Research Catalog

Title

Legacies of power : leadership change and former presidents in African politics / edited by Roger Southall and Henning Melber.

Publication

Cape Town, South Africa : HSRC Press ; Uppsala, Sweden : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet ; Chicago : Distributed in North America by Independent Publishers Group, 2006.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Southall, Roger
• Melber, Henning
• Human Sciences Research Council. Democracy and Governance Research Programme.
• Nordiska Afrikainstitutet.

Description

xxvi, 350 p.; 21 cm.

Summary

It was a widely dominant perception until the early 1990's that African rulers do not vacate their office alive. But even in the brutal reality of African politics, transition takes place and various former presidents have dealt with how to maintain power and privilege very differently. With new case studies examining the post-presidential years of the iconic Mandela in South Africa, Daniel Arap Moi in Kenya, Nyerere in Tanzania, Rawlings in Ghana, Charles Taylor in Liberia as well as the experiences of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria, this volume explores the dilemmas which demands for presidential transitions impose upon incumbent rulers and analyses the relationships which are evolving between new regimes and their predecessors. The contributors discuss the hybridal political systems that exist in post-independence Africa; the role allotted to or pursued by former African presidents; transitional politics and justice; and political stability. The book stimulates careful further observation and analyses concerning progress in this contested arena of institutionalised political power in Africa.

Subject

• Ex-presidents > Africa
• Leadership > Africa
• Politicians > Africa
• Africa > Politics and government > 1960-

Note

• "This volume is an outcome of collaborative efforts between the Democracy and Governance Research Programme of the South African Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and the Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa (LiDeSA) project of the Nordic Africa Institute ..."--P. ix.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Additional Formats (note)

• Also available online via the World Wide Web.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

List of tables -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations and acronyms -- Introduction: about life after presidency -- Former presidents in African politics -- Soldiering on: the post-presidential years of Nelson Mandela 1999-2005 -- Unpacking the 'model': presidential succession in Botswana -- The contested role of former presidents in Zambia -- 'Presidential indispensability' in Namibia: moving out of office but staying in power? -- 'When I am a century old': why Robert Mugabe won't go -- Toxic mushrooms? the presidential third-term debate in Malawi.

ISBN

• 0796921202 (Worldwide except Europe and the U.K.)
• 917106558X (Europe and the U.K.)

LCCN

^^2006376913

OCLC

63188430

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library