Why Western Style Democracy has not worked for Africa.

The Western world likes to push Africans to adopt democracy as a system that will magically ensure progress in the continent. However, 60 years after independence, democracy has failed to work for Africa. In fact, outside of Western Europe, democracy has been an utter failure.

One, Africa does not have a strong middle class. Democracy works best where there is a strong middle class to debate ideas and push the ruling class to implement their agenda. Our voters are our weakest link. Too often, politicians will bribe voters and line them up during the voting day. As such, African elections are a pact between the rich, who finance the political campaigns, and the poor who act as the footsoldiers for the rich political class.There is no place for the middle class.

Let's look outside of Africa. The middle East is largely made up of kingdoms. They are prospering despite most of them having constitutional monarchies in place. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain come to mind.

Let's look at the biggest example of them all. China. China is ruled by the Chinese Communist Party. There are no elections in China
 Despite that, China has been able to lift 300 million people out of poverty, something that took Europe 400 years. China is now the world's second largest economy, and is well headed for the number one position if recent projections are to go by.

In final thought, we had traditional African kingdoms such as the Ashanti and Songhai empire that prospered even as they were kingdoms. We will have to really relook at ourselves and choose a model that works for us rather than what the West dictates to us.