Pride and Prejudice in African Constitutional LAw: Cohesion or Exclusion from Global North Narratives

Abstract

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife”. Typical of our ancestors, who in the nineteenth century, having the destiny of Africa in their hands, married the colonial masters to meet their social needs. Upon marrying, the latter prioritized the application of Northern constitutional cultures and principles to the detriment of pre-colonial legal orders. Thus, I argue that mimicry of the legal order of the Global North has taken root in African constitutions and that it serves as a source of pride and prejudice for African states in the twenty-first century. By employing a theory of critical legal studies, a law and literature approach, a law and culture approach and a Third World approach to international law, I equate the constitutional principles of the Global North in the eighteenth century with the constitutional principles of the twenty-first century in Africa. This paper mainly analyzes constitutional principles like sovereignty, constitutionalism, democracy, and the rule of law as well as institutions such as constitutional courts in their role as arbiters in African constitutionalism. Furthermore, I will show that these principles originated in France, Great Britain, and the United States in the eighteenth century. Moreover, these principles have been beneficial for human development at the national level but have deprived African states of the power of choice; internationally. Therefore, I will propose strategic, institutional, and substantive changes in the African constitutional order and global power dynamics.