OSSREA – serie

Challenging orthodox views on contemporary African politics and democracy, M.A. Mohamed Salih offers a fresh approach to the topic, emphasising the role of ethnicity and religion, in particular that of minorities. His central theme is that government donors from Western nations have imposed Western style democracy in Africa, ignoring the indigenous politics of the region, often resulting in chaos. As a consequence many African societies are divided by ethnicity.Revealing how minorities are inevitably marginalised in all aspects of development and education, Salih shows how, in many instances, they are treated as enemies of the state, as are the opposition parties. He examines democracy and authoritarian development in a pan-African context and the democratic potential of political education, and provides a range of country-specific case-studies, including multi-party democracy in Sudan; democratising anarchy in Sierra Leone; religious violence in Obasanjo's Nigeria and ethnic federalism in Ethiopia.

Although many countries in Africa are devastated by poverty and famine, and are desperately in need of aid, it is generally recognised that programmes of aid and development in Africa are imposed upon local communities with little regard for their traditional values and way of life.This book provides a fresh look at these intricate issues, and explores the way in which farming and traditional pastoral livelihoods have strengthened rather than weakened in the face of government reforms. It reveals how traditional institutions and resource management strategies within local African communities continue to endure, in spite of the enormous pressure that development programs assert, as pastoralists resolve to confront coercive state policies designed to privilege the interests of the wealthy and powerful elite. The book introduces thirteen case studies from Botswana, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda and various other parts of the African continent.