Putting corruption in perspective

The forces in Africa

And Africa, like Europe in the late 19th century and early 20th century, is going through a period of intense social and economic change, producing new social forces like an increasingly large and educated middle class and sizable business class. The new social forces are demanding new sources of state legitimacy and reliance on corruption for legitimacy is being challenged.

However, many nations of Africa are still saddled with a large peasantry, holding onto primordial ties to identity. So the new political demands are colliding with old social practices. This is the creative tension that propels and restrains change, allowing society, as Edmond Burke reminded the revolutionary French, to change their traditions gradually so as not to recklessly upset social order. And as Burke said, tradition is the memory of a people; insanity is the loss of memory.

Hence as Africa’s institutional capacity grows, and as the reach of the state expands and government revenues increase, we are seeing a gradual shift from patronage to service delivery. Post genocide Rwanda has made the most dramatic shift from patronage to service delivery in the blink of time, providing a lesson to the rest of Africa. For most countries this process is gradual perhaps because they did not go through the process of social shredding that rapidly destroys entrenched interests and old forms of social control that Rwanda underwent during the genocide.

Those making the argument against corruption are not wrong. They represent what we need to work towards. And neither are the leaders who are presiding over it evil people. They represent what is affordable for now. Both sides constitute the creative tension that allows our nations to grow and change.

This Article was published in The Daily Monitor Saturday, August 29 2015.