African Political Thought.

1. AFRICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
SSS 282
LECTURER: MR. SIACHISA MUSOLE

2. 1. INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS AFRICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT?
African political thought refers to the political theories and ideologies
enunciated in the speeches, autobiographies, writings, and policy
statements of African statesmen and scholars.
It varies according to historical circumstances and constantly
changing African and world political environments.
Political theory and political practice are inextricably linked, which
makes for six distinctive periods of African history, each with its own
dominant theories: indigenous Africa; imperial Africa; colonial Africa;
and (early, middle, and late) modern or postcolonial Africa.

3. THE SOURCES AND CONTENT OF AFRICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT
 The origin of African political ideas remains a contentious topic or
subject among political analysts.
 Eurocentric views argue that there is nothing like African political
ideas. Rather African Political ideas were borrowed from outside the
continent.
 According to Sithole, “Many westerners have argued again and again
that freedom was introduced to Africa by white man; that democracy
was also European introduced; that the African clamour for freedom
and for democracy was but a clamour for the things of the white
man.”

4. • Since 1960s African politicians as well as political analysts started to
reject the European views that African political ideas were borrowed
from outside the continent.
• Scholars such as Sithole expressed their views arguing that African
political ideas are expressed in music, art, sculpture, etc.
• This also illustrates that Africans are independent human beings who
can master their own motivation and destiny.
• George Shepperson argues that African political thought is as old as
human society in Africa. To believe otherwise is to presume that
preliterate peoples cannot think politically-yet man is a political
animal.

5. NB: It can be noted that Major aspects of African political ideas
include, Humanism, Decolonisation, Liberation, Unity, National
Development, African Socialism, Abolitionism, Self-reliance, etc.

6. 2. ORIGINALITY OF AFRICAN POLITICAL
THOUGHT
NDABANINGI SITHOLE ON CULTURAL NATIONALISM AND PHILOLOGY
Cultural Nationalism
By and large all modern African political ideas started with cultural
nationalism.
This is explained by the fact that European’s colonisation of Africa was
justified in terms of cultural inferiority of the Africans or the non-existence
of culture in Africa.
Therefore, in this sense cultural nationalism was more than a plea by the
colonised for acceptance by the colonisers as a cultural man, rather than
just as a cultureless beast.

7. An analysis of the history of different government systems of
different tribal groups in Africa shows that Africa had its own political
ideas before the coming of colonialism.
For instance, Jomo Kenyatta argues that the Gikuyu nation not only
had a viable political system but also a democratic process.
This shows that black Africans had viable systems of governance
before they came into contact with missionaries or any other
colonising influence.

8. Nyerere argues that, Africa had its own type of Democracy which was
monistic and based on egalitarian society where resources were
shared equally.
It is important to note that the African system of government which
comprised the king, the dare and the headmen was a centralised type
of democracy opposed to the Western pluralist democracy.

9. Ndabaningi Sithole in his Article “The African Himself” examines
important areas of African systems of life such as philology, the
institution of Slavery and judicature to illustrate the existence or non
existence of African political ideas before the coming of European
Occupiers.
Sithole argues that, the African way of life shows beyond any
reasonable doubt that there were strong political ideas in Africa way
before the coming of colonialism.

10. In his Article Sithole tried to answer the following questions to
determine the presence or absence of freedom and democracy
before the white people came to Africa.
• Did Africans have any sense of freedom before the coming of white
people to Africa?
• Did he treasure freedom?
• Did Africans have any democratic institutions before the European
era?

11. Philology
• The study of language in written historical sources, as such it is a
combination of literary studies, history and linguistics.
• Philological studies in Africa indicate that aspects such as freedom
and slavery existed in Africa before the occupation of the continent.
• The table below illustrates this argument.

12. • English Freedom
• French liberte
• Portuguese liberdade
• Zulu (South Africa) inkululeko
• Ndebele (Rhodesia) inkululeko
• Shona Rusununguko
• Ibo (Nigeria) efe
• Swahili (East Africa) Uhuru.

