Development Theories and Governance Ideologies Conundrums in Africa: An Observable Disconnects Between Values and Practices

Abstract

For many decades, African theorists and ideologists have made it a preoccupation to discover values, ideas, models, and principles that are born out of African traditional and cultural ontologies—values of which, in their view, can and ought to be adopted as a better alternative solution to the political and social miseries facing contemporary African nations. Resultantly, the values of Ubuntu and African humanism dominate. These values found in indigenous African communitarian societies are not only employed by African scholars as a litmus paper to test the viability of prevailing theories and practices but have also become the foundational grounds upon which new theories are propounded as solutions for effective governance. These theories cover different fields of study ranging from religion and ethics to politics and economics. Based on this preoccupation, theories and ideologies such as African socialism, consensual democracy, African relational ethics, eco-bio-communitarianism, and African feminism, and many others, have emerged. Despite the above theorization based on traditional African values, African nations continue to grapple with the same old challenge of poverty, human rights abuses, lack of clear political ideology, moral and political corruption, and political and tribal conflicts among others. Through conceptual examination, the chapter does not only assess what could account for their failure but also makes sense of the conspicuous disconnect between these theories that are built on indigenous African values and the Africans’ ways of life which do not reflect these values. The paper concludes by making recommendations on how we can, perhaps, bridge this gap.