«You Europeans, you are just like Fish!». Some sceptical relfections on Modernity and Democratisation in Africa

Abstract

The author of this article proposes an extremely critical examination of some of the theoretical assumptions frequently ideological in nature, underlying the scientific and political discussion around the concepts of «modernisation», «development», and «democratisation». His conclusion is that African reality can only be adequately understood by means of approaches freed from a number of current ideas, and that only on this basis will it be possible to define valid strategies.

Keywords

• modernity
• development
• Africa
• democratization