13. • The institution of Slavery
• English Slave Slavery
• French esclave esclavage
• Portuguese escravo escravatura
• Zulu isigqili ubugqili
• Shona nhapwa nhapwo

14. • Using the two tables above, Sithole concludes that there is no
linguistic resemblance between African and European words.
• The African words are as un-European as the European words are un-
African.
• There is no philological relationship between African and European
words.
• Thus one can argue that the concept of freedom was not alien to
Africa before the advent of colonialism.
• Sithole further states that there is hardly an African language that has
no word or phrase for freedom and slavery.

15. • The existence of two classes of people namely: the captor and the
captured, master and slave-logically implies freedom and unfreedom.
• Thus, slavery which is the deprivation of human freedom has been in
existence in Africa before the coming of Europeans to the continent.
• Thus the struggle for independence has its roots in the pre- European
Africa and African languages are a living testimony to that fact.

16. African History
Before the colonial powers came to Africa, there were many bitter,
cruel tribal wars which resulted in the subjection of tribes by others
and in the domination of tribes over others.
 In West Africa, in the Gold Coast for instance, there were many tribes
that were very hostile to each other. Very often the stronger tribes
would conquer the weaker ones and deprive them of their freedom.
As time went on the subject would revolt to regain the lost
independence and freedom.

17. Sometimes the conquered tribe sought the help of another strong
tribe so that it would be able to overthrow the domination of the
victor tribe, and thus regaining its lost independence.
The life and death struggle between the Ashanti and Fanti is a case in
point.
As the independence of the Fanti was constantly threatened by the
Ashanti, the Fanti sought European protection to preserve their tribal
integrity against the Ashanti.
Incidentally, such foreign protection turned out to be foreign
domination.

18. Similar tribal struggles existed between the Shona and the Ndebele in
Zimbabwe as well as the Yoruba and other tribes of Nigeria.
In Southern Africa, the history of the Bantu speaking peoples shows
the existence of struggle for independence and freedom between the
victor and the vanquished tribes.
In Zululand, for instance, there arose at the beginning of the 19th
Century a black military genius- Shaka, who conquered many small
tribes and made them into Zulu nation.
As he embarked on a grand scheme of conquest, other tribes whose
sovereignty he threatened unsuccessfully attacked him.

19. Seeing that they could not live in complete freedom and
independence while Shaka threatened them with subjection, death
and extinction, they trekked into the unknown where they could live
in peace and complete freedom, and thus began the early
nineteenth-century migrations of the Bantu speaking people.
The Angoni fled from Shaka’s fury and settled in what is now
Nyasaland.
The Shangana fled from Zululand and settled in what is now
Portuguese East Africa.

20. Thus it is important to note that African tribes subjected one another,
that is, deprived one another of freedom long before the white
people made their influence felt on the whole African continent.
 Sithole therefore, made a conclusion that, Freedom was not only
philologically but also historically known to Africa.

21. HENSBROEK AND THE “IMPORT THESIS” OF THE AFRICAN POLITICAL
THOUGHT
• Hensbroek, argues that, the central argument advanced by several
historical studies in relation to African political ideas is that nationalist
thought in Africa was derived from the Enlightenment ideas and
revolutionary thought that came from abroad.
• It has been argued that the same powers that colonised Africa also
spread the basic ideas that guided the struggle for its abolition.
• Proponents of the import thesis also argue that the troubles of Africa
result from importing foreign ideas instead of building upon
indigenous ones.

22. • As was for Sithole, Hensbroek argues that historical events have been
used to understand the origins of African political thought for
example the History of anti colonial struggles.
• This can be divided into two stages that is the primary resistance and
the secondary resistance.
• The primary resistance was characterised by African Communities
revolts against colonial invasions.

23. • The second are the movements of civil colonial liberation that
developed within the colonial context.
• The import thesis is advanced in explaining secondary resistance and
thus applies to resistance after the mid nineteenth century resistance
developed exactly in those places where colonial presence became
established first.
• For instance, in the so called West African Settlements (Sierra Leone,
Gold Coast etc.).
• This brought Christian missionaries and enlightenment ideas of
freedom and self determination to Africa.

