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The African Union and International Aggression

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) decision to oust Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi with force has drawn criticism and polemics from the African Union (AU) lamenting the manner the air campaign has been carried out resulting in massive losses of civilian lives and a blatant disregard for Libya’s sovereignty. In a BBC interview Chairman of the African Union Commission, Dr Jean Ping complained that the continental body was never consulted before the imposition of a no-fly zone over Libya. Even though some measure of recognition has been extended to the National Transitional Council (NTC) with the AU pledging support for the interim government during the phase of reconstruction as outlined in a statement from the president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who holds the bloc’s rotating chair, the continent still appears to be conflicted about the way and manner regime change has been carried out in the oil rich North African country.

Some political pundits have called the NATO campaign illegal lambasting the conversion of the imposition of a no-fly zone into a forceful removal of a sitting President. Of course remarks have also been made about Gaddafi’s seminal role in the formation of the African Union itself after its establishment in July 2002 replacing the erstwhile Organization of African Unity. The former dictator’s financial contributions towards the creation of the union and his call for a continental government leading to a United States of Africa has been lauded by African leaders as well as scholars. It is interesting to note however, that the support for the ousted Libyan leader comes at a time when the AU is calling for the democratization of member states and the respect for Human Rights within the ranks of member countries.

The fundamental contradiction in the AU’s willingness to endorse a political despot like Gaddafi whilst calling for good governance and respect for Human Rights underscores a lack of focus in its operational mandate. Unfortunately, a lot of the continent’s rulers sympathize with the former Libyan leader because of their protracted stay in power. How can Africa really and truly adhere to the basic tenets of good governance and democratic rule when the incumbent chair of the AU has himself been blamed and criticized for failing to democratize the institutions in his country?

The continent’s drive towards economic emancipation will never be realized unless the proper measures are put in place to ensure proper political dispensation within African states. The call for responsible and sound political leadership is key to Africa’s economic growth. It therefore behooves regional organizations such as ECOWAS, SADC, EAC and COMESA in conjunction with the main continental body to engage in corrective leadership whereby African leaders who ignore democratic rule are reprimanded or isolated for their actions by other continental leaders.

To some extent the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) was adopted within the framework of the African Union to harmonize the continent’s political values and urge African states to practice and respect proper methods of governance. Unfortunately, the brilliant initiative which appeared to be unique to the continent has lost steam and seems to have lost the support it once enjoyed from continental leaders such as John A. Kufuor of Ghana. The AU is therefore no longer in a good position to monitor the political practices of member states and to ensure that they conform with the continental endeavor for  proper economic and governance values as outlined in the 37th Summit of the Organization of African Unity held in July 2001 in Lusaka, Zambia, adopting a document setting out a new vision for the revival and development of Africa.

Political underdevelopment therefore continues culminating in economic backwardness rendering it difficult if not outright impossible for the continent to stand up to or resist international aggression such as the NATO military action in Libya. The  time has come for the continent’s rulers to realize that in the realm of international relations, might is indeed right and until Africa becomes a major player economically and places itself in a good position to influence global trade and finance the continent’s interest will always remain secondary to the imperialistic tendencies of the West.

Unfortunately, the AU as the showpiece for the continent’s evolution is failing to engineer the needed political changes that will bring forth prosperity for Africa and its people. African states continue to perpetually rely on their colonial masters for financial sustenance due to their inability to make proper use of the bountiful resources at their disposal. Economic mismanagement, corruption, political nepotism and tribalism are still features of African politics making it increasingly difficult for the continent to become a major player when it comes to international politics.  Africa’s inability to make meaningful contributions to global economics and the lack of technological progress or proper industrialization means that the continent will continue to stay on the margins of international affairs negotiating from a position of weakness and remaining as a fertile ground for pillaging and exploitation by Western countries and other growing powers posing as new developmental partners.

If you like this article, I’d recommend my book “If I Was Famous, I’d Have a Lot to Say”

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Democracy or Prosperity, Which Comes First In Africa’s Bid for Prosperity

Feature/Africa Development

Democracy or Prosperity, Which Comes First for Africa?

