Limits to liberation in Southern Africa: the unfinished business of democratic consolidation

Abstract

Former liberation movements in Southern Africa have become authoritarian and elitist governments who reward party loyalty and are hostile to 'outsiders'. Is authoritarianism built into liberation structures? Is it inherited from colonial systems? Is liberal democracy inherently elitist? Popular support for the struggle was often based on mystification, coercion and the manipulation of internal contradictions; while in contrast, independence by negotiation has lead to multi-party democracies. This ground-breaking collection of essays on Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana and South Africa opens a long-awaited debate on these and other related issues. Edited by Namibian and former SWAPO member Henning Melber, currently Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute in Sweden, its contributors include Kenneth Good, Ian Taylor, Francis Nyamnjoh, Amin Kamete, Suzanne Dansereau, Roger Southall, Martin Legassick, Raymond Suttner and Krista Johnson. The volume is compiled by the HSRC Democracy & Governance Research Programme in association with the Journal of Contemporary African Studies and the Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University.