A SHORT DISSECTION OF AFRICAN POLITICS AND SOCIETY - A solution to the problem

African nations like Somalia, Burundi, Rwanda, and Sudan, in most recent years have seen systemic violence and corruption in politics and among armed forces. 

A strong reason for the imbalance in these regimes has been the cost price from colonialist times.  However mediators and peacemakers have assisted and persisted in developing the ideologies of a political system which is fully representative.  The UN and USA have been a strong force in this peacemaking.  For democracies to maintain and sustain a fully representative governing body there must also be socio-economic cohesion. 

A lot of strife and conflict in African nations have been due to minority groups of rebels making their own law and way to live, since it is thought, there is and has been no law and order for so long.  However this must change, for the better.  More hearts and minds for African nations in conflict are seeing and searching for better truths and solutions to violent spurges.   

A key component of this truth is non-violence, which in recent times has been an academic development from the minds of Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Thoreau.  A key to utilising non-violence as a method or even weapon against violence is locking away and using the principle and growing moral force of non-violence (like a tide) for the unity and struggle of people, wherever violence may occur.  It in essence is the way you see a grain (sand or rice) because it becomes one of many (a multiplication) for peaceful existence.   It becomes the beginning or root of peaceful existence - knocking away beliefs in disorderly regimes rooted in violence.  It changes the belief in violence into a belief in peace. 

The strength in passive resistance can be used to overthrow unruly regimes.  The basic mechanics of this theory for peacemaking is a way to prevent disorder and chaos and it is a revamp on new ways to sustain the long life of African people.  It is a building process which takes time but obtainable through negotiation, mediation, compromise and co-operation.  It will enhance the maintenance of a progressive democracy in African nations which consists of fair elections and full representation, meeting the requirements of the people governed.

International support is extremely helpful and this must be in a way to encourage liberation and toleration in nations which have persecuted or belittled certain peoples.  This encouragement will exacerbate the ideals of true democracy and make it political enthusiasm instead of a political taboo.

African political development requires five main objectives:

1.       SUSTENANCE

2.       MAINTENANCE

3.       REGULATION AND POLICIES

4.       LONGEVITY

5.       GROWTH

Burundi has seen a type of laissez-faire socio-economic structure which has buckled earlier this year in April and May.  The third term of the president was called into question, and dissidence grew among other ministers who eventually fled, leaving the present government in disarray.

Taking Karl Marx’s 1859 theory as a helpful tool reflecting historical development which includes political development, “the mode of production of material life determines the general character of social political and spiritual process of life.” In Burundi the mode of production has been hindered, which is the case in so many other African nations.   

Durkheim in his 1893 theory on the “condition of anomie” talked about the sphere of production chatacterised by the absence of a body of rules or governing relations between different social functions – above all between labour and capital.  This “condition of anomie” in African nations and for example Burundi has been a cause of political imbalance and upheaval.   The problem actually becomes the politics which started for the sake of society however it becomes too isolated and unrepresentative because labourers and moneymakers are separated too much in society and this eventually becomes a dividing force in politics and breaks up a peaceful democracy or governing body.  

Despite these old political theories there is so much which can be learnt and achieved for the sake of fair and true African politics and democracy.   Another theorist was Spencer who developed the “cosmic evolution” conception.   The concept is transferrable on to Burundi politics because it determines a correlation between militant and industrial societies in warfare (defence and offence).   Spencer’s conception in the context of Burundi shows a social discord of different modes of production comprised of different ‘forces’ or technical means; or ‘social relations’.   

In the case of Burundi where people found dead on the roadside has become almost normal, there is a strong argument “cosmic evolution” should be replaced with a more harmonious social and political structure.  A lot of the problem lies in violence however, and this takes the will of people and governing bodies to decide the best interests of the people whether they are a labourer or moneymaker, militants should be stopped as a strong army should not be committing crimes for no reason. 

NB. Labourers or moneymakers in this context are used in the context of the theories I have mentioned.  Labourers=work force and moneymakers=capitalists for sake of fully understanding and dissecting the Burundi political and social structure.  

Bringing to light again Marx’s 1859 theory, “the mode of production of material life determines the general character of social political and spiritual process of life.” The African spiritual process of life especially in Burundi is very much non-capitalist and therefore unsupportive of a militant and industrialised protective society.  It therefore has caused political divide and conflict.  The solution would be to fix the governing body showing an adapted Marxist image of historical development such as social linked with employment development in Burundi and the rest of Africa, which is fully fair and representational, and also peaceful. A key problem has been employment and business mismatching social requirement and aims which create the separation between government backed business and local people's required business. Subsequently creating the separation between Labourers and Moneymakes and the consequential discord between a ruling government and its people. Adopting a non-violent attitude and developing a proper enforceable legal and judicial system for crimes committed, as well as government backed business which the people support fairly would very much be the ideal political and socio-economic structure.