As already indicated, the deeply contextual and incremental approach to African constitutionalism proposed here does not mean that the experiences of each country cannot be evaluated or improved, or that one has to wait for that to happen entirely on its own.
Far from taking a fatalistic or deterministic view of the process, the object is to understand the role of various actors and forces, the combination of internal and external factors and dynamics that shape the development of constitutional governance in each setting in order to explore strategies for promoting the necessary norms and institutions.
These processes must be primarily undertaken by Africans for themselves, who can draw upon the experiences of other societies and benefit from the solidarity of all those who wish to support internal initiatives, not impose external models. But outside actors also have a role to play at various levels, though that is not discussed in this book.I now highlight the recent constitutional experience of six African countries, namely, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. Another three cases (Sudan, Nigeria, and Senegal) are discussed in more detail later in connection with the contingent role of Islam. The six experiences highlighted in this chapter are selected to represent a cross-section of countries with different colonial and post-colonial experiences, political and cultural profiles. Other reasons for this sampling will I hope emerge from the comparative analysis and tentative evaluation in the last section of the chapter. However, I readily accept that other countries could be selected, in a variety of combinations, which is part of my point: the thesis and analysis of this book can be illustrated by the constitutional experiences of any African country.