Studying local African democratic exemplars yields culturally grounded governance models better than imported frameworks.

Evidence

The moral of Africa’s First Democrats is that future studies on the nature and contours of leadership and governance in Africa must look at local actors who have practiced, at whatever political level, the spirit and the word of democratic governance. Such experiences offer materials that would resonate with local but flexible values rather than purely imported and cagelike frameworks. This is particularly so in imagining a culturally (not tribalistically) relevant model of leadership and political praxis. What is needed now is to extend this work, in a theoretically and empirically grounded manner, to other progressive experiences on the continent. — Abdi Ismail Samatar, Africa’s First Democrats, 1112