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 AFRICAN HISTORIES AND MODERNITIES

CONTEMPORARY ISSUES IN
AFRICAN SOCIETY
Historical Analysis and Perspective

Edited by
George Klay Kieh, Jr.
African Histories and Modernities

Series editors
Toyin Falola
University of Texas at Austin
Austin, TX, USA

Matthew M. Heaton
Virginia Tech
Blacksburg, USA
This book series serves as a scholarly forum on African contributions
to and negotiations of diverse modernities over time and space, with a
particular emphasis on historical developments. Specifically, it aims to
refute the hegemonic conception of a singular modernity, Western in ori-
gin, spreading out to encompass the globe over the last several decades.
Indeed, rather than reinforcing conceptual boundaries or parameters, the
series instead looks to receive and respond to changing perspectives on
an important but inherently nebulous idea, deliberately creating a space
in which multiple modernities can interact, overlap, and conflict. While
privileging works that emphasize historical change over time, the series
will also feature scholarship that blurs the lines between the histori-
cal and the contemporary, recognizing the ways in which our changing
understandings of modernity in the present have the capacity to affect
the way we think about African and global histories.

Editorial Board
Aderonke Adesanya, Art History, James Madison University
Kwabena Akurang-Parry, History, Shippensburg University
Samuel O. Oloruntoba, History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Tyler Fleming, History, University of Louisville
Barbara Harlow, English and Comparative Literature, University of
Texas at Austin
Emmanuel Mbah, History, College of Staten Island
Akin Ogundiran, Africana Studies, University of North Carolina, Charlotte

More information about this series at

http://www.springer.com/series/14758
 George Klay Kieh, Jr.
Editor

Contemporary Issues
in African Society
Historical Analysis and Perspective
Editor
George Klay Kieh, Jr.
University of West Georgia
Carrollton, GA, USA

African Histories and Modernities

ISBN 978-3-319-49771-6 ISBN 978-3-319-49772-3 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49772-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017950713

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the
Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights
of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction
on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and
retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology
now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are
exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and
information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication.
Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied,
with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have
been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published
maps and institutional affiliations.

Cover credit: Wsfurlan/Getty Images

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
 Preface

Like other regions of the world, there are some major frontier issues
facing Africa as we enter the latter half of the second decade of the
­
twenty-first century. Among these major issues are: the troubling
­practice of some African states abdicating the responsibility for their citi-
zens’ material well-being to non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
and the resulting contestation for power between the state and NGOs,
democratization, the growing influence of Evangelical Christian
­
churches, civil conflicts and the efforts to resolve them, and Africa’s
international relations. Collectively, these issues have serious ramifica-
tions for stability and human-centered development and democracy,
especially, the linkages between political democracy and human well-
being. As the evidence shows, since the 1990s, the African Continent has
made laudable strides in terms of political democracy, but has faltered in
terms of addressing the material conditions of the majority of their citi-
zens. Importantly, the failure of the state has led to the erosion of state
legitimacy and in some cases—Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Cote d’Ivoire and Mali—the result-
ing collapse of the state has reached its terminal phase; implosion and
violence in the form of civil wars and other types of militarism.
Against this backdrop, this book seeks to examine some of the major
frontier issues that are currently facing the African Continent. The cen-
tral purpose is to problematize them, and proffer some suggestions for
addressing them. This is because the role of scholarship is not simply to
catalog the African Continent’s challenges with the twin processes of

v
vi Preface

state-building and nation-building, but to suggest some concrete ways in

which these lacunas can be addressed.
I would like to thank the many organizations and individuals who
made invaluable contributions to the research and writing of the book, as
well as the African Studies and Research Forum (ASRF) which organized
the research project that led to the writing of the chapters that constitute
this book. Also, I would like to thank the contributors to this volume for
conducting the research, writing their respective chapters and submitting
them to thorough review.

Carrollton, USA George Klay Kieh, Jr.

 Acknowledgements

Thanks and appreciation are extended to two journals for granting

­permission to use copyright materials. Peace and Conflict Studies granted
permission to use materials from the article by George Klay Kieh, Jr.,
“An Anatomy of Conflict Resolution in Africa’s Civil Conflicts”, Volume
17, Number 2, 2010, pp. 277–306, in Chap. 7 on Conflict Resolution in
this book.
The Africa Journal on Conflict Resolution gave permission to use
materials from the article by Kelechi Kalu, “Resolving African crises:
Leadership Role for African States and the African Union in Darfur,”
Volume 9, Number 1, 2009, pp. 9–39.

vii
 Contents

1 Introduction: Framing the African Condition 1

George Klay Kieh, Jr.

