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Civil Society and Democratisation in Francophone Africa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Célestin Monga
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Extract

When analysing the implosion of political space and the rupture of social stability which has characterised the course of African history in recent years, there has too often been a tendency to focus attention on institutions, structures, and politicans. Whilst these are obviously important, such an approach tends to obscure the groundswell of new and yet barely understood social changes. Yet given that the ‘politicians’ seem unable to advance the process in which so many people have invested so much, many observers feel the need to explore alternative sources of dynamism. This is largely the reason for the current interest in the notion of ‘civil society’ which has recently become fashionable in the often cloistered world of African studies.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 3 , September 1995 , pp. 359 - 379
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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References

1 The difficuties experienced in using the term ‘civil society’ in applied research are not restricted to Africanists. The history of the concept is littered with queries and scepticisms as confirmed by the following useful surveys: Ferguson, Adam, Essai sur l'histoire de la société civile (Paris, 1992), translated from the English version (Edinburgh, 1986),Google Scholar and Keane, John (ed.), Civil Society and the State: new European perspectives (London, 1988).Google Scholar See also the philosophic synthesis of Gourdon, H., ‘Trois comptines à propos de la société civile’, in Camau, Michel (ed.), Changements politiques au Maghreb (Paris, 1991), pp. 191–205.Google Scholar

2 See Prigogine, Ilya and Stengers, Isabelle, Entre le temps et l'éternité (Paris, 1988),Google Scholar and Prigogine, Ilya and Nicolis, Grégoire, Exploring Complexity: an introduction (New York, 1989).Google Scholar Also worth mentioning is the retrospective of Gleick, James, La Théorie du chaos (Paris, 1989), which synthesises the numerous attempts to use the methodology and theories of physical sciences in the social sciences.Google Scholar

3 See Monga, Célestin, ‘L'Émergence de nouveaux modes de production démocratique en Africa noire’, in Afrique 2000: revue africaine de la politique internationale (Geneva), 7, 10–12 1990, pp. 111–25.Google Scholar

4 The notion of ‘dynamism’ is taken from the theory which tries to analyse psychological principles of change. See Lewin, Kurt, Resolving Social Conflicts (New York, 1948),Google Scholar as well as Fischer, G. N., La Dynainique du social: violence, pouvoir, changement (Paris, 1993).Google Scholar

5 See, for example, Bon, Gustave Le, La Psychologie des foules (1895; Paris, 1963),Google Scholar and Tarde, Gabriel, L'Opinion et la foule (Paris, 1901).Google Scholar

6 This is not true for the countries of North Africa, where unions have always been very active. They also played a key rôle in the evolution of politics in the Congo and Southern Africa between 1989 and 1990, but have had virtually no presence in Cameroon, Central African Republic, or Mali.

7 Zghal, A., ‘Le Concept de société civile et la transition vers le multipartisme’, in Camau, (ed.), op. cit. p. 211.Google Scholar For a good understanding of the fears of Maghrebian intellectuals on this issue, see the lively pamphlet by the Mimouni, Algerian Rachid, De la Barbarie en général et de l'intégrisme en particulier (Paris, 1992),Google Scholar as well as Boudjedra, Rachid, FIS de la haine (Paris, 1992).Google Scholar

8 See Magassouba, Moriba, L'Islam au Sénégal: demain les mollahs? (Paris, 1985).Google Scholar

9 Kerrou, Mohammed, ‘À Propos de la notion de société civile’, in Outrouhat (Tunis), 15, 1989, pp. 26–9.Google Scholar

10 Here I mean ‘historicity’ in the sense that the ideas of civil society were used by Antonio Gramsci to analyse the specificity of the totalitarian parties of Western Europe after World War I and the victory of the Russian Communist Party.

11 This partially explains the fact that whilst the demonstrations organised by opposition parties in Abidjan and Douala in 1990 and 1991 attracted hundreds of thousands, they were attended by only tens of thousands in 1992. Such indications, although still provisional, suggest real disenchantment.

12 Personalities such as Monsignori Ernest Kombo (Congo), Laurent Mossengo (Zaïre), Christian Tumi (Cameroon), barristers Demba Diallo (Mali), Nicolas Tiangaye (Central African Republic), Bernard Muna and Charles Tehougang (Cameroon) have all become familiar to those who follow political news from Africa.

13 In francophone Africa a popular newspaper normally sold at 200 CFA francs may fetch 500–2,000 on the black market. Hence the clear temptation, not least in any country where the average monthly pay of a policeman is around 70,000 CFA francs, to make ends meet at the end of the month by organising the illegal sales of certain publications, especially if no record has been kept of the number seized.

