Statement originally published by the Coalition for the Elimination of Imperialism in Africa.
“Democracy is the people, with all their strength and potential. Ballot boxes and an electoral apparatus in and of themselves don’t signify the existence of democracy. Those who organize elections every so often, and are concerned about the people only when an election is coming up, don’t have a genuinely democratic system. But wherever people can say what they think every day, that’s where there’s genuine democracy – because you have to earn the people’s trust every day. Democracy can’t be conceived of without total power resting in the hands of the people – economic, military, political, social, and cultural power.” – Thomas Sankara
The Illusion of Bourgeois Democracy
“Democracy” is often interpreted too narrowly, primarily through the lens of bourgeois democracy. Within this model, citizen engagement is confined to occasional electoral rituals where multiple parties vie for positions in the national assembly. These parties are lined up to participate in elections and the official transition of power while simultaneously upholding the economic supremacy of capitalist elites. Globally, especially in the West, this is celebrated as the authentic form and embodiment of democracy. However, under capitalism, democracy is largely procedural rather than substantive, as it fails to address the material conditions that dictate real political power.
In neo-colonial contexts this system functions as a façade, where elections are manipulated by imperialist forces, corporate media, and local comprador elites to sustain exploitation. The illusion of “free and fair” elections under such conditions does not equate to true democracy, as the fundamental structures of economic and political power remain untouched.
Neo-colonialism and the Crisis of African “Democracy”
The roots of the lack of substantive democracy in Africa lie in colonialism. This is why “democratic” governments have been ever willing to follow the dictates of imperialist countries and institutions and to leave their countries open to resource exploitation. As leaders of a corrupt system emanating from the corruption set in place by colonialists, which placed African leaders in a middleman situation where taking a cut from contracts was the key endeavor, these leaders are easily controlled by foreign powers and multinational corporations.
Colonialism has given way to the neo-colonial phase of capitalism which dominates the world today. Neo-colonialism’s origins are in the 19th century when European countries issued nominal independence to former colonies in Central and South America while remaining economically in control. It has impacted a large segment of Asia and Africa since the second half of the 20th Century, with countries that gained independence inheriting both the political structures and economic structures put in place by colonial and capitalist forces. Kwame Nkrumah warned about this in his classic text Neo-colonialism: The Final Stage of Imperialism, calling it the final and most dangerous phase of imperialism. While most of Africa practices different versions of electoral processes, almost nowhere are the presidents and prime ministers and other elected officials truly in control of their nations’ resources.
The Failure of Bourgeois Democracy in Africa
The current period of civil rule can be considered the second wave of “democracy” in Africa. The first wave (in the 60s) had been truncated by military coups. This was followed by struggles for democracy, which ended in many African countries reverting to a multi-party “democracy”, but in which the problems that bedeviled the first wave have remained.
Under politicians elected in the second wave, the continent has seen the imposition of Western-led economic policies that increase poverty and keep the countries underdeveloped. In a bourgeois democracy, the people are not meant to have a choice in policies that shape their lives as the policies are not meant to serve the people. Hence, leaders of all political parties follow the same economic ideology; one imposed by the Western imperialist institutions.
With growing poverty, the people become increasingly disenfranchised, while the wealthy engage in a game of musical chairs, with the same old people (and their children) contesting for elections year after year. Thus, poor people are left with a decision of sorts: sell their votes to the highest bidder, as they cannot tell the difference between one candidate and another; or, they start to organize amongst themselves in search of a democracy that truly reflects their needs.
Economic Independence as the Basis of Democracy
The limitations of bourgeois “democracy” are evident in its inability to deliver genuine self-determination for the masses. Africans have traditionally practiced democracy based on a collective social sense, which did not assume individualism or conflicting interest, but on the social nature of human beings. But the type of democracy that has been imposed in Africa is not, in fact, the rule of the people, but the rule of certain individuals who represent the international bourgeoisie. Capitalism is allowed to dominate, and through the resultant inequality of weatlh, the African political elites create a patrimonial system where the wealthy maintain and recycle power, while claiming to practice “democracy”.
Hence, a critical ingredient for democracy is economic independence. Crucially, Claude Ake explains that the lack of economic independence from colonial powers impacts on the practice of democracy in Africa. There was a transition from direct colonialism to neo-colonialism, with the authoritarian and exploitative colonial state that had served during direct colonialism continuing to be the form of rule in neo-colonial states. The elites that serve the colonialists captured and privatised state power, so that wealth is concentrated and then use this wealth to perpetuate their continuing rule. These rulers have no developmental vision, focusing rather on the maintenance of power and the primitive accumulation of wealth. Their wealth continues to be anchored on their enabling of the extraction of resources to the West. The huge wealth that accrues explains the violent nature of politics in most African countries, which often spills over into civil and ethnic wars.
