Remaking African Civil Societies and PRSP in Action: Ethiopia

Abstract

Whether European1 conceptions of ‘civil society’ are an appropriate lens through which to view African societies is open to question. David Lewis argues for an ‘adaptive’ approach which sees the concept of civil society having value in non-Western contexts, but that it should not be applied too rigidly. In Africa high degrees of politicization with low opportunities for participation contribute to political instability (Whitfield, 2003). The ‘development’ of ‘civil society’ may contribute to this as some types of ‘civil society in Africa [are] formed by all those who are able to manage and steer communal anger’ (Monga [1995] 2000, p. 389). As John Sender (2002) notes ‘participation’ may be violent.

The political dynamics of a society are not easily ‘read off’ from a class register: civil society contains within it a diversity of organizations and forms of power which have their own particular ‘stories’ … These can be collectively defined as political identities: ethnic, generational, religious, racial and gendered.

(Harrison, 2002, p. 105)