Kinship Allegiance and Deference to Elders Worldview: The Root Cause of Dysfunctional Governance in Africa

Abstract

Symptoms and consequences of dysfunctional governance are palpable virtually everywhere in Africa. Discussion of the dysfunctional governance in literature is mostly in popular rather than scientific media perhaps because there is no basis on which a nation-state's governance quality can be assessed objectively. This paper traces the root cause of dysfunctional governance in Africa to the peoples’ worldview, especially kinship allegiance and deference to elders, authority and White Man. Ethnicity creates conducive environment for manipulation of electoral process and increases the likelihood of electing incompetent political leaders. The need for loot to meet the expectations of kinsmen and kinswomen is the origin of embezzlement and bribery; should a public office holder retire without loot he becomes an object of ridicule among his kinsmen. Deference to elders limit the participation of younger generation in governance. Young generation of people have limited impact in governance because they do not replace and do not criticize government officials who in most cases are elders. African governments often adopt policies, especially foreign policies that may not be favorable to their countries because they do not face the White Man. Functional governance requires that the root cause of bad governance, namely Africans’ worldview should be changed. But peoples’ worldview is fundamental and does not easily lend itself to change. Besides Africans have over time depended on their worldview to survive difficult conditions such as slavery, colonialism, and other man-made and natural disasters.