As Africa’s democracy gradually evolves, the arguments are whether Africa should concentrate on creating prosperity first and then grow its democracy later or build up its democracy first and then use it to develop its prosperity. This thinking has come about because of the on-going democratic revolutions occurring in Africa, in places such as Libya, Tunisia and Egypt, and multi-party democratic elections after elections have become recurring rituals.

Despite its global hypothesis, in the African context, the democracy-or-prosperity arguments wheel around Africa’s largely enviably untapped wealth and the continent’s painful dark political history where totalitarianism of all brands had been the order of the day. So whether prosperity first, democracy second, or the other way around will be determined by Africa’s political history in the past 50 years.

In most parts of Africa independence from colonial rule saw authoritarian one-party-systems and military juntas dominating the political scene. The erroneous thinking, as Kofi Abrefa Busia, a former Prime Minister of Ghana, explained, was that democracy was thought to be “alien” to “Africans thought and way of life,” and that the only language Africans understands is despotism that emanates from the African culture. As Ghana under Kwame Nkrumah witnessed, the argument was that authoritarian one-party system will bring rapid prosperity by controlling all dissent and freedoms.

Still, as military juntas in Southeast Asia such as South Korea or South America such as Brazil had done, the thinking was that Africa’s then mushrooming military juntas such as Uganda under Gen. Idi Amin will either be able to use their military discipline for either speedy advancement or laid the foundation for swift progress. In all this, the so-called rapid prosperity didn’t happen – Africa became more backward materially than before despite it’s immensely endowed human and natural wealth. Rather, the military juntas and the one-party systems left in its wake muddled thinking, oppression, deaths, confusion, state paralysis and state collapse, civil wars, endemic corruptions, tribalism, and constant fear and threats.

In Libya, a key face of Africa’s current democratic revolution, despite is immense oil wealth with a population of only 6.6 million; its problem is that for 42 years it has been despotically rule by Muarmmar Gaddafi. Despite having per capita income of about US$13,000, average life expectancy of 77 years, UN Human Development Index at 53th position out of 170 countries graded (high at 2010 rankings) and literacy rate of about 90 percent, the schisms between democracy and prosperity saw a civil war for democracy and freedoms break out in the face of dictatorial practices where freedoms were brutally suppressed.

On the other hand, Botswana, Africa’s longest democracy star, has about a third of Libya’s population, and a little better than Libya’s per capita income (at US$15,489). Botswana’s UN Human Development Index is at the 98th position (medium at 2010 rankings). But Botswana has been able to balance democracy and prosperity ever since it got independence from Britain in 1966 and its people enjoy greater peace, freedoms and democratic tenets for the past 44 years under the long-ruling Botswana Democratic Party. Unlike Libya, Botswana’s democracy has come with it sound accountability and transparency. Transparency International reports that Botswana is the least corrupt country in Africa. In the course of the Libyan democratic revolution, an anti-corruption worker who spoke to Transparency International’s Arab branch said, “It wasn’t safe to fight corruption. If you opposed the government, you would disappear. We were careful. But now we are ready to work.”

The lesson from the Libyan and other African states’ perturbations is that when a country is prosperous its people want more freedoms. Libya had been undemocratic for the past 42 years. Till the democratic revolution, Libya had put economic development first for prosperity but missed out in opening the democratic field (as South Korea, Chile and Taiwan did) and saw Gaddafi blew its authoritarian regime into pieces. Most Africans states, after gaining independence from European colonial rule had put democracy ahead of economic development but didn’t prosper and went back to despotism that sent most into turbulence.

Botswana and Mauritius’ experiences teach that there have to be skillful grafting of prosperity and democracy if holistic advancement is to take place without recourse to dictatorships. Botswana and Mauritius show that African governments who put democracy ahead of economic development do not slip back into tyranny. The 2009 Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, limited to sub-Sahara Africa, measures the health of African governance practices using different variables. The Index’s 2009 report revealed that Mauritius has the highest rank of “participation and human rights” and “sustainable economic opportunity.” With a per capita income of US$14,097, Mauritius came second in the “rule of law.” In the UN Human Development Index, Mauritius ranked 72nd out of 170 countries measured (high in the 2010 rankings).

