The fall and rise of constitutionalism in West Africa

Journal of Modern African Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 181-206

  Le Vine, Victor T ^a  

^a WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0009459830     PISSN: 0022278X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022278X97002395     Document Type: Article

References (52)

1. Michael Crowder, 'Whose Dream Was It Anyway? Twenty-Five Years of African Independence', in African Affairs (London), 86, 342, January 1987, p. 11.
2. Ibrahim K. Sundiata, Equatorial Guinea: colonialism, state terror, and the search for stability (Boulder, CO, 1990), and Muriel Pomponne, 'La Guinée-Équatoriale sous la botte d'un clan', in Le Monde diplomatique (Paris), 484, July 1994, pp. 4-5.
3. Ibrahim K. Sundiata, Equatorial Guinea: colonialism, state terror, and the search for stability (Boulder, CO, 1990), and Muriel Pomponne, 'La Guinée-Équatoriale sous la botte d'un clan', in Le Monde diplomatique (Paris), 484, July 1994, pp. 4-5.
4. See Max Ahmadu Sesay, 'Politics and Society in Post-War Liberia', in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 34, 3, September 1996, pp. 395-420.
5. Victor T. Le Vine, 'The States of Formerly French West Africa', in Peter Duignan and Robert H. Jackson (eds.), Politics and Government in African States, 1960-1985 (Stanford, 1986), PP- 84-5.
6. Dmitri Lavroff and Georges Pieser, Les Constitutions africaines, Vol. I, Afrique noire francophone et Madagascar (Paris, 1961), p. 133.
7. Victor T. Le Vine, 'The Political Cultures of French-Speaking Africa', in Ghana Social Science Journal (Accra), 1, 2, November 1971, pp. 1-17.
8. For details, see Dmitri Lavroff and Georges Pieser, Les Constitutions africaines, Vol. II, Etats anglophones (Paris, 1964), and J. H. Price, Political Institutions of West Africa (London, 1967).
9. For details, see Dmitri Lavroff and Georges Pieser, Les Constitutions africaines, Vol. II, Etats anglophones (Paris, 1964), and J. H. Price, Political Institutions of West Africa (London, 1967).
10. I was present in Northern Nigeria's House of Assembly in May 1961 when Ahmadu Bello, the Premier and President of the Executive Council, picked up the Mace during a recess and swung it several times like a golf club to emphasise a conversational point. Clearly the Sardauna of Sokoto did not share, even then, the same reverence for British parliamentary symbols and rituals as did those who sent the Mace in the first place.
11. Martin Doornbos, 'Constitutional Form and Ideological Content: the preambles of French-language constitutions in Africa', in Wilm van Binsbergen and Gerti Hesseling (eds.), Aspecten van staat en naatschappij in Afrika (Leiden, 1984), African Studies Centre, Research Report No. 22.
12. Law 113 of 1963, Article 9, cited in Bernard Charles, La République de Guinée (Paris, 1972), p. 24. The irony is that from 1957 onwards there were no other political parties worthy of the name apart from the Parti démocratique de Guinée (PDG), which held all the seats in the Assemblée nationale.
13. See, for example, the discussion of the 1960 constitution of Côte d'Ivoire by A. S. Alexander, Jr., 'The Ivory Coast Constitution: an accelerator, not a brake', in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 1, 3, September 1963, pp. 293-311.
14. I counted no less than 50 post-independence constitutions and constitutional documents for all of West Africa up to 1989. In francophone Africa: Dahomey/Benin (4), Upper Volta/Burkina Faso (4), Mauritania (3), Niger (3), Senegal (3), Togo (3), Guinea (2), Mali (2), Côte d'Ivoire (I). In anglophone Africa: Ghana (5), Nigeria (5), Sierra Leone (4), The Gambia (2). In other states: Eqauatorial Guinea (2), Guinea-Bissau (2), Liberia (2). São Tomé and Príncipe was not included since this is often regarded as more in Equatorial than West Africa; for the record, though, it has had one new constitution (1982) since becoming independent from Portugal in 1975.
15. Guy de Lusignan, French-Speaking Africa Since Independence (London, 1969), p. 83.
16. A prebend is a position which pays a salary but requires no work from the office-holder. See Richard A. Joseph, Democracy and Prebendal Politics in Nigeria: the rise and fall of the Second Republic (Cambridge, 1987).
17. See Victor T. Le Vine, 'Parliaments in Francophone Africa: some lessons from the decolonization process', in Joel Smith and Lloyd D. Musolf (eds.), Legislatures in Development: dynamics of change in new and old states (Durham, NC, 1979), pp. 125-54.
18. Switzerland has a one-year President of the seven-member Presidential Council, elected by the Federal Assembly; and Malaysia has a five-year Supreme Head of the Federation, elected from among the nine Rulers of the Malay States.
