UN General Assembly
1990

democratic processes. This is because management of the democratic process itself was new to the continent. What previous experience did Africans have of managing a democratic process? It was during precisely those centuries in which Europe and North America were emerging from feudalism towards - for some of them at least - liberal democracy that Africa was being ravaged by the slave trade and, later on, lost its sovereignty altogether. Because of colonial rule and the plunder of Africa in the preceding period, social forces which could sustain democracy had not emerged by the time of independence. In Europe, liberal democracy was and is the ideology of the industrial middle class and of the small, independent artisans before them. Where was the industrial middle class of Africa 30 years ago, during the twilight of colonialism? Despite these impediments, the democratic movement in Africa is on the forward march. An authentic democratic movement is being consolidated by internal, social dynamic? External sermonising and pressure will not bring democracy to Africa.