The African understanding indicates that democracy and prosperity should be simultaneously affixed in the proposition for Africa’s sustainable progress. The Botswana and Mauritius’ successful models that are gradually been replicated Africa-wide is captured in The Prospects for Democracy in Africa (1961) by Kofi Abrefa Busia when he asked: “The question which we cannot avoid asking is whether economic development and nation building must mean authoritarianism and denial of freedom. Is it true that roads, railways, houses, harbours, factories and the like can only be quickly built under dictatorial forms of government?”

If you like this article, I’d recommend my book “If I Was Famous, I’d Have a Lot to Say”

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Sexual Health in Africa: Study Shows Dominant Women Have Less Sex

Empowered women in control of household decisions could be losing out on sex, says a new study out of Johns Hopkins University.

Published in the Journal of Sex in October, the researchers asked women about the last date of sexual intercourse as well as who had the final say on decisions ranging from healthcare to household purchases.

According to the Telegraph, the researchers surveyed women from six African countries who reported the more decisions made, the less physical intimacy they shared with their partners.

“The more decisions a woman reported making on her own, as compared to through joint decision-making, the less likely she was to have sex and the longer it was since she last had sexual intercourse,” said lead researcher Michelle Hindin.

The findings showed more dominant and assertive women had approximately 100 times less sex.

But the researchers also noted that this isn’t necessarily incidental for them — it could also be women taking control of their sexual preferences, the Daily Mail reported.

“Understanding how women’s position in the household influences their sexual activity may be an essential piece in protecting the sexual rights of women and helping them to achieve a sexual life that is both safe and pleasurable,” co-author Carie Muntifering told Health24.com.

The location of the women studied may also have played a role, though. Most recently, a study by Florida State University’s Roy Baumeister argued that more equality would lead to more sex. He pointed to a study surveying over 300,000 people from 37 countries which found that countries with a higher gender equality had more casual sex and more sexual partners. In nations with less equality between the sexes, the opposite was true.

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‘Bad Romance’ Hurts Online Singles

More than 200,000 people in the UK may have fallen victim to criminals who woo them online to steal their money.

The first formal study of so-called romance scams found that they were far more common than previously thought.

Among those surveyed by researchers at the University of Leicester, one in 50 knew someone who had been a victim.

Perpetrators typically set up a fake profile, pretend to enter into an online relationship then ask for cash to help with financial problems.

Police advice to the public is never to give money to anyone that they have only met over the internet.

The Leicester University team found that more than half (52%) of the 2,000 people surveyed for the study had heard of the scam with 2% personally knowing someone who had been targeted.

Double hit

Action Fraud, the national fraud reporting and advice centre run by the National Fraud Authority, identified 592 victims between 2010 and 2011.

However, the researchers believe that many more probably go unreported.

“It may well be that the shame and upset experienced by the victims deters them,” said Prof Monica Whitty.

She explained that the psychological impact could be huge and suggested that new methods of reporting the crime were needed.

“It is our view that the trauma caused by this scam is worse than any other, because of the ‘double hit’ experienced by the victims – loss of monies and a ‘romantic relationship’,” said Prof Whitty.

Grooming

The criminals who carry out romance scams typically use online dating sites or social networks to identify targets and devote time and effort to “grooming” them, according to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca).

It said that most will attempt to move the relationship away from monitored online places before defrauding people.

Soca view romance fraud as organised crime, usually operated from outside the UK.

“The perpetrators spend long periods of time grooming their victims, working out their vulnerabilities, and when the time is right… ask for money,” said Soca’s senior manager for fraud Colin Woodcock.

Investigations by Soca have found that people can give the criminals anything between £50 to £240,000.

In some cases, when they fail to get money out of victims, the criminals ask them to accept money into their account as part of a wider money laundering operation, said Mr Woodcock.

“It is crucial that nobody sends money to someone they meet online, and haven’t got to know well and in person,” he added.

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World Population Expected To Hit 7 Billion On Halloween

You should expect more than ghosts, spirits and candy when Halloween arrives this year. On October 31, 2011, the world will welcome its seven billionth person, according to the United Nations Population Fund.

Reaching such a large global population would have fascinated 19th century theorist Thomas Malthus. According to the Financial Times, Malthus argued — at a time when the world’s population was under 1 billion — the birth rate had to be lowered to prevent the famine and violence that would come with overpopulation.