19. Ahomadégbé, Apithy, and Maga were subsequently pressed to move to Paris, where, if reports are accurate, they met occasionally and amicably to drink together and share reminiscences.
20. Military régimes which promised to restore civilian rule tended officially, at least initially, to ostracise the politicians they had replaced, declaring that they were now searching, Diogenes-like, for les hommes valables, 'the good men' who could run morally irreproachable, effective governments.
21. Dmitri Lavroff, 'La Constitutionalisation des régimes en Afrique noire', XI Congress of the International Political Science Association, Moscow, 12-18 August 1979, my translation.
22. See, for example, David and Marina Ottaway, Afrocommunism (New York and London, 1981), and Edmond J. Keller and Donald Rothchild (eds.), Afro-Marxist Regimes: ideology and public policy (Boulder and London, 1987).
23. See, for example, David and Marina Ottaway, Afrocommunism (New York and London, 1981), and Edmond J. Keller and Donald Rothchild (eds.), Afro-Marxist Regimes: ideology and public policy (Boulder and London, 1987).
24. Cited by Chris Allen, 'Benin', in Bogdan Szajkowski (ed.), Marxist Regimes. Benin, the Congo, Burkina Faso: economics, politics and society (London and New York, 1989), p. 50.
25. Lavroff, op. cit. President Kérékou's announcement that the bourgeoisie had been abolished in Benin was said to have surprised that country's sizeable middle class. Foreign Broadcast Information Service (Washington, DC), 12 September 1977.
26. Lavroff, op. cit. President Kérékou's announcement that the bourgeoisie had been abolished in Benin was said to have surprised that country's sizeable middle class. Foreign Broadcast Information Service (Washington, DC), 12 September 1977.
27. Cited by Joan Baxter and Keith Somerville, 'Burkina Faso', in Szajkowski (ed.), op. cit. P- 255.
28. Sankara himself said he considered Muammar el-Qaddafi his mentor, and the latter visited Ouagadougou frequently, sometimes arriving unannounced, as he did in October 1987 when I heard him give an impromptu 11/2 hour talk in the capital. For a time Jerry Rawlings also declared himself to be a Qaddafi disciple, and like Sankara, briefly toyed with the idea of making the President of Libya's Green Book the source of Ghana's official state doctrine.
29. But see, inter alia, Ladipo Adamolekun, The Fall of the Second Republic (Ibadan, 1985); Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere, The Rise and Fall of Nigeria's Second Republic : 1979-84 (London, 1985); and op. cit.
30. But see, inter alia, Ladipo Adamolekun, The Fall of the Second Republic (Ibadan, 1985); Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere, The Rise and Fall of Nigeria's Second Republic : 1979-84 (London, 1985); and Joseph, op. cit.
31. But see, inter alia, Ladipo Adamolekun, The Fall of the Second Republic (Ibadan, 1985); Toyin Falola and Julius Ihonvbere, The Rise and Fall of Nigeria's Second Republic : 1979-84 (London, 1985); and Joseph, op. cit.
32. I was in Accra in September 1969 and can bear witness that Shakespeare's lines in Macbeth were indeed frequently quoted then: 'Nothing in his life/Became him like the leaving it'.
33. For details on Abacha's plan, see West Africa (London), 25 September-8 October 1995, p. 1597, and 9-15 October 1995, pp. 1656-7.
34. I was a member of the team of international observers that the Carter Center at Emory University sent to Ghana in November 1992. We concluded, as did others, including those acting on behalf of the Commonwealth Office in London, that such instances of electoral irregularities as did occur before and during the voting were insufficient to invalidate the outcome.
35. Reported in West Africa, 16-22 December 1996, p. 1946.
36. See 'Deux ans après...Les Dossiers de la Conférence', in La Nation (Cotonou), February 1992; 'Le Bénin', in Politique africaine (Paris), 58, October 1995; Cheick Oumar Diarrah, Vers la IIIe République de Mali (Paris, 1991); 'Le Mali, la transition', in Politique africaine, 47, October 1993; and Seydou Mamadou Diarrah Totoh, Le Mouvement démocratique malien: l'itinéraire de l'ADEMAPASJ, origine et parcours (Bamako, 1996).
37. See 'Deux ans après...Les Dossiers de la Conférence', in La Nation (Cotonou), February 1992; 'Le Bénin', in Politique africaine (Paris), 58, October 1995; Cheick Oumar Diarrah, Vers la IIIe République de Mali (Paris, 1991); 'Le Mali, la transition', in Politique africaine, 47, October 1993; and Seydou Mamadou Diarrah Totoh, Le Mouvement démocratique malien: l'itinéraire de l'ADEMAPASJ, origine et parcours (Bamako, 1996).
38. See 'Deux ans après...Les Dossiers de la Conférence', in La Nation (Cotonou), February 1992; 'Le Bénin', in Politique africaine (Paris), 58, October 1995; Cheick Oumar Diarrah, Vers la IIIe République de Mali (Paris, 1991); 'Le Mali, la transition', in Politique africaine, 47, October 1993; and Seydou Mamadou Diarrah Totoh, Le Mouvement démocratique malien: l'itinéraire de l'ADEMAPASJ, origine et parcours (Bamako, 1996).
