Post-colonial struggles for a democratic Southern Africa : Legacies of Liberation

This book explores the struggle for legitimate, accountable government in postcolonial Southern Africa. Using country cases from Tanzania, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia, the collection focuses on dilemmas arising where ex-liberation movements form the governing parties.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.

National liberation, one of the grand narratives of the twentieth century, has left a weighty legacy of unfulfilled dreams. This book explores the ongoing struggle for legitimate, accountable political leaders in postcolonial Southern Africa, focusing on dilemmas arising when ex-liberation movements form the governments. While the spread of multi-party democracy to most countries in the region is to be celebrated, democratic practice often has been superficial - a limited, elitist politics that relies on the symbols of the liberation struggle to legitimate de facto one-party rule and authoritarian practices. Using country cases from Tanzania, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Zambia, the collection explores three subthemes relevant to postcolonial governance in Southern Africa: how the struggle for liberation shapes the character of political transformation, the nature of rule in one-party dominant states headed by former liberation movements, and the processes of governance and resistance in post-liberation contexts.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.