon its own histories, values and philosophies to imagine alternatives. [Continue reading…]