24. • Analysing the work of African Scholars since 1850s the import
element could be identified in the development of Christian
Abolitionist ideas combined with Pan Negroist ideas which came to
Africa from America with the influential intellectuals like Edward
Wilmot, Blyden and Alexander Brummell.
• The idea of modern political movements, such as the Aboriginals
Rights, protection society in the 1890s and the National Congress for
British Western Africa in the 1920s, emerged under the leadership of
the so called “educated elites” Who took their education from Britain
and America.

25. • In more recent history one can notice Marxist inspired nationalism in
the Nkrumah-Padmore tradition after the Second World War, African
socialism in the 1960s, so much influenced by the European idea of
Welfare State and Humanist Christianity.
• Also the introduction of African communism and multi-partism in the
1990s tends to be seen as foreign imports.

26. • Hensbroek argues that these views can be rejected on the basis that
African intellectuals such as Sarbah and Hayford made use of their
European training and European ideas when beneficial for the
movement.
• Hensbroek argues that the thrust of the movement, its participants,
as well as its political discourse, were not European.
• The ideas were creative indigenous resistance in its own right.

27. • Sociologically the movement was of close co-operation between
traditional rulers, important business men and the educated elite.
• The direct objective was to resist the undermining of traditional
authorities’ powers over land issues as a consequence of the colonial
land laws.
• Thus such resistance was purely African.

28. • This also proves that Africans had their own political systems even
before the coming of the white man.
• Casely Hayford, for instance, identified in his study of the Akan
traditional system an elaborate division of roles and tasks between
council and the Chief, in fact the kind of separation of powers
between the legislative and the executive.
• The chief was the head of the executive, but the legislative had its
own leaders such as the so called linguist.

29. • Hayford notes that in the Gold Coast, the abortive attempt to
establish the Fanti Federation, in 1872 and the 1873 and the earlier
Maknkessim Declaration, a statement by prominent persons such as
kings, advisors, business men and the educated shows a progressive
joint policy of local African leaders involving, for instance, the
establishment of schools and compulsory education something that
had not even been implemented in the most advanced countries in
Europe at that time.

30. • Hensbroek concludes that rather than a process of import, we have a
process of selective appropriation and re-coining of terms and ideas
within struggles and discourses that have their own dynamic and
orientation.
• Such a type of appropriation is a sign of an open minded and
pragmatic orientation, rather than of dependency.
• However, this is not to deny the fact that some political ideas were
wholly imported from outside the continent.
• The introduction of state controlled farms, of the proletarian
vanguard party, or of a simple multi-party recipe for organising the
political power struggle are classic examples.

31. JULIUS KAMABARANGE NYERERE
• He makes it clear frequently and instantly that his social and political
thought is very substantially related to traditional African values.
• Nyerere in 1962 “We in Africa have no more need of being converted
to socialism than we have of being taught democracy. Both are rooted
in our past- in the traditional society that produced us. I grew up in a
perfectly democratic and egalitarian society.”
• Influence of Marx on Fanon
• Influence of Mao and Lenin on independence struggle in Africa.

32. NEGRITUDE, LEOPOLD SEDAR SENGHOR
It was a black literary and cultural movement that spanned the 1930s to
1950s.
The movement first took shape among French speaking writers most of
whom were studying in France.
The leading figure on the Negritude movement was Leopold Sedar Senghor
– poet and philosopher who became the first president of Senegal when it
won independence from France in 1960.
For Senghor, Negritude is the whole complex of civilised values, cultural
and economic, which characterise the black people especially the Negro
Africans.

33. The origins of Negritude can be traced to the shared experiences of
Africans who suffered under slavery and colonialism.
It developed partly as a response to western views of Africa as a
primitive and savage land and of blacks as inferior race.
These views inspired people in the Negritude movement to
emphasize positive African qualities such as emotional warmth,
closeness to nature, and reverence (respect) of ancestors.
As it developed, Negritude came to represent black protest against
the colonial rule and assimilation of western culture and values by
blacks.

34. Thus many writers in the movement attacked colonialism and
Western ideas.
In the eyes of the Westerners, exotic civilisations were static in
character and not dynamic.
In extreme cases, black Africans were regarded as uncivilised at all.
The Negritude movement originated from the resistance of what the
white referred to as “Civilising Mission” as the justification for
colonizing Africa.

