New generation of African leaders

Yoweri Museveni of Uganda and Paul Kagame of Rwanda were considered to be part of the "new generation".

The term "new generation" or "new breed" of African leaders was a buzzword widely used in the mid-late 1990s to express optimism in a new generation of African leadership. It has since fallen out of favor, along with several of the leaders.

Description

In the 1980s and 1990s, increasingly many Sub-Saharan African countries were holding multiparty elections. The Cold War, the proxy wars of the U.S. and Soviet Union as well as Apartheid in South Africa had come to an end. A new generation of African leaders had been anointed who promised to transform their continent. That dream was dubbed the African Renaissance. This concept is often defined in contrast to the big man syndrome - the autocratic rule by the so called "big men" of African politics during the first two decades after independence.

When US president Bill Clinton made his African journey in March 1998, he helped popularize this notion when he said he placed hope in a new generation of African leaders devoted to democracy and economic reforms. Although Bill Clinton did not identify the African leaders by name, it is generally assumed that he was referring to, among others, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia and Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea.^[1] Other leaders have since been added that list, including Ghana's Jerry Rawlings, Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano and South Africa's Thabo Mbeki.

In contrast, the champions of African independence in the 1960s, eg. Kwame Nkrumah, Julius Nyerere, Patrice Lumumba, Jomo Kenyatta, Kenneth Kaunda, Robert Mugabe, and occasionally the diasporan Pan-Africanists W. E. B. Du Bois and Marcus Garvey - are sometimes called "the old generation of African leaders" (in the 1960s they were also called "new generation of nationalist leaders" and "new generation of Pan-Africanists", and paradoxically - "new generation of African leaders").

Criticism

With the outbreak of the Second Congo War and the Eritrean-Ethiopian War, in which many of the 'new generation of African leaders' warred against each other, optimism was lost. Furthermore, many of the new generation of African leaders have failed to deliver democracy, peace and development, and they have shown an inclination to cling to power.

Other uses

The notion of a "new generation of African leaders" has also come to mean not only the above named presidents, but also a vision of a new breed of African politicians, civil servants, business leaders etc.

The similar term, "new generation of black leaders", is also used, albeit mostly in the context of diasporan Africa.

References

1. ^ "New-Breed" Leadership, Conflict, and Reconstruction in the Great Lakes Region of Africa: A Sociopolitical Biography of Uganda's Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, Joseph Oloka-Onyango, Africa Today - Volume 50, Number 3, Spring 2004, p. 29
2. ^ Only realism can help Africa, Magazine for Development and Cooperation [editorial]. D+C 2003:10.
3. ^ Irrational Exuberance: The Clinton Administration in Africa, Peter Rosenblum, Current History 101:195-202, 2002 (subscription required)

See also

• Big man (political science)

External links

• "Africa's 'new generation' linked to old", ethiomedia.com February 20, 2006
• "Analysis: 'New generation' of east African leaders falls from Western grace", AFP January 9, 2006
• "Africa's Game of Follow the Leader", Time Magazine, November 26, 2005