GOVERNANCE AND LEADERSHIP: DEBATING THE AFRICAN CONDITION, MAZRUI AND HIS CRITICS, VOL. 2

By using the case study of Guinea, the author explores systemically (1) the nature of the single-party regime and the role of first-generation post-colonial African leadership, (2) the central role of ideology in the twin-programs of statecraft and nation-building by “ideological one-party states,” and (3) the contribution of mass communication to the PDG (Parti Démocratique de Guinée) regime’s political survival and self-rejuvenation under the charismatic leadership of Sékou Touré from 1957 to 1984. With carefully examined inside accounts the author, himself an insider, documents the different phases and facets of the recent political history of Guinea which was dramatically affected by the Cold War.

Adopting a deconstructionist perspective, the author identifies the political symbiosis of ideology and mass communication as the pillar that sustained the regime of the African nation-states, rather than state repression of political dissent or Sékou Touré’s personal charisma as widely believed. The author argues that ideology was the political blood of the party-state in Guinea and mass communication functioned as its circulatory system.