Post-colonial struggles for a democratic Southern Africa

<p>National liberation one of the grand narratives of the twentieth century has left a weighty legacy of unfulfilled dreams. This book<i> </i>explores the ongoing struggle for legitimate accountable political leaders in postcolonial Southern Africa focusing on dilemmas arising when ex-liberation movements form the governments. While the spread of multi-party democracy to most countries in the region is to be celebrated democratic practice often has been superficial - a limited elitist politics that relies on the symbols of the liberation struggle to legitimate <i>de facto</i> one-party rule and authoritarian practices. Using country cases from Tanzania Swaziland Zimbabwe South Africa and Zambia the collection explores three subthemes relevant to postcolonial governance in Southern Africa: how the struggle for liberation shapes the character of political transformation the nature of rule in one-party dominant states headed by former liberation movements and the processes of governance and resistance in post-liberation contexts.</p><p>This book was published as a special issue of the <i>Journal of Contemporary African Studies</i>.</p>