I have, this week, received the hardcover version of Dr Abdoulaye Saine’s latest book - The Paradox of Third Wave of Democratization in Africa - and he has to be congratulated on writing one of the definitive books on Gambian politics. It was with great anticipation that I picked up Dr Saine’s book and indeed it does fulfil those expectations. The book is exciting, very well written and argued.
It is therefore not surprising that this excellent book has already been nominated for the Melville Herskovits Award, presented by the African Studies Association, USA. He would have been a well deserved and worthy winner if he were to win this prestigious award this year. Our prayers are with Dr Saine and hopefully, his intriguing and highly readable book would have triumphed when the winner is announced later this year. His timely book is a welcome addition to the growing literature on the politics of the Gambia since the 1994 coup. Apart from the fact that it is engaging, the book also offers a richly empirical analysis of both the Jammeh and Jawara years. This carefully researched book takes off into interesting and well taken argument supported by good empirical data.
Please, find below my review of the book. I would be grateful if all the online Gambian newspapers were to carry/publish the review. The review is being sent/emailed to the editors of all the online Gambian newspapers for publication.
Regards,
Ebrima
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The Paradox of Third-Wave Democratization in Africa: The Gambia under AFPRC-APRC Rule, 1994-2008 – by Abdoulaye Saine, Lexington Books, USA, 2009, pp187. Index. Hardcover $65 ISBN 978-0 7391 2921 0
Book review by Ebrima Ceesay, UK
This is unquestionably an important book by a writer whose accomplishments as a scholar, social science researcher, critic and activist on human rights in The Gambia in particular and Africa in general are widely respected and acknowledged. Dr Saine is a highly productive and interesting scholar who has been researching Gambian politics under Yahya Jammeh from the very moment the Gambian army toppled the civilian government of President Jawara in a coup d’état on 22nd July 1994.
His book is therefore timely, incisive and above all, presents an original research on the economic, social and politics aspects of Gambian state and society. And because of Dr Saine’s expertise both as a political scientist and political economist, he offers - in the book and very uniquely - lucid, clear, coherent, original, important and critical insights into our understanding of contemporary Gambian politics.
With its thorough and clearly structured arguments, this is a worthwhile book for policy makers, politicians, journalists, researchers, students, development practitioners, among others. Overall, this quality study is a substantial contribution to our understanding Gambian politics under Yahya Jammeh in particular and African politics in general. It deserves a permanent place on our book shelves. It constitutes an important contribution to the theoretical debates in the democratization literature.
Dr Saine’s stimulating book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of Gambian politics under both Yahya Jammeh and former President Jawara. He has produced a remarkable and detailed book on Gambian politics since 1994. The book is entertaining to read, filled with intriguing detail. It is written as a contribution to the debate about the role of the African military in democratic process(es). The ten chapters in the book are logically-structured, of high standard, strong on the factual background and based on extensive field work and with a full set of references.
This book is about the dilemma(s) of “third-wave” “democratization” in Africa. For the benefit of the reader, the phrase “the third wave” of “democratization”, coined by the late American political scientist, Samuel Huntington, in his 1991 thought provoking book, has been extensively used and cited by academics, researching democratic transitions and democratization throughout much of the developing world. However, in the late 90s, Samuel Huntington’s book, The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century, 1991, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, has also been widely criticized by scholars who argued that democratic transitions, especially in the African context, were little more than (highly flawed) transitions to authoritarian rule or liberalized authoritarian reign.
Until 1994, The Gambia was the longest continuously surviving “multi-party democracy” in Africa. However, when many sub-Saharan states were moving towards a multi-party political system, The Gambia moved in the opposite direction with the military seizing power on 22nd July 1994. In this context, developments in the Gambia in 1994 have been noted by Saine as presenting a “paradox”, since the country moved towards a military dictatorship at a time when other regional states were moving towards multi-party systems.
The study is very strong in its discussion of the international setting – both regional and global – within which the developments in the Gambia occurred, and which require much closer analysis, if only to show why these appear to have had only limited influence. The author has made adequate use of the study material in order to analyze the Gambia as a case in itself and to set these developments in the wider context of African politics. The study has given us pointers, first, as to why The Gambia was subject to military rule at a time when other regional states were moving towards greater democracy and second, why external pressures to induce democracy in The Gambia were so ineffectual.
The study also discusses the nature of Gambian politics under former President Jawara, as well as assesses the similarities and differences in the style of government pre- and post 1994. It exposes the fallacy that The Gambia was a “democracy” under former President Dawda Jawara.
Dr Saine’s book is concerned primarily with The Gambia, but “it nonetheless has a lot to say about Zimbabwe, Zambia, Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, and other countries in the continent caught in the paralysis of externally driven political and economic transitions and globalization.”
