Afrocentricity as a Theory for Good Governance in Africa

Abstract

Corruption and poverty persist in many African countries despite over two decades of implementing the donor's good governance agenda. The ineffectiveness of western approaches in Africa makes the case for institutional reforms based on theories that are compatible with African culture. The problem, however, is that while there is a proliferation of western theories of governance and development, there are few well-articulated theories emanating from African indigenous knowledge systems. In recent times, Afrocentricity has emerged as a scientific paradigm that is based on African culture and that serves African interests. Consequently, the objectives of the paper are to describe the characteristics of Afrocentricity and to present the Afrocentric principles of good governance. The methodology adopted relies mainly on secondary sources. The findings show that precolonial Africa has many democratic governance systems to learn from, and based on Africa's cultural democracies, some Afrocentric principles of good governance are brought forward