It is time for us to sit down and talk about democracy in Africa

Is there an arc, a trajectory that societies travel over time? Like, they start out in an infancy and then aggregate into a society big enough to need specialised leadership and that gives rise to politics. And as the society grows into a polity it matures, peaks and ages or decays.

And in that trajectory, what role if any do democratic practices/ideas play? And in the modern nation-states that Africa had to adopt as a condition of existing with some degree of freedom in the post-colonial 20th century, can such a trajectory be observed?

I promise you; this kind of thinking goes a long way to answering questions like: Why does my government keep spending money on large and dubious infrastructure projects while basic services like education and healthcare continue to struggle even though they are the ugali-na-nyama of any state with ambitions to thrive? It all boils down to power: Who we give it to, why, what they do with it and what we do in response.

It is no secret that Tanzania is in a bit of a sticky spot at the moment. Arguably, democracy is facing a crisis the world over but remember Joy is boringly similar while misery is a unique experience for the sufferer.

I think we have suffered a political regression, my more cynical — I apologise, their term for themselves is “realist”— friends insist we have been a political mess in peaceful clothing all along. Maybe, but then again which country isn’t a mess underneath it all?

I say we have suffered a regression because in adopting the modern nation-state format, we left out a few important conversations.

Partly because nation-building in its early stages is a delicate sort of infancy, but also because it suited those who inherited power from the colonials.

Over time, it has come to feel that indeed, we switched out one class of oppressor for another class of oppressor whose claims of legitimacy are now starting to look fragile.

It is not like the social contract is all that complicated. Whether you are a family group or an empire, leaders are accorded authority in exchange for the protection of the collective as well as the delivery of basic needs.

Dar es Salaam or Rome, you have to keep the bread and circuses flowing- as well as the general mood steady. Any hint of incompetence at these basic provisions will create a Situation.

Read: Rogue view: Some Africans have their bad democracy, good coups, people’s dictators

In this age of information, the response time of the general populace is quite a bit shorter than ever before. Bibis get gifted iPhones by their urban young’uns, so they can all see our governments fail us in real time.

I believe in emergence, I don’t think that states are just a mess that blunders hither and yon chaotically, there is a trajectory. Tanzania has been made into a state, we have left our ethno-linguistic collectives behind for the most part.

We are in transition, we have stepped onto a well-trodden path and we need to manage ourselves accordingly. If our early days were infancy, Tanzania is quietly growing into a fractious and possibly resentful young democracy that will not put up with the condescension of a nanny state.

I know that African governments are conservative and nervous about the topic of democracy — they should be, they know what they did — but it is time. It is time for us to sit down and have The Talk.

Elsie Eyakuze is an independent consultant and blogger for The Mikocheni Report; E-mail: elsieeyakuze@gmail.com