The Struggle for True Independence
Throughout our struggle, some leaders rejected neo-colonial subjugation and decided to take the daring and revolutionary option that requires facing up to the old colonial powers. This is the choice President Nkrumah made. Ghana flourished until the imperialist forces used internal agents and the CIA to overthrow Nkrumah and bring neo-colonialism to Ghana. This was the choice Sekou Toure took in 1958 with the independence of Guinea-Conakry. The French tried everything to destroy Guinea. Only after Toure’s death was imperialism capable of disrupting the PDG and putting in place a neo-colonial government.
In the turn of the century, the former president of Zimbabwe Robert Mugabe took the daring revolutionary option and organized the ‘fast track land reclamation program’ distributing farms to over 300,000 families across Zimbabwe. This act to empower the people was met by a vicious onslaught from the imperialist powers that for over 15 years has frozen Zimbabwe assets overseas, denied the country credit and penalized banks and companies globally that do business with the ruling party and leadership of Zimbabwe. These illegal and immoral sanctions have caused billions of dollars in lost revenue to Zimbabwe and have caused untold suffering in Zimbabwe.
Through sanction and outright regime change, or more subtle approaches such as media disinformation campaigns, the goal of imperialists is to demobilize grassroots movements. Our continent’s history is replete with examples of how controlled “decolonization” necessitated the exclusion of the masses from political life.
The neutralization of grassroots ambitions for social change was required for the stabilization of neo-colonialism after African countries gained nominal independence. For almost all ruling regimes across the continent, their basic political aims were to deprive the urban and rural proletariat of its own organizational and political voice, its ability to represent itself. Old militant mass structures had to be retired, demobilized, and made to be patriotic to a nation-building plan which ultimately never threatened colonial hegemony.
Anti-Democratic Western Values
The dynamics of political interventions by Western powers reveal a troubling pattern: the West does not inherently oppose coups, but in fact assassinates popular leaders, orchestrated coups, and protects military dictatorships in support of its interests. For instance, the West played a pivotal role in orchestrating the coup that led to the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in 1961 and the ousting of Kwame Nkrumah in 1966 because these leaders worked for the African masses, rather than the western bourgeoisie. Furthermore, the United States and its allies were staunch supporters of Mobutu Sese Seko’s military regime in the Democratic Republic of Congo for more than three decades, prioritizing strategic and economic gains over concerns for democratic governance. Similarly, France backed the Gnassingbé Eyadema military dictatorship in Togo for 38 years. The West’s commitment to “democratic” values is frequently contingent upon alignment with its own geopolitical and economic interests. “Democracy”, in this regard, is upheld only when it conforms to Western expectations and preferences.
The imperialists are sending a clear signal – any effort to retake resources and return them to the people will be met with vicious oppression. In response, some African leaders claim they are taking a pragmatic approach. They claim they must cooperate with the imperialist dictates of the USA and European Union and maintain subservient connections with the IMF and the World Bank. They must agree to concessions to the capitalists in return for foreign investments. Other African leaders are more blatant in their self-interest and have amassed conspicuous wealth within Africa, in imperialist countries and in hidden tax shelters. This personal wealth is often from selling public resources to foreign interests for personal gain. It is wealth stolen from the people. As long as these neo-colonial thieves continue to generate wealth for imperialism, they will be protected and their imperialist masters will assist them in maintaining political power. The break from neo-colonial domination requires a mass Pan-African movement that is politically conscious of the oppressive nature of capitalism and imperialism and is clear on the benefits of scientific socialism as the just alternative.
A Path Forward
In West Africa, the recent wave of military coups, particularly in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, reflects a popular rejection of this hollow “democracy”. These coups are expressions of mass discontent with neo-colonial regimes that have failed to deliver sovereignty, economic justice, or true democratic participation. While not all military interventions have been inherently revolutionary (case in point, Guinea-Conakry and Gabon), the AES has aligned with anti-imperialist and Pan-Africanist movements, challenging Western hegemony and advocating for a break from capitalist exploitation. Unlike the false democracy imposed through rigged elections and IMF dictates, these revolutionary coups represent an organic demand for a more authentic democracy, one that prioritizes national liberation over imperialist-approved electoral theatrics.
The crisis of “democracy” in Africa underscores a fundamental truth: elections under capitalism do not guarantee democracy, especially when the system itself is designed to uphold neo-colonial subjugation. The path to true people’s democracy requires not just the removal of comprador regimes but the dismantling of the capitalist-imperialist structures that sustain them. Only then can a genuine, participatory democracy, rooted in economic and political liberation, emerge as a representation of the people’s true and genuine aspirations.
As the working people and oppressed masses of Africa, we draw our strength from the revolutionary leadership of the AES, which serves as a reminder of the genuine freedom and democracy the African people yearn for. The African people and the African left as a whole have a revolutionary responsibility: to defend and advance the interests of the AES and Africa as a whole. This begins with establishing people’s libraries, organizing study circles, and continuing to build grassroots political organizations and social movements.