35. The colonial policies of most European powers particularly the French
and the Portuguese policy of assimilation-turning the African into a
black civilised European in Africa is one example).
Whereas the British used the indirect rule which respected the
existing traditional values and the structures and tried to reinforce
the native civilisation, the French and the Portuguese did exactly the
opposite through forcing the African people to be assimilated to
European civilisation to the detriment of their own civilisation.
This is what influenced the rise of Negritude.

36. Senghor argued that, “Paradoxically, it is the French who first forced
us to seek its essence, and who then showed us where it lay…when
they enforced their policy of assimilation and thus deepened our
despair..”
The central objective of negritude is to assimilate what is positive.
 This supports the views of Senghor who argued that Negritude
should not be perceived and treated as expressing itself more and
more in opposition to all western values rather it should be regarded
as complementary aspect to human civilisation.

37. Therefore militants of negritude are and should always be considered
with how not to be assimilated and how to assimilate and to
assimilate what.
In other words they should be concerned with taking from the
western civilisation only those humane values and blend them with
Negron African Values.
In doing so, disciples of negritude will be helping immensely toward
improving universal human civilisation.
Supporters of Negritude question Eurocentric thesis about African
Culture being static as monstrous and anti- humanistic.

38. They insist that on the other hand Negritude is humanistic as it
accepts and welcomes the complementary values in western culture
in particular as well as the positive aspects and values found in other
civilised states.
Negritude welcomes all exotic values to the extent that they can be
viewed as ingredients in the construction of a human civilisation that
has the potential of embracing all human kind.

39. Negritude and Independence Movement
For Senghor as was for J Kenyatta, colonialism had resulted in cultural
and racial alienation particularly in former colonies of France and
Portugal-
Yet for him cultural alienation transcended all aspects of life that it
also resulted in social, economic and political alienation.
 As such only the philosophy of negritude could end this culture of
alienation and res-establish a process of cultural reintegration with
the African culture and all its positive values.

40. Senghor predicted the coming African renaissance was to be less the
work of the politicians than of the writers, painters, musicians, artists,
who in his opinion excellently portray the whole African culture in
their trade.
To the 1st Conference of Negron writers and artists held in Paris in
1956 Senghor openly expressed his views about the primacy of
African culture when he said “we want to liberate ourselves politically
in order to justly express our negritude throughout black values.”

41. For him political liberation was a necessary prerequisite for cultural
liberation therefore he denies that culture is subservient to politics
arguing that African politics have a tendency of ignoring our culture
to make it an appendage of politics.
This is a mistake as culture should be viewed as the basis and aim of
politics. –indeed culture is the very texture of society.
 Diop A in an Article Remarks on African Personality and Negritude
states that, “We must not forget that political independence is only
one step, it is only a means, and that independence will never be
total until the moment when it is assured on both economic and
cultural levels”.

42. Like his theory of Socialism, Senghor’s theory of negritude reaffirms
strongly the dignity of traditional Negro African culture blend it with
only those positive humanistic values found in Western Culture to
produce what he referred to as the civilisation of the Universal, thus
maintaining its humanistic foundation.
He warned however that assertion of one’s negritude does not and
should not be allowed to mean or inspire black racism against the
whites-he condemned severely racism by either blacks or whites.

43. He observed that the positive values found in African societies are
universal yet the blacks embody the totality of these virtues and traits
in their fullest form.
Therefore Africans are honest, respectful, trustworthy etc, Senghor’s
ultimate goal was to blend all the positive aspects of all civilisation to
produce a civilisation of universal that is humanistic.
As he argued “The great civilisations have been mixtures of disparate
elements; the mixtures emerge from the numerous contacts between
and among civilisations.”

44. Senghor further argues that only through the resolutions of the
contradictory elements does progress result.
In short both Negro African and the Western should contribute to the
final construction of the civilisation of the universal…

45. Unity and Liberty
• The themes of unity and liberty are the most pervasive elements
found in most African arts and literature, Senghor contrasts this
theme of unity and liberty found in African culture with the European
tendency towards disunity and dominance (discrimination and
exploitation).
• For him Western reason is antagonistic in that it breaks things down
into their component parts whereas on the contrary the Negro reason
is interactive and sympathetic as it unites and synthesises things.
• The Negro African sympathises and identifies himself with others- the
members of his own family tribe, strangers etc.

