The Democratic Challenges: The Ultimate Fight of African Civil Society

By HATCHEU EMIL TCHAWE

Through the analysis the perceptions and representation of the main players of the political game in Africa, this book reports on current and future successes and difficulties of civil society in its fight for the promotion of democracy on the continent. If alternation is the fundamental characteristics of democracy, the outgoing president who recognizes his defeat in the elections, congratulates his opponent and organizes the handover of power is ultimately the one who gives credit to this mode of goverment. The study of conflicts and power rivalries is complemented by an analysis of the ambiguous role of the international community. The advent of the third terms has fostered the emergence of a new component of African civil society within its diaspora in the West which vehemently denounces the connivance and inconsistencies of global governance. The author shows that leaders who marked the history of democracy and the hearts of young generations in Africa have only had four years of power.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781669802020

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Copyright © 2021 by HATCHEU EMIL TCHAWE.

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Rev. date: 11/30/2021

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Contents

Foreword

Chapter 1 When The East Wind Breaks On The Sides Of Kilimanjaro

Chapter 2 Election Test In Africa

PART I

ACHIEVEMENTS TO CONSOLIDATE IN WEST AFRICA

Chapter 3 The Ghanneenee Tradition

Chapter 4 Burkina Faso: The Weight Of The Legacy OF Thomas Sankara

Chapter 5 The Democratic Surge In Drc And In Burundi

PART II

FRANCAFRIQUE IS STUNNING DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA

Chapter 6 The Foundations Of The Autocratic Regimes Of The Gulf Of Guinne

Chapter 7 Ivory Coast: From One Crisis To Another

Chapter 8 Gabon: Twilight From The Bongo Dynasty?

Chapter 9 Cameroon Autopsy Of An Archaic Dictature

PART III

CIVIL SOCIETY ACCEPTS THE SUPREME SACRIFICE

Chapter 10 Mohamed Bouazizi And The Arab Spring

Chapter 11 Y A Marre, Sentinel Of Senegal’s Democracy

Chapter 12 The Regulating Citizen Broom Of The 2014 Revolution In Burkina Faso

Chapter 13 Imam Mahmoud Dicko Preach For A New Democratic Governance In Mali

Chapter 14 Cameroon Civil Society In Search Of Resilience

Chapter 15 African Diaspora Interroges Global Governance

Chapter 16 Advocacy For Leadership In Africa

General Conclusion

Bibliography

List Of Acronyms

Foreword

This study is a contribution of the framing of civil society and promotion of democratic governance component of the work of JCAD-international. It complements and extends the 2010 conferences and other works (2013), scientific articles (2017,2018), communications to international conferences, in particular those of the AROSCA (Association for Research on Civil society in Africa) (2016 in Lagos, 2017 in Johannesburg, 2018 in Cairo).

The idea of the book is contemporary with the launch of the Turn the page alliance of dictatorship in France from 2014. Turn the page is mobilizing for democracy in Africa. The Tournons La Page alliance was a transcontinental citizen movement bringing together members of civil society in Africa and Europe.

"Tournons La Page" aimed to bring together as widely as possible, beyond political, ethnic or religious divisions and to promote synergies between a variety of actors mobilized for the defense of human rights and democracy on the continent. African. Any social movement, association, union, intellectual, artist, journalist, religious leader or even simple citizen activist can join this alliance in order to contribute to collective mobilization.

Through their commitment, the members of "Tournons La Page" pursued the same vision of change by calling for the formation of a broad citizen alliance and the realization of joint mobilizations in order to build and maintain the conditions for a real democracy on the African continent.

The Turn the page collective called on African leaders to respect the democratic transition in their country. Democratic alternation in Africa, they believe in it, they hope for it and they are mobilizing for it to happen in their country. Congolese, Cameroonians, Gabonese and Burundians gathered by Catholic relief workers in Paris to alert public opinion to the need to end African authoritarian regimes. This collective of European and African activists and associations (including Secours Catholique and CCFD) intends to build the conditions for a true democracy in Africa.

In Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Gabon, Togo, Congo there is a deep yearning for change, for democratic transition that should not be underestimated. Burkina Faso, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Tunisia, Sudan and Algeria have illustrated this need for alternation to establish democracy. Senegal in 2012 with the citizen mobilization got the better of the dictatorial ambitions of Abdoulaye Wade while many Western leaders made the trip to Tunis and Cairo to salute the recklessness of the Tunisian and Egyptian peoples following the Arab Spring. It is of course up to each people to define it according to its history, culture and creative imagination.

The year 1990 marked a break in the history of democracy in Africa. In various forms, national conferences upset the balance of the first four decades of post-independence, thus ending the hegemony of the one-party political system inherited from the former colonial powers. This political overhaul imposed by the opposition parties and civil society associations resulted in mixed formulas. And whatever form it takes, the democratization process has allowed for the introduction of a multi-party political, economic and trade union system, the organization of contested elections, and the drafting and adoption of new constitutions. The return to political pluralism was accompanied by an abundant proclamation of rights and freedoms in the new constitutions. New governments are not just proclaiming rights and freedoms; they also offered material and financial resources for their implementation.

The success of the Benin National Conference in 1990 and the rebuilding of the South African government in a spirit of reconciliation were unexpected events. The remarkable convergence of all the systems of government of the early 1990s in favor of liberal democracy and its generalization had indeed ended up suggesting that the African continent had irreversibly entered the galaxy of democratic countries.

If we can welcome the general acceptance of the principle of elections at regular intervals which confirms the citizen’s right to choose or sanction leaders through his voter card, on the other hand, the respect and application of the reforms were appeared to be a real challenge for all categories of local actors. Indeed, from the 2000s, respect for term limits, the organization of free and fair elections for the presidency appeared as the Achilles heel of democracy in Africa.

However, if in the United States no less than four presidents succeeded in the White House between 1990 and 2016, the African news of the beginning of the 21st century is marked by a deep crisis of democratic governance. Despite the fierce battle and the price paid by the people to turn the page on dictatorship and gerontocracy, democracy is in decline in several African countries. People everywhere are struggling to achieve the dream of the happiness that accompanies any political alternation at the head of nations. The Cameroonian generation born in 1982 continues to suffer the same Paul Biya. In Gabon and Togo, the Eyadema and Bongo sons strangely perpetuate the family dynasties. In Burundi, Pierre Kurruzia claimed to have succeeded where Blaise Compare failed after 27 years of unchallenged reign. In Congo Brazzaville, Denis Sassou Nguesso returned to power for the first time after a coup and, although he was hit by both term limits (two) and age limit (70 years) in the Constitution, the same Denis Sassou Nguesso was proclaimed winner of the presidential election of June 2016. Paul Kagame’s latest find, to collect millions of signatures imploring him to apply for a third term prohibited by the Constitution of the country is a smokescreen for the Rwandan people and African democrats which strangely recalls a certain people’s appeal with which the dictator of Yaoundé made fun of the Cameroonian a few years ago. What about Alassane Dramane Ouattara, The curse of the Ivory Coast which since its fatal adoption by Felix Houphouët Boigny writes one of the darkest pages of the political cynicism of the dictatorship in Africa. Organization of the rebellion against elected powers, imprisonment and exile of opposition leaders including former presidents, massacre of populations, manipulation, assassination of political competitors even in his own party, gross violation of the Constitution, subjugation and complicity with France’s most atrocious masonic networks, instrumentalization of the international community are the characteristics of its mode of governance!

