Democratic Leadership and the African Metaphysical Reality

Abstract

In the last two decades, we have witnessed scores of African nations embracing democracy. In spite of this, the development of democratic culture remains subdued in many parts of the continent. The reason for this is that we seek to practice democracy without aligning with its metaphysical foundations. The aim of this article is to show that democracy, like most socio-political concepts, is a product of a metaphysical world-view and that for us to develop democratic leadership in Africa, we must shift from a cultic metaphysics to a democratic world-view. Democratic principles, beginning from the ancient Greek era to recent western models, are all rooted in this metaphysical base. The central point I wish to make in this article, therefore, is that for Africa to develop a genuine democratic culture, she must shift from a cultic metaphysics to a democratic metaphysics. I argue in this article that there is an incongruity between democratic ideals and the African metaphysical reality which prevents the emergence of true democratic leadership. Some of the early African leaders like Nyerere, Nkrumah, Sekou Toure, and Senghor recognized this challenge and labored hard to develop political philosophies that aligned with Africa’s metaphysical reality. Their successors did not build on their efforts, however, and so we witnessed the sunset of political philosophy in the continent. I argue that for this reason, within the womb of current African politics lie strong metaphysical undercurrents which procreate what I call cultic leadership instead of democratic leadership. In this article I shall clarify the concept of metaphysics and show its link with socio-political behavior. I shall argue that democratic ideals are products of metaphysical world-views and that for us to have genuine democracy we must embrace a certain way of looking at the world. For democratic leadership to grow in Africa, Democratic Leadership and the African Metaphysical Reality