The central research questions that frame both the content and the organization of the book are as follows: What relationship, if any, does a poor governance/authoritarian framework and poor leadership have on economic growth, development and poverty reduction in periphery states of the global economy? How has a crisis in leadership and human rights abuses in The Gambia under President Yahya Jammeh affected economic outcomes and poverty among Gambians? Are the prospects for economic growth, development and poverty reduction through a basic-needs strategy hindered by an illiberal, repressive state under an autocratic ruler?
These questions are posed, bearing in mind that it is widely accepted by most scholars that good governance is the single most important factor in eradicating poverty and promoting development in poor or underdeveloped countries like The Gambia.
With great attention to detail, Saine has chronicled political and economic developments in The Gambia over past the fourteen years in this highly recommended study. He has critically assessed the performance of the regime of President Yahya Jammeh during the years under discussion: 1994 - 2008. The picture the book paints of the Gambia is rather gloomy. Dr Saine’s argument rests on the thesis that The Gambia, despite the holding of regular Presidential and Parliamentary elections, remains undemocratic with a brutal and autocratic leader at the helm.
He writes: “President Jammeh’s ineffective leadership combined with poor economic policies and corruption have plunged the economy into downward spiral of unsustainable external indebtedness, poverty and instability…the end result of fourteen years of Jammeh’s rule is national instability nearing collapse…”
The book provides us with irrefutable evidence that The Gambia under Yahya Jammeh can only be described as a military dictatorship under the guise of a civilian government. The author covers a large ground in this ground breaking study and the book also contains a vast wealth of new information on the Jawara years.
However, the bulk of the book is devoted to critically assessing Yahya Jammeh’s fourteen years of (mis)rule in The Gambia. In this regard, the amount of information Dr Saine has assembled is vast and his evaluation of it - is balanced and judicious. The conclusions about the nature of the regime in the Gambia that he draws in the book are persuasive and adequately supported by solid empirical evidence.
Dr Saine is an avowed opponent of the Jammeh regime in the Gambia, but his personal views do not, in my view, vitiate the study. The book has evidently been prepared with great care and dedication. In short, it has been conscientiously researched. The strength of the book lies in Dr Saine’s ability to unravel the very complex political, social and economics effects of bad governance in The Gambia, while grounding and comparing them both theoretically and empirically to other cases in the developing world.
His research methodology and design are excellent and he has provided an excellent, thoroughly researched text, which gives us valuable insights into our understanding of contemporary Gambian politics. Using a wealth of original sources and new data, the book chronicles fourteen years of Jammeh’s misrule in a clear and easily digestible style. This is therefore an immensely useful book to which all students of African politics will want to refer.
Dr Saine has written one of the most comprehensive and compelling studies of Gambian politics to date and readers will like the book, in terms of the content, layout, format and cover design. The study will, without a doubt, make a lasting contribution to the growing scholarship on The Gambia. His lucid and astute analyses of political events in The Gambia make a most significant and welcome addition to our understanding of Gambian politics under both Yahya Jammeh and former President Jawara. The strengths of the book are its clarity, and the breadth of theoretical literature it covers in such a convincing manner.
The theoretical framework is clearly presented and there is very solid empirical evidence. The author offers a fitting theoretical framework into which to fit recent political developments in the Gambia. The study, among others, utilises Patrick McGowan’s pioneering work on the explanations of military coups and conflicts in West Africa in setting the Gambian experience into a theoretical context and framework.
McGowan has argued that a link does exist between poor leadership, poor economic performance, and instability in West African states. The empirical content, mostly original researched, is excellent. Based on a very exhaustive empirical research, one of the strengths of the book is that the empirical element is accompanied by a wealth of literature in the area of democracy and military rule in Africa. Theoretically, the book is complete and refined. Thus this is an extremely rich and thought provoking study. It has given us a vivid and very well researched picture of Gambian politics under both Yahya Jammeh and former President Jawara.
Even the ordinary man on the street of Banjul, Dakar or Lagos will find the book very informative and engaging. A must-read for all, the book illuminates an important field of enduring interest. Anyone interested in Gambian/African politics will find this book an important source of insights. A particular strength of the book is the attention paid to the history of human rights under both Yahya Jammeh and former President Jawara and the use of this as a touchstone for the discussion of ‘democratization’ and its conditions and instruments - transparency, accountability and the rest.
It is good to have this account of recent events in The Gambia and Dr Saine is to be congratulated. He has demonstrated an exceptional knowledge of the subject area in which the research was/is situated with a very strong literature review - to provide an analysis that reads well and convinces on the whole. The chapters’ empirical and narrative strength are supported by an explanatory framework derived from the ‘Political Science’ literature on Africa. This brilliantly original work will, without a doubt, help to further our understanding of the Yahya Jammeh regime and has also provided us with valuable new insights to stimulate further research, especially on the close relation between the people in The Gambia and Senegal, and the blurring of national identities.
The book has identified areas in Gambia Studies that require further research, particularly our future relations with neighbouring Senegal. The book is lively, informative and strongly recommended.
Regards,
Ebrima