The expression of indignation caused by the devaluation of the elections, the loss of its power of sanction and control in a democracy, its organization by powers which continue to arouse strong protests, often leading to the rejection of the results and the refusal of participate, as was the case in Burundi in 2015, in Burkina Faso in 2000, in Togo in 2005, in Gabon in 2001, in Cameroon in 1997, 2011 and 2018, in Côte d’Ivoire in 1995,2011, in Zimbabwe in 2005 and 2008, question the relevance of elections when they only serve to legitimize and strengthen authoritarian powers by the diversion of universal suffrage by lobbies and private interests. The presidential election, especially in these cases, is a mere administrative formality, a varnished democracy. As alternation is a powerful indicator of the entrenchment of any democratic experiment, the elective act only makes sense if it fulfills the conditions for a bloodless regime change. But as we saw in Cameroon in 2011 and 2018, in Gabon or in Congo Brazzaville in 2016, the electoral manipulation, intimidation and the use of force which mark many elections in Africa are signs of the refusal of accept the rules of democracy.

The 2014-2015 Revolution in Burkina Faso shows that democracy is a permanent quest. However, in order to move from its infancy to a complete level, it must be based on a genuine democratic culture. Many incumbent leaders have joined the democratic process under pressure from international and national contingencies. As is the case in Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, the manipulation of constitutions goes hand in hand with the murder and imprisonment of potential political rivals, activists and activists from opposition parties, and committed and anti-conformist intellectuals.

Only countries like Ghana, South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zambia, Senegal or Benin know of former presidents who elegantly passed the baton. One would have liked to hear more of the following statements from former African leaders, I have promised this country free and fair elections and I have kept my word. No personal ambition is worth the blood of a citizen. Coming from Paul Biya or Alpha Condé, this message from President Jonathan Goodluck passing on power would mark the start of a real revolution in Africa.

During the second half of the 20th century, the history of democracy was thus marked by associative and union leaders who embody the aspirations of the popular masses for more freedom, more justice and a better life. It is to obtain this right to dream of a better tomorrow that throughout Africa civil society is fighting with varying degrees of success alongside the leaders of the political parties of the opposition. The success stories that bring honor to African civil society are those of the Arab countries, particularly Tunisia and Egypt on the one hand, and of Burkina Faso in French-speaking Africa. The examples of Senegal, Ghana, and more recently Nigeria show that alternation through the ballot box is not a utopia in Africa. These examples are grounds for satisfaction that lead us to believe that democracy is a reality. On the other hand, these successes cannot and must not make us forget the failures and the pockets of resistance of the dictatorship. If with Alassane Dramane Ouattara, the Ivory Coast has totally sunk into dictatorship, Cameroon appears in several respects as the most illustrative example of refusal of dialogue and the perpetuation of authoritarianism. It is perhaps in Cameroon that the instrumentalization, manipulation and repression of civil society has reached its most ingenious and cynical stage. Togo and Burundi are the other French-speaking countries which torpedo the dialogue. Libya can also be analyzed as a failure because of the chaos that characterizes the situation in this country since the assassination of Colonel Muammar Gadhafi. Analysis of the Libyan chaos further allows us to question the troubled role of the West in promoting political dialogue and democratization in Africa. In this perspective, the future of the Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congo Brazzaville and Burundi raise uncertainties and concerns. The questions that this research attempts to answer are as follows:

Despite and beyond the presence of international observers, should we continue to consider elections in Africa as an indicator of the democratic process? How can we explain that despite the pressure and the condemnations of the international community, the African dictators persist in organizing questionable and contested elections, and continue to repress the demands of civil society and to embellish the real leaders of the world? opposition? In view of the management of post-electoral crises in Côte d’Ivoire in 2011, Gabon in 2016 and Cameroon in 2018, there is if not complicity, at least ambiguity of this international community which can only be understood through poor tropicalization. mystical and exoteric orders that are the Rose Cross and Freemasonry. Is it necessary, because of dictatorial supervision, an inadequate implementation, or the violence of neocolonial relations, to nail the African polls to the pillory? Or, to use Jacques Chirac’s phrase, to think that multipartyism and democracy are a kind of luxury for the continent?

