Following the disappointing outcomes of the implementation of Western liberal democracy and decentralization, some observers have argued that the reason for these failures was because African countries have not yet developed the necessary culture for a successful democracy and democratic institutions. But are democracy and decentralization strange to Africa? The purpose of this chapter is to show that democracy and decentralization are not alien to Africa. Using the Yoruba culture of West Africa as a case study, and Afrocentricity as the theoretical framework, the chapter brings to the fore the principles of African cultural democracy that guarantee responsiveness and representativeness as well as ensure welfare improvement among these indigenous people. Suggestions are made on how these cultural democratic principles can be incorporated into formal governance to achieve more responsive governments in Africa.

The African Union (AU) vision of an integrated Africa is in line with the pan-African vision of a unified African State and also corresponds with African philosophies of communalism and Ubuntu. But despite AU's call for integration and Ubuntu rhetoric, economic and social integration of African migrants into the fabric of their host countries have remained a major challenge. Given this problem, the objective of this chapter is to examine some of the conditions that lead to hostilities against foreigners in Africa by critiquing the traditional push-pull theory and by critically examining the idea of Ubuntu as a principle to guide immigration policies in African countries. Does Ubuntu disapprove the protection of national interest because of African brotherhood? Agreeable, “I am because we are.” But “does because we are, also mean I cannot?” The analyses in this chapter can further assist immigration policymakers to better defend national interests in the context of African brotherhood.

This chapter presents African indigenous knowledge as the missing link in achieving good governance and rural development in Africa. The failure of rural development projects in Africa has mostly been attributed to weak institutions and bad governance. Consequently, good governance has become the cornerstone of donors' development cooperation in Africa since the 1990s. While it is true that African public institutions may be weak, the analysis shows that the West contributed to this problem through European colonization of the continent as well as the imposition of Eurocentric one-size-fit-all reforms of the World Bank on indebted African countries. The chapter argues that to improve governance and rural development in Africa, there are well-established and effective cultural indigenous governance systems in the continent from which we can learn.

Globalization integrates the whole world into a global village. The opening up of economies to international trade is expected to lead to growth and poverty reduction. However, the benefits of globalization have been disproportionately skewed towards developed economies. Despite opening its economies to foreign goods and integrating to the global market, Africa remains the poorest region in the world. Xenophobia in Africa has particularly been a major concern as African migrants within the continent have been experiencing various forms of hostilities and xenophobic attacks. Many authors agree that globalization and economic inequality contribute to this trend. This chapter analyzes from an Afrocentric perspective, the various social, economic, and historical context in which globalization and other European capitalist quests in Africa affect migration pattern in the continent and contribute to xenophobia in Africa. This chapter provides an Afrocentric critique of the idea of globalization which mainly promotes free trade and capital but restricts the movement of African labour.