ISBN 9789956791279
Pages 374
Dimensions 229 x 152 mm
Published 2013
Publisher Langaa RPCIG, Cameroon
Format Paperback

Democracy for Breakfast

Unveiling Mirage Democracy in Contemporary Africa

by Tatah Mentan

Democracy is the faith that the process of experience is more important than any special result attained, so that special results achieved are of ultimate value only as they are used to enrich and order the ongoing process. Africans must therefore be allowed to apply their cultural and historical experiences and talents in working out a pattern of 'government of the people, by the people, and for the people' according to their own understanding and as their own peculiar circumstances demand. Those who do not want the vertical 'Western-Style Democracy' must be given a fair chance to demonstrate an alternative African horizontal democracy. Perhaps what they come up with might be of benefit to politics even in the West, provided that their radical system of horizontal democracy protects the life, liberty and property of citizens, and provided that the people want it. The question of externally imposed or market-driven multi-party or dual-party or non-party is a matter of modality and should not occupy the center stage in Africa.

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Review

“The need for an effective democracy informed by the experiences, creativity and expectations of Africans – an argument well-schooled and well-made by one of the foremost students of power and political processes in Africa –”

Francis B. Nyamnjoh, author of Africa’s Media: Democracy and the Politics of Belonging

About the Author

Tatah Mentan

Tatah Mentan is Theodore Lentz scholar of Peace and Security Studies and Professor of Political Science. He has authored many books on burning world issues in areas like political economy of international relations, the predatory wars of corporate globalization and democratization in a netarchic world torn and convulsed by corporate capitalist cannibalism and warfarism.

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