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Winter School confronts the crisis of democratic constitutionalism in Africa

21 August 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo Supplied

Law Winter School 2024 — Participants in the Winter School on African Constitutionalism had the opportunity to acquire the latest knowledge and information on African constitutionalism.

The African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL) and the Faculty of Law of the University of the Free State (UFS) recently hosted a Winter School on African Constitutionalism titled Confronting the 'Crisis' of Democratic Constitutionalism in Africa. According to Khanya Motshabi, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Public Law and Strategy Lead: UFS Reparation Hub at the UFS, the 2024 Winter School is a first for Africa.

Motshabi said the aim of the winter school, which was attended by members of the UFS University Management Committee, academia, students, experts in constitutional law, law practitioners, and justices of the Constitutional Court of Zambia, was to gather prominent and emerging African intellectuals, practitioners, judges, and policy drivers to assess the state of democratic constitutionalism in Africa. “We wanted to explore the progress and failures of the past decades, place African developments in a global context, analyse current problems, and propose solutions for building an African version of democratic constitutionalism that reflects its unique circumstances, challenges, experiences, and popular preferences,” he commented.

Prof Anthea Rhoda, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Academic, attended the event, providing opening remarks and emphasising the alignment of the winter school with the university’s Vision 130. She highlighted the university's commitment to social justice and its broader mission to impact society by addressing persistent social problems and fostering transformation across the African continent. “Our vision alludes to the fact that universities are expected to play an important role in providing skills, building the economy, solving persistent social problems, and transforming our post-apartheid society,” she remarked, adding that the discussion and input of this winter school are not only focused on South Africa, but also aim to confront the issue of democratic constitutionalism across the African continent.

Prof Vasu Reddy, Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Research and Internationalisation, who also attended the event, said, “This is a highly prestigious meeting that brings a great gathering of African scholars and judges from an apex court in Zambia to Free State soil. A meeting such as yours offers excellent opportunity to think more deeply about African constitutionalism that triggers further engagement on continental development, law, society, and politics.”

Prof Reddy also commented on the theme of confronting the crisis of democratic constitutionalism: “You engage an important theme and topic. ‘Crisis’ is an important word and presents possibilities. Not only does it describe the challenges and dangers of wicked problems facing us, but central to its meanings are also the opportunities at our disposal.”

Decline in constitutional democracy

The ANCL and the UFS Faculty of Law are concerned that although constitutional democracy has grown over the past 30 years, it has declined in the past decade. Regimes maintain the appearance of democracy while ignoring its fundamental principles, such as free and fair elections and the rights to speech, expression, and association. Anyango Oyieke, ANCL Secretary-General, noted that effective constitutional democracy requires not only institutional arrangements, but also an active civil society, strong political parties, and a culture that tolerates differences and exercises power with restraint.

Motshabi and Oyieke believe that despite varied democratic experiences in Africa, many countries have seen a decline in democratic governance marked by constitutional manipulation, intimidation, flawed elections, and military coups. Even where elections are credible, the winner-takes-all mentality undermines governance and delivery of basic needs. High levels of insecurity, stalled poverty reduction, and worsening youth unemployment contribute to a preference for military regimes over democracy. Motshabi and Oyieke observe that the African Union and Regional Economic Communities struggle to fulfil their democratic promises, undermining the legitimacy of democracy and putting constitutionalism and governance in crisis.

The event addressed several key thematic areas, including the development of a theory of African constitutionalism, examining the historical context of constitutionalism and nation-building, and integrating decolonisation within constitutional theory. Discussions also covered human rights and constitutionalism, the establishment of institutions to secure democracy, how effective dictators think, and the use of constitutional petitions as tools to entrench constitutionalism. Additionally, the role of elections and electoral processes in a constitutional democracy was explored, along with the impact of undemocratic changes of government on the principles of constitutionalism.

Valuable insights on African constitutionalism

Frontline constitutional scholars of African descent and colleagues from around the world brought the latest knowledge and valuable insights into African constitutionalism.

Dr Gerard Kamga, Division Coordinator: Research and Postgraduate Programmes in the Free State Centre for Human Rights and Programme Director for Research and Postgraduate Studies in the Faculty of Law, delivered three sessions. The first two sessions explored The Mechanics of (Un)Constitutional Power Transfer in Postcolonial Africa: the case of Françafrique. Dr Kamga’s third session addressed Currency, Constitutionalism, and Sovereignty. On the second day, Prof Charles Fombad, Professor of Law and Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa at the University of Pretoria, presented on Towards a Theory of African Constitutionalism. Prof Danie Brand, Director of the Centre for Human Rights and acting Judge of the High Court of South Africa, contributed a presentation on Constitutionalism and Transformation in Africa.

Motshabi himself led sessions on Confronting the Past: Constitutionalism and the Making of a Nation State and Decolonisation and Constitutional Theory. From beyond South African borders, Prof Azubike Onuora-Oguno, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Ilorin and a solicitor and advocate of the Nigerian Supreme Court, discussed Human Rights and Constitutionalism. Oyieke covered How to be a dictator, which analysed how effective dictators think and undermine constitutional democracy. Prof Wahab Egbewole, Professor in the Faculty of Law and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ilorin, as well as senior advocate in the Nigerian Supreme Court, spoke on Unconstitutional Change of Government. Prof Tameshnie Deane, Vice-Dean: Research and Postgraduate Studies of the UFS Faculty of Law, delivered the final session on Constitutional Petitions as a Tool for Entrenching Democracy.