14 Dunn, John, ‘Comparing West African States’, in Dunn, (ed.), West African States: failure and promise. A Study in Comparative Politics (Cambridge, 1978), p. 15.Google Scholar For a more nuanced analysis, see Lewis, Peter, ‘Political Transition and the Dilemma of Civil Society in Africa’, in Journal of International Affairs (New York), 27, 1, Summer 1992, pp. 31–54.Google Scholar

15 Gramsci, Antonio, Gramsci dans le texte (Paris, 1977), pp. 606–7.Google Scholar

16 Habermas, Jürgen, Théorie de l'agir communicationnel, Vol. 2, Pour une critique de la raison fonctionnaliste (Paris, 1987), p. 432.Google Scholar

17 A highly instructive survey is given in the collection Le Cameroun éclate? Une Anthologie des revendications ethniques (Yaoundé, 1992), edited by the research group known as the Collectif Changer le Cameroun.Google Scholar

18 Thériault, Noably J.-Y., ‘La Société civile est-elle démocratique?’, in Boismenu, Gérard, Hamel, Pierre, and Labica, Georges (eds.), Les Formes modernes de la démocratie (Paris and Montreal, 1992), p. 69.Google Scholar See also, Melucci, Alberto, ‘The Symbolic Challenge of Contemporary Movements’, in Social Research (New York), 52, 4, 1985, pp. 789–816.Google Scholar

19 These processes, termed by some as ‘objectivisation’ or ‘anchoring’, are well described by Aebischer, Verena and Oberlé, D., Le Groupe en psychologie sociale (Paris, 1990).Google Scholar

20 Authors who have examined this issue, which in Europe is one of the traits of post-modernity, include Rosanvallon, Pierre, La Crise de l'État-providence (Paris, 1981);Google ScholarMendel, Gérard, Cinquantequatre millions d'individus sans appartenance (Paris, 1983);Google Scholar and Lipovestky, Gilles, L'Ére du vide (Paris, 1983).Google Scholar For a synthesis of such ideas, see Jalbert, Lizette, ‘L'État ancré ou les frontières de la démocratie’, in Boismenu, , Hamel, , and Labica, (eds.), op. cit.Google Scholar

21 See Monga, Célestin, ‘La Problématique de la légitimité collective an Afrique noire’, Conference on ‘Droits de la personne et droit des groupes’, Université d'Avignon, France, November 1994.Google Scholar

22 Diamond, Larry, ‘Rethinking Civil Society: toward democratic consolidation’, in Journal of Democracy (Baltimore), 5, 3, 07 1994, pp. 4–17.Google Scholar

23 West, Cornel, Race Matters (Boston, 1993), p. 7.Google Scholar

24 Ibid. p. 37.

25 Putnam, Robert D., Leonardi, Robert, and Nanetti, Raffaella Y., Making Democracy Work: civil traditions in modern Italy (Princeton, 1993), p. 167.Google Scholar The concept of ‘social capital’ was presented by Loury, Glenn, ‘A Dynamic Theory of Racial Income Differences’, in Wallace, P. A. and Le Mund, A. (eds.), Women, Minorities, and Employment Discrimination (Lexington, MA, 1977).Google Scholar

26 Researchers have increasingly agreed about the significance of such tripartite linkages. See Lefort, Claude, L'Invention démocratique (Paris, 1981),Google Scholar and Rothchild, Donald and Chazan, Naomi (eds.), The Precarious Balance: state and society in Africa (Boulder and London, 1988).Google Scholar

27 Augé, Marc, Génie du paganisme (Paris, 1982),Google Scholar especially ch. 7, ‘Signes du corps, sens du social: sorcier imaginaire, sorcellerie symboliques’, pp. 211–80, and M'Bokolo, Elikia, ‘Résistance et messianismes: l'Afrique centrale au XIXème siècle’, in ACCT/Présence africaine (Paris), 1990.Google Scholar

28 Merton, Robert K., Éléments de théorie et de méthode sociologique (Paris, 1965).Google Scholar

29 Although we still need to question the authority of these terms, Amselle, Jean-Loup and M'Bokolo, Elikia began such a task in their excellent Au Coeur de l'éthnie (Paris, 1985).Google Scholar

30 The term comes from Banting, Keith, ‘Points de vue sur l'État contemporain: introduction’, in Banting, (ed.), L'État et la société: le Canada dans une optique comparative (Ottawa, 1986), Études de la Commission royale, Vol. 31, p. 14.Google Scholar

31 See Martin, Robert, ‘Building Independent Mass Media in Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 30, 2, 06 1992, pp. 331–40.Google Scholar

32 See Monga, Célestin, ‘Computing a Democratization Index for Africa’, J. F. Kennedy School Library, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 1993.Google Scholar

33 On political passions in Africa and risks of disenchantment, see Mbembe, Achille, Afriques indociles: Christianisme, pouvoir et État en société post-coloniale (Paris, 1988).Google Scholar