Governance and the crisis of rule in Africa

This book offers an account of some of the historical manifestations of positive leadership in Africa which could serve as an inspirational guide for Africa’s current wielders of power. The contributing authors display a strong conviction that the portrayal (and stigmatization) of Africa as a continent that has always lacked purposeful and good leadership was a sweeping and inaccurate generalization. They instead draw our attention to the notable record of achievements and intellectual contributions of some colonial and postcolonial African leaders (p. vii). Obadare and Adebanwi’s introductory chapter provides an overview of the book, and in particular, the theoretical perspective of the editors on the concept of African leadership. They contend, uncontroversially, that leadership should be understood in the historical context within which leaders acted (p. 4). However, pushing this argument too far could be mistaken as offering a legitimation of ‘bad’ African leadership emanating from the often unfavourable historical conditions within which African leaders operate. Sabelo J. Ndlovu-Gatsheni (Chapter 2) analyzes Nelson Mandela as an exemplar among African leaders for introducing a paradigm of peace, reconciliation, and racial harmony in contrast to the prevailing global paradigm of war (p. 44). However, he contends that Mandela’s legacy was not far-reaching enough, and that this is reflected in the many shortcomings of the Zuma administration. To what extent, he asks, can one blame the lack of institutionalization of Mandela’s legacy on Mandela own leadership?

Context (archaeology) · Harmony (color) · Legitimation · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics) · Sociology · Global and Cross-Cultural Management · History · Law