Human Rights Violations and Political Corruption

Twin Legacies of a Troubled Past and a Tense Present

Introduction and Statement of Purpose

Human rights violations and political corruption have gone hand-in-hand in Africa for many, many years. Both have become commonplace in Africa's pre- and post-independence history. Governments have resorted to mass arrests, detention without trial, and the ill-treatment (as well as the genocidal murder) of citizens (Kelso, 1994). Abuse and corruption, the latter characterized by the enrichment of self-designated elites who often pocket funds destined for development and humanitarian programs of vital importance, are seemingly endemic and self-perpetuating throughout much of modern-day Africa.

If the 1950s marked a triumph for Africa, with independence for the first six countries giving hope to the thousands of people struggling for basic human rights across the continent, the 1960s ushered in a new reality. B.J. Kelson (1994) defines this reality as one in which the liberators became oppressors, establishing a trend that is nothing less than deadly and which still persists as the new millennium begins. A continual lack of justice directed

toward those who abuse others or who function (or allow their governments to function) in a corrupt manner has tended to

allow history to repeat itself. In South Africa, Rwanda, Namibia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Somalia, Nigeria, and elsewhere throughout Africa, concerns regarding thi

ANC agreed to create a government in which the Nationalists would have a very significant presence (Grundy, 1995). The democratic model created in South Africa, over time and as a result of various necessary compromises and agreements, has removed the legal superstructure of apartheid, but as yet failed to counter apartheid's social and economic substructure and the ensuring tensions and inequities inherent in the society as a whole (Grundy, 1995). The National Party, composed essentially of white South Africaners, emerged in the years following the Great Depression, which fostered a political realignment in South Africa. Built upon the foundations provided by the United Party and the Purified National Party and the Afrikaner population itself, the NP was initially dedicated to the maintenance of white supremacy, apartheid, the creation of "Native Lands" to which blacks were confined, and strict and tight control over the economic, political and cultural lives of all non-whites (Thompson, 1990). Restrictive residential and travel laws further inhibited the ability of non-whites to move freely in South Africa; while many non-whites accepted the loss of autonomy resulting from the politics of the NP, others resisted (Johnso