Good governance in an African perspective: an essay on actors and actions

Abstract

In preparation for this conference I have looked back at my own work and the work of others in the period just after most of Sub-Saharan Africa achieved independence. My own place was in the University of Zambia, from 1967 to 1971. Perusing our publications of the late sixties and early seventies of this quickly passing century, what strikes me is first of all our belief in the new politics as a basis for development. Not without reason colonialism had been regarded as the basic constraint to improvement of people's living conditions and to political integration. In most African countries those fighting for freedom had overcome. The independent African state not merely signified political liberty, it would also constitute the primary instrument towards the uplifting of its own people. A remaining constraint was of course white minority power in much of Southern Africa but liberation was certain. "One day", my colleague Richard Sklar exclaimed, "African nations will negotiate from strength."