46. • He lives with others in common life. In Contrast the European segregates
others.
• The Negro prefers a unitary order of the world.
• African Society forms a series of concentric circles based on the family as
the constituent unit.
• The clan, the tribe and the kingdom are therefore composed of a series of
overlapping families beside expressing unit the African culture also embody
the spirit of liberty and reciprocal independence.
• To the contrary the European always shows the desire to dominate others.
In order to express this spirit of liberty and unity the African Negro must
have a choice between civilisations that he comes into contact with.

47. • He must carefully choose on what he takes from the European culture and
what he must retain.
• Therefore from the integration of these two civilisations African and
Western, Senghor hopes to achieve a universal humanism (universal
civilisation).
• The African Negro must not reject the most obvious positive Western
contributions, eg technical skills and machines because such are not
antagonistic but complementary to his civilisation.
• He further noted that for their desire for rapid industrialisation the then
newly independent African states had to guard against sacrificing African
spiritual, moral and artistic values for the western technical superiority.

48. • Thus only by an equilibrium between the material and the moral
values can an African culture make a worthwhile contribution towards
world civilisation.
• According to Senghor Negritude a form of Humanism contributes to
the civilization of the Universal.
• This humanism of Negritude is hoped to redeem the anti-humanistic
civilisation of the West which are now dominated by materialism at
the expense of spiritual and moral values.
• Through the expression of negritude, Africans will secure their static
independence from European Disunity and Dominance.

49. Broadly, the Negritude’s preoccupation appeared to be;
• the artistic enunciation of African cultural values,
• the romantic evocation of an African heroic past, or valorisation of
African history and traditions and beliefs
• the denunciation of the ills of colonialism,
• acceptance of and pride of being black,
• the rejection of western domination,
• denunciation of Europe’s lack of humanism

50. AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES ON THE CONCEPT OF
DEMOCRACY
• All African leaders whether from the populist or traditionalist
orientation emphasised the distinctiveness of African democracy
arguing that democracy was an integral element of African traditional
society.
• They hold that contemporary African states embody the essence of
democracy. Nkrumah once wrote about Ghana;

51. “Ghana Society is by its own form and tradition fundamentally
democratic in character. For centuries our people gave great powers to
their chiefs but only so long they adhered to the rules and regulations
laid down by the people. The moment they deviated from these rules
they were deposed. I have no doubt with time we in Africa we will
evolve forms of government rather different from the traditional
Western pattern but not less democratic.”

52. • Even conservative monarchies like Emperor Haile Selassie found
democratic values in the historical tradition of Ethiopia.
• He once said Democracy as the share of people’s voice in the conduct
of their own affairs is not foreign to Ethiopia.
• His argument is that, the democratic spirit is not new to Ethiopia; it is
only that Ethiopia’s traditional democratic concepts and convictions
have now taken on a new expression and fresh forms.
• In the view of most African leaders this spirit must not be considered
synonymous with certain forms of democracy found in western
parliamentary system.

53. • Such institutional features like a two or more political party system, a
loyal opposition, an independent judiciary and a neutral civil service
simply constitute the circumstantial as opposed to fundamental
democratic system of government.
• Therefore whilst all African societies may embody the otherwise
universal spirit of democracy, the democratic institutions, norms and
values will vary according to the social, political, cultural and historical
conditions of each country.

54. • The then Prime Minister of Nigeria, Abubaker Balewa once cautioned
Western critics the danger about confusing essential spirit of
democracy with certain imported institutions.
• “The West Minister brand of democracy is but one method of
ensuring democracy as a form of government. If that method is not
applicable then another may succeed”

55. • In principle therefore, all African leaders would agree that all the
essence of democracy consist of promoting the welfare of the people,
free discussions, promote equality, and respect for the general
interest but this democratic spirit in the African leaders does not
extend to anarchy and a licence to activities that threaten stability
and progress in the African states.
• According to Sengor the role of opposition is to criticise but criticism
should mean a critical spirit and not a spirit of criticism. In a
democracy, criticism must be constructive and serve the general
rather than the individual and factional interests.