Democratic governance on the continent

Motshabi concluded that the one-week course aimed to fill an important gap by offering participants the chance to acquire the latest knowledge and information on African constitutionalism. The course provided an analytical and critical appraisal of current issues and the unique opportunity to conceptualise solutions while practising the art of networking. By developing a collaborative environment, the winter school not only highlighted the progress and failures of the past decades, but also encouraged the development of innovative solutions tailored to Africa's unique circumstances. This initiative marks a significant step towards building a strong and dependable system for democratic governance on the continent.

News Archive

Studies to reveal correlation between terrain, energy use, and giraffe locomotion

2016-11-18

More than half of giraffes in captivity in Europe are afflicted by lameness. This high prevalence represents an important welfare issue, similar to other large zoo animals.

According to Dr Chris Basu, a veterinarian at the Royal Veterinary College in the UK, giraffes in captivity are often afflicted by overgrown hooves, laminitis and joint problems. Diagnosis and treatment is limited by our understanding of anatomy and function, more specifically the locomotion of these animals. Although the giraffe is such a well-known and iconic animal, relatively little has been studied about their locomotor behaviour.

Dr Basu recently visited South Africa to do fieldwork on the locomotion of giraffes as part of his PhD studies under the mentorship of world-renowned Professor of Evolutionary Biomechanics, Prof John Hutchinson. This project is a joint venture between Dr Basu and Dr Francois Deacon, researcher in the Department of Animal, Wildlife, and Grassland Sciences at the UFS. Dr Deacon is a specialist in giraffe habitat-related research.

Together Prof Hutchinson and Drs Deacon and Basu form a research group, working on studies about giraffe locomotion.

Wild giraffe population decrease by 40% in past decade

“Locomotion is one of the most common animal behaviours and comes with a significant daily energetic cost. Studying locomotion of wild animals aids us in making estimates of this energetic cost. Such estimates are useful in understanding how giraffes fit into ecosystems. Future conservation efforts will be influenced by knowledge of the energy demands in giraffes.

“Understanding aspects of giraffe locomotion also helps us to understand the relationships between anatomy, function and evolution. This is relevant to our basic understanding of the natural world, as well as to conservation and veterinary issues,” said Dr Deacon.

Locomotion study brings strategy for specialist foot care

On face value it seems as if foot disease pathologies are more common in zoo giraffes than in wild giraffes. “However, we need a good sample of data from both populations to prove this assumption,” said Dr Basu.

This phenomenon is not well understood at the moment, but it’s thought that diet, substrate (e.g. concrete, straw, sand and grass) and genetics play a part in foot disease in giraffes. “Understanding how the feet are mechanically loaded during common activities (standing, walking, running) gives our research group ideas of where the highest strains occur, and later how these can be reduced through corrective foot trimming,” said Dr Basu.

Through the studies on giraffe locomotion, the research group plans to devise strategies for corrective foot trimming. At the moment, foot trimming is done with the best evidence available, which is extrapolation from closely related animals such as cattle. “But we know that giraffes’ specialist anatomy will likely demand specialist foot care,” Dr Basu said.

Studying giraffes in smaller versus larger spaces

The research group has begun to study the biomechanics of giraffe walking by looking at the kinematics (the movement) and the kinetics (the forces involved in movement) during walking strides. For this he studied adult giraffes at three zoological parks in the UK.

However, due to the close proximity of fencing and buildings, it is not practical to study fast speeds in a zoo setting.

A setting such as the Willem Pretorius Nature Reserve, near Ventersburg in the Free State, Kwaggafontein Nature Reserve, near Colesberg in the Karoo, and the Woodland Hills Wildlife Estate in Bloemfontein are all ideal for studying crucial aspects such as “faster than walking” speeds and gaits to measure key parameters (such as stride length, step frequency and stride duration). These studies are important to understand how giraffe form and function are adapted to their full range of locomotor behaviours. It also helps to comprehend the limits on athletic capacity in giraffes and how these compare to other animals.

Drones open up unique opportunities for studying giraffes

The increasing availability of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)/drones opens up unique opportunities for studying locomotion in animals like giraffes. Cameras mounted onto remotely controlled UAVs are a straightforward way to obtain high-quality video footage of giraffes while they run at different speeds.

“Using two UAVs, we have collected high definition slow motion video footage of galloping giraffes from three locations in the Free State. We have also collected detailed information about the terrain that the giraffes walked and ran across. From this we have created 3D maps of the ground. These maps will be used to examine the preferred terrain types for giraffes, and to see how different terrains affect their locomotion and energy use,” said Dr Deacon.

“The raw data (videos) will be digitised to obtain the stride parameters and limb angles of the animals. Later this will be combined with anatomical data and an estimation of limb forces to estimate the power output of the limbs and how that changes between different terrains,” said Dr Basu.

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