Human ingenuity and technology have played a big part in defying Malthus, but there’s no doubt the population explosion has taken a toll on the earth’s resources. As Treehugger reported, the population spike since the 18th century has contributed a whole slew of environmental issues, including soil erosion and dwindling wild fish populations.

The Center for Biological Diversity has launched an advocacy campaign pegged to the 7 billion mark to highlight overpopulation and its impact on endangered plants and animals. As part of the “7 Billion and Counting” campaign, the center is giving out 100,000 endangered species condoms to a network of 1,200 volunteer distributors in all 50 states.

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Go To Jail Or Church: Bay Minette Lets Offenders Choose

BAY MINETTE, Ala. — A civil liberties group said Friday that an Alabama town should not start an alternative sentencing program that would give non-violent offenders a new choice: Go to jail, or go to church.

Starting next week, the program will allow a city judge to sentence misdemeanor offenders to work off their sentences in jail and pay a fine, or go to church every Sunday for a year. Offenders who select church can pick the place of worship but must check in weekly with the pastor and the police department. If the one-year church attendance program is completed successfully, the offender’s case will be dismissed.

The Alabama branch of the American Civil Liberties Union plans to send Bay Minette officials a letter demanding that they suspend the program. While the group says it supports alternative sentencing programs that save money, it believes the plan in Bay Minette violates the Constitution, state ACLU Executive Director Olivia Turner said in a statement.

“But it is a fundamental principle of the Establishment Clause that the government cannot force someone to attend church,” she said. “When the alternative to going to church is going to jail, the so-called `choice’ available to offenders is no choice at all.”

City officials did not immediately return calls from The Associated Press.

Pastor Robert Gates of Christian Life Church leads one of 56 congregations participating in the effort. He predicted it would succeed.

“You show me somebody who falls in love with Jesus, and I’ll show you a person who won’t be a problem to society but that will be an influence and a help to those around them,” he told the television station.

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Mobile Phone Access Varies Widely in Sub-Saharan Africa; South Africa Leads

This is the first of two articles that examine access to information and communications technology in sub-Saharan Africa.

WASHINGTON, D.C.– Fifty-seven percent of the adult population — or more than an estimated 151 million people — have mobile phones across the 17 countries Gallup surveyed in sub-Saharan Africa in 2010. The percentage of adults with mobile phones ranges from a high of 84% in South Africa to a low of 16% in Central African Republic, signaling the potential for tremendous growth in the industry on the sub-continent.

Mobile telephone subscriptions have grown faster in Africa than in any other region in the world since 2003, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Mobile phone adoption rates have soared in countries such as South Africa, where Gallup surveys show more than 8 in 10 adults now say they personally have mobile phones. But penetration still remains relatively low in several countries where adoption rates have been more sluggish, including Burkina Faso (19%), Niger (18%), and the Central African Republic (16%).

Mobile Phone Owners More Likely to Be Male, Older Than 18

The average mobile phone owner in the 17 sub-Saharan countries is more likely to be male (62%) than female (52%) and older than 18. Those between the ages of 15 and 18, and arguably with the least spending power, are less likely to say they have mobile phones than older adults. On average, 40% of 15- to 18-year-olds in these sub-Saharan African countries have mobile phones, but the percentage climbs to 63% among those aged 19 to 29 and remains higher than 60% for those between the ages of 30 and 45. Ownership drops off after that, with 51% of those 46 and older saying they have mobile phones.

he average mobile phone owner is also more likely to be educated. Across the 17 countries surveyed, 75% of those with at least nine years of formal education have a mobile phone, while 44% of those with up to eight years of formal education have a mobile phone. The highest rate of mobile phone ownership at each education level occurs in South Africa, where 76% of those with up to eight years of formal education have cell phones and 91% with higher education do. The lowest rate of mobile phone ownership for those with lower levels of education is 10% in the Central African Republic and the lowest rate among those with at least nine years of education is 40% in Liberia.

Location, Income Make a Difference in Most Countries

Urban sub-Saharan Africans are more likely to be mobile phone owners. Sixty-nine percent of sub-Saharan Africans living in urban areas in the 17 countries surveyed have a mobile phone, while significantly fewer living in rural areas, 53%, do. However, in Ghana (urban 58%, rural 60%), Nigeria (urban 77%, rural 66%), South Africa (urban 82%, rural 86%), and Zimbabwe (urban 54%, rural 39%), urban and rural dwellers are statistically as likely to have mobile phones.