56. • For all African leaders, order and authority constitute part of the
essence of democracy, but, besides this seemingly unanimous verbal
attachment to African democracy, African leaders have formulated
somewhat different ideological interpretation of what democracy is.
• Sekou Toure, Nkrumah and Nyerere express a monistic interpretation
of democracy whereas Nigerian Leaders expanded the pluralistic
model of democracy in which large institutionalized political groups
compete for influence.

57.  MONISTIC MODEL
• The monistic model of democracy emphasises the value of popular
sovereignty, political equality, and national unity or integrity.
• According to this interpretation the social and political structures
must maximize equality of the people in decision making; must
function on the basis of consensus not in the form of votes.
• Decisions ought to be unanimous – arrived at thru consensus.

58. • The individual must subordinate his interest and desires to those of
the group or society.
• The leaders should always minimize conflict and deviant behaviour in
societal goal which all members should pursue.
• They should stress the need for cohesion, co-operation and
consensus.

59.  Sekou Toure
• The idea of Sekou Toure best exemplifies the monistic model of democracy.
• For him there only existed one popular will and one general interest or one
political party state. Democracy denotes the subordination of individual
interest to the general interest.
• In a democracy, the interest of a more general group or majority takes
precedence over the interest of the more particular.
• In hierarchical fashion the interest of the family lead to the interest of the
village to the district, to the province then finally to the national interest.

60. • At the highest most general level citizens in a democratic African state
such as Guinea ought to achieve a conscious of universal interest of
the entire African continent (Pan African Interest).
• Consistent with this stress on the dominance of the general interest,
the political thought of Toure condemns both individualism and
liberalism.
• As he argued, instead of individualism, Guineans must focus on the
solidarity and sovereignty of the people; since the distinctive African
philosophy affirms collective values.

61. • He further argues that if it is necessary we should not hesitate to
sacrifice the individual for the good of the nation.
• Since he equates individualism with selfishness, Toure identifies
liberalism with compromise, anarchy, and the reign of individual over
the group interest that is not good for Africa.
• In accordance with this interpretation of democracy, he equates
democracy with the dominance of the general will.

62. • African democracy is based on egalitarian relations-there are no
privileged groups.
• The leaders exercise their power in the interest of the whole nation
rather than the interest of particular classes or groups in society.
• Since Africa, generally has no antagonistic classes, it can construct a
democracy that is founded on the unanimous will of the people than
on the social class basis as is often the case with some western liberal
societies or on religious conception such as characteristic of Islamic as
what happened in the middle east or on the basis of a political system
as is the case with parliamentary or presidential democracies.

63. • By stressing participation of all people in political affairs, Toure formulated
a theory of popular dictatorship.
• The dictatorship will be democratic since the major political principles are
defined in party congress and assemblies.
• The dictatorship would be popular since decision is meant to safeguard the
rights of all the people in the society (it will be guided by egalitarianism).
• However, in this popular dictatorship, formal rules do not constitute the
source of authority; rather political officials must obey the interest of the
people (popular interest), the law of the people rather than invoke a formal
law to justify an action that is contrary to the interest of the nation.

64. • The single political party assumes the dominant political position in
the nation and since there is only one general interest, one
unanimous popular will, one preeminent thought (ideology), only
one political party must carry out political activities.
• Therefore, the Democratic Party of Guinea (PDG) defines the general
interest it serves as the custodian and the depository of the popular
will and embodies the collective thought(collective ideologies) of the
people of Guinea.
• The PDG, by defining the general policies of all sectors of society, it
directs and controls activities of the state.

65. • Essentially therefore, the PDG did not resemble any European party.
• Whereas European political parties represent the partial interest of
either workers or capitalists, the PDG refuses to become the political
expression of the particular social class; rather, it embodies the
common indivisible interest of all African Social strata.
• On the relationship of the masses, Toure shows the same
ambivalence-a characteristic of those leaders who were influenced by
the Marxist- Leninist ideology.
• On the one hand, for Toure, the party must be both in the vanguard
of the masses and in their midst.

