AN APPRAISAL OF CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN POLITICAL AND DEMOCRATIC EXPERIENCE

Abstract

As a social and political animal, man is drawn towards the 'order' inherent in the organization of himself alongside the 'other' in coming into an understanding or agreement with set activities that focuses on governmental or civil affairs of the state. By that, politics refers simply to influencing the actions and policies of government and acquiring and keeping power in the state through a democratic process. There were clusters of political associations and philosophies by different inhabitants of the African nation states before the invasion of the colonialists. However, the political orientation (democracy) bequeathed to Africans after independence was Western in outlook which was not culturally construed to meeting the unique needs and challenges of Africa and its member states. This is why this paper critically appraises the Western notion of politics especially in its democratic leaning with a view to stripping it of its colonial grip on current African political experience thereby filling up the missing link and offering new insights that will be beneficial to providing the much desired political stability and progress to African member states.