What are the strengths and weaknesses of African civil society in their struggle for political change and the promotion of democracy? How to explain the success of the popular revolt embodied by the Balai National in Burkina Faso, and of the Y A MARRE Senegal Movement, the M5 movement in Mali on the one hand and the failures of Lapiro de Mbanga, or of the CODE following Cap? Freedom in Cameroon on the other hand? How to understand the emergence of the Brigade Anti-Sardinard which internationalized the resistance to the dictatorship of the RDPC system in Cameroon and inspired the Ivorians who took to the streets of Montreal and Toronto in Canada in droves?

What are the consequences of the failure of the attempt to use force to force Pierre Kurunziza to give up running for a third presidential term in Burundi? In other words, to what extent can the use of force be legitimized as a strategy for promoting democracy? What are the new challenges that the fight against terrorism poses to civil society actors who fight for political change and the promotion of democracy in Africa? What are the responsibilities of the international community in maintaining the leadership of African dictators?

More than Nelson Mandela in South Africa or Kamele Masire of Bostwana, the President of the Republic of Madagascar, His Excellency Andry Rajoelina who, with the legitimacy and support of his people, confirms that the advent of a democratic Africa will depend above all the leadership of its leaders. In this regard, he has taken the lead over the Senegalese and Ghanaian presidents. He sets the bar high enough for professors Maurice Kamto and Mamadou Koulbaly, the new Pan-Africanists who in Cameroon and Ivory Coast must manage the curse of Francafrique.

The main objective of this book is to report on the current and future successes and difficulties of civil society and their struggles for political alternation at the head of states and for the promotion of democracy in Africa. Particular attention is paid to the study of the typology and strategies of civil society actors who are heroes, but too often, freedom fighters, martyrs of dictators who cling to power as a result of manipulations of the Constitutions. In a geopolitical approach, the analysis of conflicts and power rivalries is complemented by the study of the ambiguous role of the international community.

The strong idea underlying the hypotheses of this research is that in the African political context of the beginning of the 21st century, even if the Western countries foremost among which the United States consider election as a method of appointing people custodians of power, it can no longer be accepted as a sufficient indicator of the promotion of democracy.

A GEOPOLITICAL APPROACH

While international relations historically belong to the realm of political science, the emphasis is increasingly placed on the economic realm through international political economy. For its part, geopolitics is a method of studying foreign policy for understanding, explaining and predicting international political behavior. In a militant and resolutely committed approach, we thus position ourselves between scientific research and associative action. Our ambition is not only to analyze, but also to orient as much as possible international policies for the protection and supervision of civil society actors and the promotion of democracy in Africa.

With the strong involvement of African diasporas in Europe (France, Great Britain, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, etc.) and in North America (United States and Canada), the issue of civil society engagement for the political change in Africa has become a global and global concern, and hence a subject of international relations. It concerns the relations between States within the international system, the role of intergovernmental organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and transnational actors.

In a multipolar world characterized by the diversity of actors, transnational dynamics weigh more and more on diplomacy, while the classic processes of war or peace are being transformed. The conflicts between states are certainly less frequent, but civil wars with major regional and global consequences are on the increase.

The struggle of civil society for the limitation of mandates and the alternation in power and in Africa which is expressed in the local and increasingly global space, is undoubtedly a set of power relations between the different categories of actors according to their representations. Crises, wars, tensions or lull phases, conferences, peace treaties which are articulated over more or less long periods of the democratic process in Africa are valuable indicators to measure the importance of the values on which the identity of the actors, the strength of their demands and the nature of their strategies are constructed.

For the state and the opposition political parties, what is at stake in rivalries and social conflicts is the retention of power for some and the quest for that power for others. Civil society actors want to enjoy a stable socio-political environment that guarantees them the peace of mind, security and visibility they need to carry out their daily activities. Regional intergovernmental organizations (African Union, Economic Community of West African States), international (European Union) or supranational (United Nations organizations) should in principle play the role of arbiter of conflicts and regulator of the game. political, but their subservience to dominant actors who finance and control according to their interests disrupts and greatly complicates the process.

