The African Origins of Democracy

It is a rare experience to see a new idea develop on the page before your eyes. Bernd Reiter achieves this feat when he shows the life of democracy in Africa before "democracy" emerged in Greece. His reliance on not just the literature but empirical  research on the ground marks Reiter as a refreshing voice with many new ideas to share. If you care about the history of democracy, you must read The African Origins of Democracy. Stephen Stockwell is a Professor Emeritus of Journalism and Communication at Griffith University, Australia. Bernd Reiter rewrites the history of democracy. Assembling historical scholarly evidence from numerous hunter gatherer societies as well as from contemporary Botswana, he shows that not only is the claim of the Greek origins of democracy a Eurocentric myth, but that throughout history egalitarian political systems practicing forms of direct democracy have existed, revealing a simple truth: people are able to rule themselves without elected representatives. Aram Ziai is a Professor of Development and Postcolonial Studies at the University of Kassel, Germany. The African Origins of Democracy challenges the myth that democracy was born in ancient Greece. Drawing on archaeology, anthropology, and political science, Bernd Reiter shows that egalitarian African societies practiced self-rule tens of thousands of years earlier—and that these traditions spread outward through migration and exchange. At the heart of the book is Botswana, where dikgotla—village assemblies—still embody living democracy today. Bold and provocative, this book rewrites democracy’s story, centering Africa as its birthplace and urging us to imagine futures beyond elite-driven representative systems. Bernd Reiter is a political scientist and a professor of Luso-Latin American Studies for the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures at Texas Tech University, USA. He is the editor of the Routledge Decolonizing the Classics Special Book Series and a section editor-in-chief for the journal Social Sciences. His work focuses on democracy, race, and decolonization.