The Making, Unmaking and Remaking of Africa’s Independence and Post-Independence Constitutions

This book provides a collection of chapters that critically explore the making and development of Africa’s independence constitutions through the different phases in their full generality. Since independence, various constitutions from African countries have undergone a succession of changes, triggered by either the domestic or international environment or both. These processes constitute autonomous epochal ’waves’ or ’phases’ of constitution-making which need to be unpacked, historicised and explored in a systematic manner. This work, intended as a distinctive object of positive analysis, historicizes the independence constitutions of selected African states on either a country-specific or a comparative basis. A historical approach to the continental study of constitutions is rare, meaning the continental coverage of the book is justified by Africa’s rich diversity reflected in its multiple monarchical and colonial backgrounds. The book is of interest to academics interested in having a panoramic view of Africa’s constitutional development from a historical perspective.

Nicodemus Fru Awasom was born and educated in Cameroon and Nigeria and is currently a Professor of African History in the University of Ghana. He is a holder of a Doctorat and a PhD degree in history from the University of Yaoundé and Ibadan respectively. He is an academic of international standing with decades of teaching experience in several universities in Africa and Europe, and with a track record of publications in peer review journals in Africa, Europe, Canada and the USA. His research focuses on constitutional history, research methods, the Nomadic Fulani problem in Cameroon, and comparative African historiography. He edited a book on Youth and Identity in Africa (forthcoming CODESRIA: Dakar).

Hlengiwe Portia Dlamini is currently a Senior Lecturer in the University of Eswatini and obtained her PhD from the University of Pretoria in 2016. Her BA and MA degrees were obtained from the University of Swaziland. Her research concentration is Constitutional History and the governance of public spaces in Eswatini (Swaziland). She is working towards publishing a book on Eswatini’s constitutional history. She has also been researching the constitutionality of community policing and is exploring the constitutionality of women, enfranchisement and disenfranchisement, and Gastronomic Injunctions (Halaal) of Islamic minorities in Eswatini since independence.