Indeed, the limitation of presidential terms, the alternation of power and the promotion of democracy are undoubtedly subjects that have occupied the forefront of African and international news continuously since the first decade of the 21st century. This is the case with the Arab Spring and the assistantship of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The success of the Y a marre movements in Senegal which definitively put an end to the power claims of President Abdoulaye in Senegal, the feat of the Balai citizen who managed to release Balaise Compaoré in Burkina in two weeks of mobilization. The stubbornness of Pierre Nkurrunziza, Alpha Condé or Alassane Dramane Ouattara to run for a third term at all costs and at all costs has revived the debate, as have the underhand and Machiavellian strategies of the dictators in power in Cameroon, Congo or the United States. Chad is in the same perspective. While the leaders of the civil society are brought to the front of the media scene, the heads of state and government of the Western powers constantly questioned are forced and forced to speak out to explain their position, awkwardly concealing their complicity as we have seen it with France’s ridiculous diplomacy in Cameroon. This explains the abundance of related information on the internet, whether on the media site or on the blog of activists or researchers. The establishment of the collective Tournons the page which reported on weekly developments to help enrich information.

TRANSFORM INFORMATION INTO KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE

The virtual library, the Internet, is therefore the first source of data and information for the first stage of this work. The Internet today is a formidable library for storing first-hand material (analysis, commentary, reports and speeches) easily and freely accessible without prior authorization and without an appointment with anyone from a good network connection. With its various engines, the web is a wonderful information-gathering tool that eliminates distances and facilitates the daily monitoring of electoral processes and the crises that follow or precede them. As part of a systematization work, the researcher can then transform this information into knowledge and scientific knowledge. Internet thus allows complementarity between media men who report daily on hot news and geopolitical analysis and / or research in international relations who try to understand and explain the links between facts, fragmented phenomena and the evolution of society.

THE GEOPOLITICAL ACTOR

For Emiliano Grossman (2010), the term actor refers to one who acts, as an individual actor or as a collective actor. In the analysis of public policies, it raises a series of questions, concerning the definition and the delimitation of the actor. In the decision-making process, it refers to participation in the decision. The actor must first be capable of strategic action, a capacity specific to a single individual. In the decision-making process, it refers to participation. To be considered an actor in public policy, the action taken must have tangible repercussions on a given public policy process. In other words, the notion of actor in public policies covers two dimensions, one concerning the contribution of the actor to the political process and the other the impact or influence of this contribution on the result. We must then look at the actors who meet these criteria in public policies today. With the transformation of public policies, these actors are also evolving. The decision in public policies is the result of a process which involves many actors and for which the rules of procedure are not always established in advance.

In his relationship to this process, the individual - and a fortiori the collective actor - is likely to encounter the typical problems of the actor when faced with a given structure. To speak with Michel Crozier and Erhard Friedberg (1977), we can say that the individual rarely has clear objectives: they are multiple, ambiguous and sometimes contradictory.

Among the actors who intervene in the democratization process, the State is the major and central link. The state tends to merge with the government, but also the army, churches and sects. Since 1990, these classic political actors have faced increasing competition from new actors: opposition political parties and even more so associations or organizations of civil society. As a structure, the state is made up of a set of institutions (including the government that runs it and the administration that operates it with the staff, and the budget made available to it). These sets are supposed to act in symbiosis, but this is not always the case. The cancer of corruption sets in when special interest replaces the common interest pushing state actors to misuse the resources made available through the budget. Dictatorial abuses occur with the excessive use of force, legitimate authority and the monopoly of legal violence on the territory and the populations it is supposed to defend and protect. The notion of state implies a continuity that is not characteristic of governments called upon to change at the end of elections, or during a coup d’état.