66. • In the vanguard, the party defines the objectives and the meaning of
the political struggle.
• It raises the political consciousness of the people. It educates the
people and improves their character.
• Working in the midst of the masses a good party leader participates
in all activities of the masses and he serves as a good example to the
masses.
• He demonstrates superior organizational and mobilizing talent as well
as encouraging a spirit of struggle and sacrifices. As he summed it,
“everywhere the party is pre-eminent everywhere it must think, act,
direct and control the actions of the toiling masses.”

67. • In contrast to the Communist Parties, the PDG is a mass organisation
rather than an elite organisation.
• In the government, the party exercises supremacy over administrative
organs.
• The party is the brain conscience of the society while the state is
simply the executive arm of the party.
• Therefore, the party directs all states organs because it embodies the
collective conscience.

68. • Consistent with this notion of party hegemony over government,
Toure’s ideology opposes the concept of omnipresent state and a
representative government based on parliamentary supremacy.
• He identifies these with political practices under colonial
administration.
• However, while the supremacy of the government and administrative
implies domination by alien forces the pre-eminence of the party
(PDG) connotes the supremacy of the people.

69. • By reasoning based on Rousseau’s principles, Toure holds that even a
parliamentary regime does not ensure popular sovereignty, where the
parliament is supreme the voters become slaves of the elected
representatives and their deputies (MPs) asserting the dominance of
partial interest.
• Only on election time do people in a parliamentary system regain
their sovereignty.
• Therefore, in Guinea all deputies in the National Assembly are elected
from a single national list for example; hence do not represent the
more partial interest of geographic regions.

70. • Unlike its counterparts in Western democracies the civil service in an
African set up is not politically neutral vis-a vis the party in office.
• For Toure, political office should be granted on the basis of loyalty to
the ruling party and not according to class, origin, wealth, education
or even technical knowledge.
• With regard to the party militants and supporters the party leader
tends to emphasise the need for discipline within the party.

71. • PDG Secretary General (Toure) was always opposed to all factions
based on self interest.
• Like Lenin on whose ideas the organisation of the party was largely
based, Toure articulated the doctrine of Democratic Centralism –a
blend of free and open discussion and unity in action.
• Democracy in this sense operates when the party militants freely
choose leaders and discuss various policy decisions.
• But this emphasis on discipline and unity action also reveals Toure’s
tendency and interest towards centralization.

72. • Responsibility of leadership in contrast with the responsibility for
decision cannot be shared.
• Violation of party discipline is also prohibited/ forbidden.
• The leaders select what they think are appropriate tactics which they
think and decide on best ways to apply them.
• In turn, the supporters have the responsibility of discussing problems
and choose solutions for them.

73. CRITIQUE
• In line with Toure’s concept of the relationship between the party
leaders, militants and the masses, in practice, the commitment to the
freedom of expression within the party and legitimate opposition
would be very unlikely.
• The stress on party discipline, unity of purpose, absolute authority of
the party and anti-factionalism increasingly made it difficult for the
voicing of disagreement over policies.

74. • The establishment of many organisations affiliated to the party not
only did it provide the popular participation in political life but it also
facilitated total party control of the people(totalitarianism).
• For instance, the hierarchical structure of the party (elitism) the
autonomous bodies outside the party control, inevitably hindered the
development of legitimate political conflict which is necessary to the
democratisation of the state.
• Therefore, under these conditions the opportunities for effective
popular participation seem to be very limited as some critics have
argued.

75. • Toure’s conception of democracy resembles Bonapartism.
• Robert Michael notes that Bonapartism does not recognise any
intermediate links----- the power of the chief of state rests exclusively
upon the direct will of the nation.
• Although the individual may commit errors, the party as an
organisation never make mistakes.
• Toure frequently reiterate on the necessity of the individual
personality to become submerged in the personality of the party.

76. • This faith in the virtues of the organisation led Toure like Lenin from
whose ideas he borrowed most to ascertain that an organisation can
only be virtuous as its leader.
• Undesirably, pressure towards total politicisation resulted in the
bureaucratisation of the social life within Guinea.
• In contrast with the western models the party tended to produce a
rather inefficient instead of nationally effective bureaucratic system.