Research Seminar in Sociology of Law with Ndongo Samba Sylla

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Democracy as Imperialism: Elections and Elite Reproduction in Francophone Africa 

Democracy on one side of the Mediterranean, dictatorship on the other. This is how the Western world usually sees Africa. This perception needs nuance. Firstly, because it assumes separate trajectories where we should be seeing a shared history. Secondly, because it still depends on a simplistic conception of democracy, reduced to the representative system and elections alone. In the West, the elites have never ceased to distrust their peoples and have painstakingly limited the universal suffrage that they had to concede in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This attitude had a direct impact on the French Empire, where universal suffrage was not granted until the late 1950s. The ballots, which were largely rigged by the colonial administrations, allowed the new African states to be headed by leaders who were loyal to the ex-colonial metropole and determined to safeguard its interests. These hardliners were quick to set up one-party states, repress dissent and eliminate any possibility of peaceful electoral transitions. Sixty years after independence, this pattern still prevails. Popular expression remains tightly controlled, with the acquiescence - and sometimes active assistance - of Paris. Marked by this long history of repression, elections in French-speaking Africa, which long served the colonial and then neo-colonial order, now a neo-liberal agenda is perpetuated. At a time when several coup d’états have shaken this region, this book offers an original analysis and an indispensable reflection for understanding the current revolt of the African peoples, and in particular, the youth, who are calling for genuine democracy.

Dr. Ndongo Samba Sylla is a Senegalese development economist and has previously worked as a technical advisor at the Presidency of the Republic of Senegal, and as Programme manager at the West Africa office of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Currently, he is Head of Research and Policy for the Africa Region at International Development Economics Associates (IDEAs). He is the co-author of Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story and The Fair Trade Scandal - Marketing Poverty to Benefit the Rich.