Not surprisingly, household income and mobile phone ownership are also related. Those with a mobile phone report average per capita household incomes near $1,100 and those without a mobile phone report per capita household incomes lower than $740. This income pattern is present in all countries except Botswana, Ghana, Nigeria, and South Africa, where there is no statistical difference in per capita household income.

Implications

Mobile phone access in sub-Saharan Africa ranges widely by country. At the same time, men, those with higher education levels, urban residents, and those with higher per capita household income generally are more likely to have mobile phones. The challenge for the mobile phone industry is to expand from this base to rural and poorer areas, where cost will likely remain an obstacle to growth.

For complete data sets or custom research from the more than 150 countries Gallup continually surveys, please contact SocialandEconomicAnalysis@gallup.com or call 202.715.3030.

Survey Methods

Results are based on face-to-face interviews with 1,000 adults, aged 15 and older, conducted in 2010 in Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. For results based on the total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence that the maximum margin of sampling error ranges from ±3.4 percentage points to ±4.1 percentage points. The margin of error reflects the influence of data weighting. In addition to sampling error, question wording and practical difficulties in conducting surveys can introduce error or bias into the findings of public opinion polls.

For more complete methodology and specific survey dates, please review Gallup’s Country Data Set details.

Source: Gallup.com
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Kofi Busia: A Stimulant For Today’s Democracy

Feature/Ghana/Africa Democracy

Ghanaians are enjoying their 19-year-old democracy. Why not! They have spent most of their 54-year statehood in autocratic one-party systems and dictatorial military juntas.

Freedoms, a very critical indicator of their democracy, are breaking out everywhere, wheeling the democratic tenets. One will never believe that this was a country where at some time people were gloomy, couldn’t express themselves openly for fear of either being killed, disappearing or imprisoned, and developed a disease aptly called “the culture of silence.”

But Ghanaians needn’t have gone through 35 years of nauseating undemocratic practices. Come to think of it, the excruciating contours were unnecessary. It doesn’t matter the political challenges along the path of statehood, democracy informed by Ghanaians’ cultural values should have directed the political system. From scratch, the Ghana state was founded on democracy. Though there are slight differences, the 100 ethnic groups that formed Ghana are traditionally democratic. The reminder is that whether Western liberal democracy or African traditional democracy, the erroneous view have been that Africans aren’t democratic by nature but inclined to authoritarianism. And that democracy planted in Africa from the Western world wouldn’t work.

Kofi Abrefa Busia, An academic and former Prime Minister of Ghana

Kofi Abrefa Busia,  a trained sociologist, academic and Prime Minister of Ghana from October 1, 1969 to January 13, 1972, not only rejected such views of prospects for African democracy back in 1961 when most Africa was embroiled in political turbulence but Busia becomes a rich stimulant, an excellent fertilizer for Ghana’s and Africa’s democracies. The African democratic fruition has also seen the imperative calls for Africans to situate their democracy in their cultural values. Rationally, US President Barack Obama has told Africans that when he visited Ghana in July 2009.

Despite some painful contours in Ghana’s political terrain, Busia believed unwavering that there are prospects for democracy in Africa. Like all democracies, it needs to be worked out. As Botswana has done from within African traditional values. The 44-year-old Botswana democracy that mixes Western liberal democratic ideals with Botswana cultural values makes Busia an African democracy realist way before the current thriving democratic atmosphere with its attendant democratic revolutions.

In The Prospects For Democracy In Africa, Busia agreed that coup d’etats, civil wars, political paralysis, tribalism, traditional tyranny (otherwise called the Big Man syndrome) and endemic corruption aren’t forecasts for democracy not to be grown in Africa. Rather democracy, with its accountability and decentralization, could be appropriated for democratic growth and progress. Busia thought that while such views are correct, such views should also look at the human possibility of the African – the possibility to correct himself or herself and be faithful in his or her democratic convictions.

