By: Kofi A.
Annan
There is a saying among my people
in Ghana: one head alone is not enough to decide.
I often think of that when I hear
people say that democracy is alien to Africa, or that Africans are
“not ready” for democracy.
In reality, African communities
from the village upwards have traditionally decided their course
through free discussion, carefully weighing different points of view
until consensus is reached. So Africans have much to learn from
their own traditions, and something to teach others, about the true
meaning and spirit of democracy.
We need to understand that there is
much more to democracy than simply which candidate, or which party,
has majority support.
Democracy depends on the rule of
law, because without respect for law it is not possible to hold free
elections, to conduct them fairly, or to settle disputes about the
electoral process.
Yes, democracy implies majority
rule. But that does not mean minorities should be excluded from any
say in decisions.
Minority views should never be
silenced. The minority must always be free to state its case, so
that people can hear both sides before deciding who is right.
How can people learn about those
ideas? At the level of the village, they may learn directly, by
face-to-face contact. But in today's mass societies they depend
above all on mass media.
For an election to be truly fair,
different parties and candidates should have equal access to the
media. Neither state power nor the power of money should determine
that one party gets a hearing while another is denied it.
The media must actively seek out
the truth on the public's behalf, and be free to tell it as they see
it.
Often, especially in times of
conflict, that requires journalists to take real risks.
Many have lost their lives in the
quest for truth. We owe them an enormous debt. Even more, we owe it
to ourselves to give them better protection. It is our interests,
and our freedom, that they are upholding.
In mature democracies, parties
alternate between power and opposition, as opinion shifts, and
minorities become majorities.
But not all societies are like
that. Not all minorities are composed simply of people whose views
are out of fashion.
Many are structural minorities,
people who in some sense form a separate group defined by race,
color, culture or creed.
If parties are formed on the basis
of such group identities, a winner-take-all election offers
minorities no security. A minority in power will not risk losing it,
and a minority without power will have no hope of winning it.
Democracy can only work if all
groups in a society feel that they belong to it, and that it belongs
to them. Often that means ensuring, one way or other, that
minorities are given a permanent share of power.
In some places that can be done by
decentralization, so that national minorities can win local power,
in regions where they form the local majority. In others it may be
done by provisions giving minorities guaranteed representation at
national level – In the legislature, or the executive, or both. What
is important is not the particular device used, but the outcome.
It is easy to state such
principles, but no always easy to practice them, especially in a
country that has just emerged from conflict, or one whose people are
desperately poor and hungry. People in such conditions are easily
manipulated by those who use force to seize power, arguing that
constitutional rights are a luxury which a poor country cannot
afford.
How often we have heard those
arguments! “Democracy begins with breakfast”, or “a hungry stomach
has no ears”.
But over and over again we have
learnt, especially in Africa, that poor people's stomachs are not
filled by rulers who refuse to submit themselves to the people's
judgment.
We have learnt that democracy
begins at breakfast – that power has to be shared in the home,
between women and men, and from there on up to the highest levels of
the State, and indeed of the international system.
Oppression is not an alternative to
poverty. Nor is development an alternative to freedom. Poverty and
oppression go hand in hand, while true development means freedom
from both.
My generation of Africans has
learnt, the hard way, that no State can truly be called democratic
if it offers its people no escape from poverty; and that no country
can truly develop, so long as its people are excluded from power.
The building of African nations has
been one long struggle against poverty, ignorance, disease and
conflict. It is hardly surprising that African democracy has known
many setbacks. What is striking, rather, is the fierce and
ever-growing thirst for democracy that Africans have shown; their
indomitable courage in defying oppressive regimes; and their
success, in so many countries, in insisting on accountable
government.
My generation saw its dream of
independence come true, but our dream of democracy shattered. Thank
God we have lived long enough to see democracy spreading again
through Africa today, and taking root.
Kofi A Annan is
Secretary-General of the United Nations. This article is based on
his address on to the Fourth International Conference of New and
Restored Democracies in Cotonou, Benin (West Africa).
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