Democracy, Multipartyism and Emancipative Politics in Africa: The Case of Zaire

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Periodical article

Title:	Democracy, Multipartyism and Emancipative Politics in Africa: The Case of Zaire
Author:	Wamba-dia-Wamba, Ernest
Year:	1993
Periodical:	Africa Development: A Quarterly Journal of CODESRIA (ISSN 0850-3907)
Volume:	18
Issue:	4
Pages:	95-118
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:	democracy multiparty systems History and Exploration Politics and Government
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/24486780
Abstract:	Democracy, understood as people's political capacity for its sovereignty, is on the agenda in Africa. But democracy should not be confused with multipartyism. This article examines the relations between multipartyism and emancipatory politics in Zaire. Following Sylvain Lazarus (1986, 1989, 1990, 1992), who identified five major sequences in the world history of emancipative politics, each characterized by a particular 'mode of politics', the author analyses the sequences of emancipative politics in Zaire from 1921 to 1992. In particular, he analyses the failure of the CNS (Conférence nationale souveraine) which closed on 5 December 1992 and shows that, in Zaire, democracy should not be confused with the project of a parliamentary State, a model which was proposed from the outside and incarnated by an inside elite which is interested only in the limited project of 'power sharing' with or without Mobutu. To achieve people's self-empowerment, new forms of political organization are needed. App., bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French.