This is seen against the notion that the only language the political African understands is authoritarianism. Busia strongly dismissed this. “Such hope would need to be firmly founded on faith: faith is the strength, the appeal and the universality of the values of democracy,” Busia said in London, UK on 4th January 1961, on the 18th Christmas Holiday Lectures and Discussions for Tomorrow’s Citizens, organized by The Council for Education in World Citizenship.

Unlike Botswana, either in Busia’s Ghana or other African states, most African leaders then had little faith and conviction in democracy. That’s the human aspects of the African to live a fruitful democratic life, as most African states are enjoying now, wasn’t looked at. Faith and conviction in democracy was either weak or nil. So crisis after crisis loomed either in Mobutu Sese Seko’s Zaire, Idi Amin’s Uganda or Amilcar Cabral’s Guinea Bissau. Busia himself became a victim of such predicament, when Col. Kutu Acheampong overthrew him in 13 January 1972. For years, under Ghana’s then authoritarian systems, Busia lived mostly in exile and died in exile in Oxford, UK. But was buried in a democratic Ghana.

The lack of faith and conviction in democracy in Africa, that didn’t consider the African veracities, means not understanding the democratic principles within Africans’ traditional values that should be tapped for greater democracy. Despite the extremely complicated nature of the insurgent-ridden African Great Lakes Region, that has come from undemocratic actions, greater democracy faithfully brewed from within African traditional values are the sure card to play. This makes the conviction for democracy stronger and not feeble, as has been the case. Busia was aware of this when he stated that, “The realization that the tender plant of parliamentary democracy planted on the African soil by Colonial powers is by no means robust, has caused apologists to offer easy explanations in defence of undemocratic actions.”

Botswana and Mauritius significantly repudiate the long held notion that democracy is “alien” to “African thought and way of life” (the quotes are from Busia). For their faithful and convinced democratic practices, Botswana and Mauritius lead in sub-Sahara Africa’s development indicators. Botswana and Mauritius also confirm Busia’s view that democracy isn’t unnecessary impediment to African states’ rapid progress. Busia notes that those who opposed democracy in Africa, and called for either authoritarian one-party systems or military juntas, identified two stumbling blocks – national unity and economic development.

The national unity card is played on “narrow tribal and regional loyalties re-assert themselves,” Busia supposed. The economic development tag, Busia explains, is engaged in authoritarianism as the “need for rapid economic development. Standards of living have to be raised considerably, and in as short a time as possible, and this, it is again argued, can only be done under a strong leader and a strong centralized regime that can adopt a planned economic and social development, and impose the necessary social discipline.”

Pretty much of most early post-colonial African states, intoxicated in the debilitating authoritarianism, bought erroneously into this idea. Either in Busia’ Ghana or other African states, it didn’t work but rather plunged Africa into civil wars, widespread corruption, state paralysis, misconstruction of Africa, frightening tribalism, all kinds of leaders (some horrible such Uganda’s Idi Amin and some insane such as Equatorial Guinea’s Francisco Marcia Nguema), among others.

On the other hand, African countries like Botswana and Mauritius, that convincingly choose democracy fermented in African traditional values, reveal today the Busian vision of democratic Africa in greater peace and greater development indicators. Busia, therefore, honestly asked, based pragmatically in the African experiences and traditional values,  “The question which we cannot avoid asking is whether economic development and nation building must mean authoritarianism and denial of freedom. Is it true that roads, railways, houses, harbours, factories and the like can only be quickly built under dictatorial forms of government?”

No matter where one turns to in Africa today, whether in oil rich Libya or diamond rich Sierra Leone or copper rich Zambia or cobalt rich the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Botswana and Mauritius, with their democratic practices of freedoms, social justice, the rule of law, equality, free press, decent leaders and good governance, accountability and transparency, choices, and public opinions, point inspirationally to the prospects for democracy in Africa as the best ways for Africa’s progress.

But the democracy has to be primed in African traditional values, history and experiences.

Busia was staunchly persuaded about this in 1961. “If attention is fixed on the human resources and human potentiality of Africa, the Vision of the triumph of democracy in Africa will become clearer and more challenging; that is, if there is the faith and the conviction that democracy represents the best way yet devised by man for community life, and that it is a way of life which is open to any group of men who choose and aspire towards it. Therein lies the challenge of faith which illumines the compelling Vision not only of a democratic West or a democratic Africa, but of a democratic World.”

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