Many (geo) political problems arise from these distorted situations in which the government no longer represents the population, but a part of it the ruling party, the clan and the tribe of the President, the clientelist or brotherhood networks). The democratic state is most likely to represent the effective interests of most of the population. In true democratic regimes the army is not, in theory, an independent actor. Together with the police or the gendarmerie, it exercises legitimate violence recognized by the State. In many African states, the military plays a role that goes beyond its theoretical prerogatives of territorial defense and, possibly, law enforcement in the event of serious disturbances. It tends to become a political actor, or even a dominant actor.

Clans are even smaller groupings that can often come together with extended families. If in countries like the United States of America the lobbies play a fundamental role in the political game, in certain authoritarian regimes in Africa like Cameroon, we are witnessing a scandalous instrumentalization of clans and ethnic groups as well at the government level. than the army and the police. During his long reign Mr. Paul Biya had time to place the members of his family and his ethnic group (the Ekan Beti) in all positions of responsibility.

The purpose of the churches, their raison d’être, is the spiritual realm, nevertheless, they are certainly not indifferent to the walk of the world and often even seek to channel it. Churches tend to favor the social and political status quo. This conservative presentation, as an actor stabilizing the geopolitical situation, is unfortunately not generalizable. Churches can also be destabilizing actors. Over the years the classical religions (Catholicism and Protestantism) which accompanied the colonization, the exploitation of the continent and contributed to lull and zombify populations are increasingly in competition with the emergence of the awakened churches of the Mystical Orders. The negative judgment of the Catholic Church on Freemasonry remains unchanged, because its principles have always been considered incompatible with their own doctrine.

And one cannot understand the political game in French-speaking African countries and the management of conflicts on the continent apart from the influence that the Rose Croix and the Masonic lodges exert not only on the political and commercial elite, but more and more. more on a youth in need of reference. Often hidden under charitable or humanitarian associations, sects and religious movements, European or Asian, discreetly interfere in the daily lives of African populations. According to its world leader, the Order of the Rose Croix AMORC is a movement that falls under the mystery school of ancient Egypt. Today, the Order is no longer secret, but discreet. Its motto is spirituality, humanism and ecology. The Rose Croix AMORC would be founded on a philosophy according to which it is useless to cultivate poverty. We did not come into the world to suffer. But to live better, with the means we have. And to achieve this, it is necessary for Man to put spirituality at the center of his actions, that he respects the laws of nature !

In Africa, French-speaking African Freemasons meet within the CPMAM (Conference of African and Malagasy Masonic Powers) - and hold an annual summit, the REHFRAM (African and Malagasy humanist and fraternal meetings). It is the oldest and the main of the two great French obedience’s, the Grand-Orient de France (GOF), which has control here. Renowned on the left and close to the Socialist Party, the GOF advocates the progressive values of human rights, freedom of conscience and public debate, criticizing tribalism and these Freemason presidents deaf to the calls of their peoples, who would use the initiatory path in order to gain a better grip on power. On the other hand, the other obedience, the French National Grand Lodge (GLNF), is classified on the right, and regularly suspected of encouraging and secretly sponsoring a conservative, business-like and authoritarian masonry - (We understand the ravages and crimes of Sarkozy in Libya and Ivory Coast!)

What is in game here, beyond the politico-dogmatic quarrel, is the appropriation by the Africans of an initiatory order that appeared in Scotland four centuries ago. This Africanization of Masonry implies the creation of national obedience’s. For most masons, installed under the leadership of local rites, they are relays of influence from the heads of state to whom they are subservient.

"But seen from the layman’s world, African Masonry, whether progressive or conservative, remains shrouded in a halo of opacity. On a continent where nothing fascinates more than esoteric societies, this space of selective sociability which is accessed by co-option is slyly presented as a place of mutual aid, but in reality it is a matter of occult powers, far from its philanthropic principles. Some of its members are to blame, recruited on criteria among which ambition, pushiness and opportunism play a far more important role than the disinterested search for an initiatory path. But