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African Personal Dictatorships

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Samuel Decalo
Samuel Decalo
Affiliation:
Professor of African Government, University of Natal, Durban, previously having taught African politics in the United States, Trinidad, and Botswana.
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Extract

Nearly two decades ago Aristide Zolberg suggested that the most visible feature of independent Africa might well be instability and not stability, cleavage and conflict rather than unity and consensus. This observation holds equally true today. The elusive formula assuring the establishment of a viable and integrative political order has eluded many African states. Their failure politically to institutionalise themselves and to forge ahead in the direction of national integration and socio-economic development has been documented in the voluminous literature that has sprung up since Zolberg's original analysis. Ravaged now by natural disasters, international conflict or civil war, and military coups, early expectations of a relatively smooth transition from colonialism to meaningful independence have been dashed. While striking exceptions do exist, neither the richer nor the more developed nations are necessarily assured of stability and unity, given the continental context of scarcity and conflict.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 23 , Issue 2 , June 1985 , pp. 209 - 237
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1985

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References

1 Zolberg, Aristide R., Creating Political Order: the party-states of West Africa (Chicago, 1966).Google Scholar See also his equally seminal article, ‘The Structure of Political Conflict in Africa’, in American Political Science Review (Washington, D.C.), 06 1968.Google Scholar

1 See, in particular, Hayward, Fred's insightful analysis in ‘Political Participation and its Role in Development: some observations from the African context’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb, Ill.), 7, 1973.Google Scholar

1 Feit, Edward, The Armed Bureaucrats (Boston, 1973),Google Scholar and ‘The Rule of the Iron Surgeons’, in Comparative Politics (New York), 07 1969.Google Scholar

2 Perlmutter, Amos, Modern Authoritarianism (New Haven, 1981), p. 170.Google Scholar

1 An oligarchy, junta, or clique would, by definition, negate the personal element of dictatorship as here defined.

2 The concept of an ‘imperial’ modality of rule is a necessary classificatory rubric in any analysis of authoritarian rule in Africa. Most current typologies do not provide a truly adequate ‘fit’ for the empirical reality of African case-studies, though see Jackson, Robert H. and Rosberg, Carl G., Personal Rule in Black Africa: prince, autocrat, prophet, tyrant (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1982).Google Scholar

3 Ibid. p. 1.

1 An oligarchy, junta, or clique would, by definition, negate the personal element of dictatorship as here defined.

2 The concept of an ‘imperial’ modality of rule is a necessary classificatory rublic in any analysis of authoritarian rule in Africa. Most current typologies do not provide a truly adequate ‘fit’ for the empirical reality of Africa case-studies, though see Jackson, Robert H. and Rosberg, Carl G., Personal Rule in Black Africa: prince, autocrat, prophet, tyrant (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London, 1982).Google Scholar

1 See Matate, Gordon, ‘Exit Africa's Triad of Tyrants’, in Africa (London), 11 1979, pp. 12–18.Google Scholar

1 The second appointment was given to Shabani Opolot, purged shortly after the showdown between Obote and the Kabaka.

2 Africa Research Bulletin: political, social, and cultural series (Exeter), 09 1979.Google Scholar

1 See Decalo, Samuel, Coups and Army Rule in Africa: studies in military style (New Haven and London, 1976), ch. 1.Google Scholar

1 All three exchanged state visits, signed treaties of friendship, and lauded each other's accomplishments. See West Africa (London), 1 10 1973 and 27 01 1976.Google ScholarPubMed

1 Interview in Nairobi, 21 July 1980.

1 West Africa, 5 January 1981.

1 For a good introduction to the methodologoical issues, see Greenstein, Fred I., Personality and Politics: problems of evidence, inference, and conceptualization (New York, 1975),Google Scholar as well as his ‘Personality and Political Socialization: the theories of authoritarian and democratic character’, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia), 361, 1965, pp. 81–95.Google Scholar See also Wolfenstein, E. Victor, The Revolutionary Personality (Princeton, 1967);Google ScholarGreenstein, Fred I. and Lerner, Michael, A Source Book for the Study of Personality and Politics (Chicago, 1971);Google Scholar and Sniderman, Paul M., Personality and Democratic Politics (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1974).Google Scholar

1 The New York Times, 25 March 1969.

2 af Klinteberg, E., Equatorial Guinea, Macias Country (Geneva, 1978), p. 46.Google Scholar

3 Pélissier, René, ‘Equatorial Guinea: autopsy of a miracle’, in Africa Report (Washington, D.C.), 05–06 1980, p. 10.Google Scholar

1 af Klinteberg, op. cit. p. 46.

2 Colin, Legum (ed.), Africa Contemporary Record, 1972–73 (London and New York, 1973), p. B270;Google ScholarThe Times (London), 25 10 1972;Google ScholarLegum, Colin, ‘Behind the Clown's Mask’, in Transition (Accra), 10 1975 03 1976;Google Scholar and The Observer (London), 1 05 1977.Google Scholar

3 Legum, op. cit. p. B270.

4 Martin, David, General Amin (London, 1974), p. 248.Google Scholar

5 This tug-of-war between sociological and psychological explanations of social behaviour is an integral part of contemporary political science. For some of the controversy, see Greenstein, op. cit.

1 Mazrui, Ali, ‘Racial Self-Reliance and Cultural Dependence: Nyerere and Amin comparative perspective’, in Journal of International Affairs (New York), 27, 1, 1973, p. 114.Google Scholar

2 Interview in Nairobi, 23 July 1980.

3 Ibid.

4 Africa Research Bulletin, December 1983.

5 A number of French correspondents have provided extremely insightful analyses of Bokassa's rule; see, for example, Le Monde (Paris), 6 06 1979.Google ScholarPubMed

1 Currency control was lodged in Paris and in the regional central bank for the French equatorial states.

2 ‘The largest percentage of any nation to have gone inexile’; af Klinteberg, op. cit. p. 55.

3 See West Africa, 13 August 1979.

1 Lieutenant-Colonel T. O. N. Mbazogo was not only Nguema's right-hand man and part of the family mafioso, but also his prime executioner as gauleiter of Fernando Póo.