39. See 'Deux ans après...Les Dossiers de la Conférence', in La Nation (Cotonou), February 1992; 'Le Bénin', in Politique africaine (Paris), 58, October 1995; Cheick Oumar Diarrah, Vers la IIIe République de Mali (Paris, 1991); 'Le Mali, la transition', in Politique africaine, 47, October 1993; and Seydou Mamadou Diarrah Totoh, Le Mouvement démocratique malien: l'itinéraire de l'ADEMAPASJ, origine et parcours (Bamako, 1996).
40. See 'Deux ans après...Les Dossiers de la Conférence', in La Nation (Cotonou), February 1992; 'Le Bénin', in Politique africaine (Paris), 58, October 1995; Cheick Oumar Diarrah, Vers la IIIe République de Mali (Paris, 1991); 'Le Mali, la transition', in Politique africaine, 47, October 1993; and Seydou Mamadou Diarrah Totoh, Le Mouvement démocratique malien: l'itinéraire de l'ADEMAPASJ, origine et parcours (Bamako, 1996).
41. Not quite that popular, as pointed out by Robert R. Palmer, The World of the French Revolution (New York, 1971), p. 55, since the 468 deputies in the Third Estate included 278 who held some sort of government position, 166 lawyers in private practice, 85 merchants, and 39 in various professions, of which doctors were the most prominent. As Palmer goes on to claim, 'Had actual peasants, shopkeepers, and workmen been elected', the Third Estate when it convened 'would have been more docile'. Despite the absence of detailed data on the composition of the Beninois, Malien, and Nigerois Conférences nationale, the available evidence suggests a much broader social base of representation than underlay the French Third Estate - at least in so far as there were shopkeepers, members of peasant co-operatives and trade unions, and many women in the African assemblies.
42. Reuters dispatch, 17 January 1996, 08.46 EST. From nando.net.
43. Agence France-Presse, Around the World Newswatch, miscellaneous dispatches for 1996 and 1997 at www.afp.com:8o/go/countries/light/cameroon.html. For a detailed look at recent events in Cameroon, see Joseph Takougang and Milton Krieger, African State and Society in the 1995os: Cameroon's political crossroads (forthcoming).
44. Agence France-Presse, Around the World Newswatch, miscellaneous dispatches for 1996 and 1997 at www.afp.com:8o/go/countries/light/cameroon.html. For a detailed look at recent events in Cameroon, see Joseph Takougang and Milton Krieger, African State and Society in the 1995os: Cameroon's political crossroads (forthcoming).
45. Agence France-Presse, Around the World Newswatch, 7 and 28 February 1997 at www.afp.com:8o/go/countries/light/mauritania.html. For the larger contexts of Mauritanian politics, see Anthony G. Pazzanita, 'The Origins and Evolution of Mauritania's Second Republic', in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 34, 4, December 1996, pp. 375-96, and Bruno Callies de Salies, 'La Mauritanie cernée par les conflits', in Le Monde diplomatique ((Paris), February 1997, p. 6.
46. Agence France-Presse, Around the World Newswatch, 7 and 28 February 1997 at www.afp.com:8o/go/countries/light/mauritania.html. For the larger contexts of Mauritanian politics, see Anthony G. Pazzanita, 'The Origins and Evolution of Mauritania's Second Republic', in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 34, 4, December 1996, pp. 375-96, and Bruno Callies de Salies, 'La Mauritanie cernée par les conflits', in Le Monde diplomatique ((Paris), February 1997, p. 6.
47. Agence France-Presse, Around the World Newswatch, 7 and 28 February 1997 at www.afp.com:8o/go/countries/light/mauritania.html. For the larger contexts of Mauritanian politics, see Anthony G. Pazzanita, 'The Origins and Evolution of Mauritania's Second Republic', in The Journal of Modern African Studies, 34, 4, December 1996, pp. 375-96, and Bruno Callies de Salies, 'La Mauritanie cernée par les conflits', in Le Monde diplomatique ((Paris), February 1997, p. 6.
48. The members of the new Electoral Commission proved more amenable to the known wishes of President Mainassara than their predecessors who had been dismissed on the second day of balloting and placed under house arrest. 'Niger's Junta Leaders Claim Poll Victory Amid Confusion', in All Africa Press Service, 15 July 1996, at www.nando.net/ans/west.niger. 8oo39284999.html.
49. James O'Connell, 'The Inevitability of Instability', in Tke Journal of Modern African Studies, 5, 2, September 1967, pp. 181-91.
50. Jon Elster, 'Constitution-Making in Eastern Europe: rebuilding the boat in the open sea', in Public Administration (London), 71, Spring-Summer 1993, pp. 178-9.
51. Zeric Kay Smith, 'Civil Society and Political Learning: the case of the Malian Association of Students and Pupils', American Political Science Association, San Francisco, 1996.
52. Totoh, op. cit. pp. 200-1.