Africa’s first democrats treated democratic leadership as constitutional service to their people

Evidence

Africa’s first democrats were quintessential constitutionalists for their entire lives and most acutely during the seven years when they led the country. Their engagement in politics was a calling to serve their people rather than an instrument for self-aggrandizement. Scholarly works on democracy and leadership in Africa have labored hard to narrate the story of what an accountable system of government might or could be like. Fortunately, the history of Africa’s first democrats offers an African political praxis and a model for others to emulate that embodies the hopes and dreams of freedom and independence. For both of them, democracy was, in the memorable expression of C. Wright Mills, “some kind of collective self-control over the mechanics of history itself.” — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1107

Categorization

• DEFINE: Mills’ definition frames democracy as collective control over history’s mechanics.