Limits to Liberation in Southern Africa

The unfinished business of democratic consolidation

The Limits to Liberation in Southern Africa: The Unfinished Business of Democratic Consolidation.
The essays in this volume examine a developing political contradiction in Southern Africa represented by the fact that movements which spearheaded mass popular struggles for liberation from colonial rule have in power developed into authoritarian, undemocratic and increasingly corrupt ruling regimes. By contrast, countries like Botswana and Lesotho which achieved independence by negotiation and without mass mobilisation have developed into mature multi-party democracies.

With essays on Namibia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Botswana and two which consider the possible road ahead for South Africa, the contributors examine such key questions as:

Why it is that post-liberation politics, rather than leading to participatory democracy, has produced instead political oppression and decay?

Are the politics of liberation movements inherently undemocratic or is the current tendency to authoritarianism in southern Africa an outcome of other incidental factors and forces?

Is the model of liberation democracy adopted by post-liberation societies inherently elitist, lending itself to the suppression or containment of popular opinions and aspirations?

Do the politics of liberation in Southern Africa have any continuing relevance and have not some of its leaders like Presidents Mugabe and Nujoma overstayed their welcome?


Edited by Henning Melber, a Namibian, former SWAPO member and currently a Research Director of the Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden, other contributors include Ken Good and Francis Nyamnjoh on Botswana, Amin Kamete on Zimbabwe, Roger Southall on Lesotho and Martin Legassick and Raymond Suttner on South Africa.

A co-publication with the Nordic Africa Insititute, Sweden