Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa

In its modern history, Africa has experienced different waves of constitutional ordering. The latest democratisation wave, which began in the 1990s, has set the stage over the past decade for what is now a hotly debated issue: do recent, new, or fundamentally revised constitutions truly reflect an African constitutional identity? Thoughtfully navigating a contested field, this volume brings to the fore a number of foundational questions about African constitutionalism.

Constitutional Identity and Constitutionalism in Africa asks whether the concept of constitutional identity clarifies our understanding of constitutional change in Africa, including an exploration of the relationship between constitutional identity and a country’s unique culture(s) and histories. Building on this, contributions examine the persistent role of colonial heritages in shaping constitutional identity in post-Independence African nations, and the question of path-dependency. Given the enduring influence of the colonial experience, the volume asks how, why, and to what end African constitutions must be ’decolonised’ to form an authentic constitutional identity. This theoretical insight is supplemented and further deepened by detailed case studies of South Africa, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Cameroon, and Egypt and their diverse experience of constitutional continuity and change.

This volume in the Stellenbosch Handbooks in African Constitutional Law series, brings together contributions from established scholars and emerging voices on the study of constitutional processes. They provide an urgent critical analysis of existing paradigms, concepts and normative ideologies of modern African constitutionalism in the context of constitutional identity.

Charles M. Fombad, Director, Institute for International and Comparative Law in Africa, Nico Steytler, South African Research Chair, Dullah Omar Institute of Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights

Charles M. Fombad is a Professor and the Director of the Institute for International and Comparative Law, Faculty of Law, University of Pretoria. In the course of a career that has spanned over 30 years, he has more than 180 accredited outputs. Besides his publications, he is the coordinator and editor-in-chief of the Pretoria University Law Press (PULP) and chairs its management committee. He has received several prizes for his research, such as the research excellence award from the University of Botswana (for 2004, 2005 and 2007) and the University of Pretoria Chancellor’s Award for Research 2021. His research focuses on comparative African constitutional law, legal history and media law

Nico Steytler is a professor emeritus in the Faculty of Law at the University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Previously, he held the South African Research Chair in Multilevel Government, Law and Development, at the Dullah Omar Institute of Constitutional Law, Governance and Human Rights, UWC, from 2013 to 2022. From 1994 to 2012 was the director of the Community Law Centre, UWC (the predecessor of the Dullah Omar Institute). His research focus has been on constitutional law, multilevel government and local government in South Africa, elsewhere in Africa, and further afield, and he has published several books and contributed to many others in this field.