![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/celestinTagouCover-rotative-democracy.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nProf. Celestin Tagou in his 2017 book entitled Democratic Rotation in Office: Political Transcendency and Transformation of Ethno-regional Identities within the 21st<\/sup> Century Nation State, <\/em><\/strong>in 167 pages covering 4 chapters explores the concept of power sharing as shaped by the anthropological and socio-cultural realities of the African continent. Beginning with the theoretical concepts of the family, the clan, the tribe, the ethnicity, the people, the race and the state and the nation, (Chapter 1). Prof. Tagou provides a sharp critical analysis of \u00a0the \u201ccopy and paste\u201d western approach to liberal democracy and its devastating shortcomings within the African context (Chapter 2) before elaborating the main purpose of his book which is \u201cDemocratic Rotation in Office\u201d nicely captured in French as \u201cD\u00e9mocratie Rotative\u201d(Chapter 3) with two significant case studies from Central and West Africa namely Cameroon and Ivory Coast.(Chapter 4).<\/p>\n In a nutshell, Prof. Tagou argues that power sharing and political participation require positive peace which is a necessary condition for sustainable development and this can only be effective through a model of democracy which is in fine tune with African history, its customs as well as its ancestral knowledge. He reckons that the importation, the implementation and even more so the \u201cCopy and paste\u201d of Westminster and Jacobin constitutional democracy in African young states have been \u201ca political and societal mistakes\u201d. Democracy per se could have universal principles and values, but there is not a model of democracy, that is universal. The is a French, a German, a British, an American\u2026. model which is adapted to the various history and cultural background of each country.<\/p>\n Above all, Prof. Tagou brings to the democratic debate table bold, interesting and eye-opening proposals: Africa should proudly and positively mold its own model of democracy rooted in its socio-cultural and ethnic pluralistic context. He proposes a model based on Johan Galtung\u2019s concepts of transcendence and transformation of conflicts: Rotative Democracy as mechanism for the election of the President of the Republic.<\/p>\n This book has inter alia two major strengths: first the originality of the argument within the African context marred with chronic heated political tensions around the executive power second, the timing and relevance of the publication with regard to Cameroon, currently in a deadlock political crisis known as \u201cAnglophone Problem\u201d. Prof. Tagou details his proposals with real, reliable and clear facts.<\/p>\n Never the less, although beautifully written in a fascinating and movingly style; Prof. Tagou\u2019s \u201cDemocratic Rotation of Office\u201d <\/em><\/strong>may leave its reader with a bitter taste in the mouth: how sound and fare can the relationship between the strategic group and the conflicting ones be? Is the rotating period among the 7+1 groups not too long for frustrating citizens to wait? And, as clearly stated by Prof. Alain Didier Olinga in the preface: To which group do the mixed-raced, half-breed and half-cast Cameroonians belong?<\/p>\n Whatever the case, Prof. Tagou has taken an insightful stand into the political debate on power sharing and liberal democracy in Africa with a major step in the contribution towards the search for solutions to office rotation and power coalition in Cameroon and readers and specialists of political sciences within the African continent and beyond will find this book of special interest.<\/p>\n ___________________________________________<\/p>\n