2 Non-Governmental Organizations and the African State 29

Johnson W. Makoba

3 Civil Society in Africa: Interrogating the Role

of Pentecostal Christianity in Africa’s Democratization
and Development Processes 47
Samuel Zalanga

4 The Military, Militarism and State Integrity in Africa 83

Earl Conteh-Morgan

5 Ethnic Conflicts in the Great Lakes Region

of East Africa 107
Theodora O. Ayot

6 The African Union and the Conflict

in Sudan’s Darfur Region 145
Kelechi A. Kalu

ix
x Contents

7 Conflict Resolution in Africa 175

George Klay Kieh, Jr.

8 Africa and the European Union 197

Jack Mangala

9 Toward Addressing the African Condition: The Lessons 239

George Klay Kieh, Jr.

Index 259
 Editor and Contributors

About the Editor

George Klay Kieh, Jr. is Professor of Political Science at the University

of West Georgia. Prior to that, he served as Dean of the College of Arts
and Sciences at the University of West Georgia; Dean of International
Affairs and Professor of Political Science and African and African
American Studies at Grand Valley State University, Michigan and Chair
of the Department of Political Science; and Professor of Political Science
and International Studies at Morehouse College, Georgia. His research
interests are in the areas of security studies, American foreign policy, the
state, democratization and democracy, development studies, political
economy, regional and global institutions.

Contributors

Theodora O. Ayot is Professor of History at North Park University,

Chicago, Illinois. She has taught previously at Kenyatta University,
Nairobi, Kenya; State University of New York; College at Fredonia, New
York; as a visiting Professor at the University of Jonkoping, College of
Health Sciences, Jonkoping, Sweden; and at Tecnologico de Monterrey,
Chihuahua Campus, Chihuahua, Mexico, Tecnologico de Monterrey,
Aguascalientes Campus. She is also the Director of the Daniel Katete

xi
xii Editor and Contributors

Orwa Foundation for Humanity, and a Board Member of the Soul

Source Foundation and Operation My People.
Earl Conteh-Morgan is Professor of Government and International
Studies, and Director of Graduate Studies, University of South Florida.
His research interests include international conflict, the military and
American foreign policy; all areas in which he has been published quite
extensively.
Kelechi A. Kalu is Vice Provost for International Affairs at the
University of California at Riverside. Prior to that, he served as Associate
Provost for Global Strategies and International Affairs at The Ohio State
University; Director of the Center for African Studies at Ohio State
University; Professor of African American & African Studies, and Faculty
affiliate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The
Ohio State University; a Mellon Research Fellow in the Department
of Government, Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut;
Professor of Political Science at the University of Northern Colorado,
Greeley; and Adjunct Professor of African Politics and Political Economy
at the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies, University of
Denver. He has also served as a consultant to the World Bank on Public
Sector Governance, and to the Asian Development Bank on Managing
Sustainable Development in Resource-Rich Countries. He specializes
in international politics, conflict & conflict resolution and Third World
development studies with an emphasis on Africa and has been widely
published. He is a recipient of grants from The Ford Foundation, The
Mershon Center for International Security Studies, and The Korea
Foundation.
Johnson W. Makoba is Associate Professor of Sociology at the
University of Nevada, Reno, where he has been teaching since 1990. He
has served twice as Chair of the Department of Sociology. His research
interests are organizations and bureaucracies, alternative African devel-
opment strategies, and other Third World development issues. He is
the author of two books on development in Africa, and has also pub-
lished several book chapters and articles in the International Journal of
Sociology of Law, Austrian Journal of Development Studies, Journal of
Third World Studies, African Development, and other scholarly jour-
nals. His most recent book is The Triple Partnership as an Alternative
Approach—The Case of Uganda.
 Editor and Contributors xiii

Jack Mangala is Associate Professor of Political Science and African

Studies at Grand Valley State University, Michigan. Prior to that, he
served as the Director of the African and African American Studies
Program, and the Director of the Area Studies. His scholarly interests
center on the nexus between international law and human security,
and on Africa’s international relations, with a particular emphasis on its
EU and US dimensions. His publications include: Africa and the New
World Era: From Humanitarianism to a Strategic View, Palgrave, 2010,
New Security Threats and Crises in Africa: Regional and International
Perspectives, Palgrave, 2010, and Africa and the European Union: A
Strategic Partnership, Palgrave, 2012.
Samuel Zalanga is a Professor of Sociology at Bethel University,
Minnesota. He has served as an Associate Editor for Africa for the
Journal of Third World Studies. He is very passionate in the struggle for
social justice and the creation of a more just and egalitarian society at
the global, national and community levels. His most recent publications
are two book chapters on “Christianity in Africa: Pentecostalism and
Sociocultural Change in the Context of Neoliberal Globalization,” and
“Economic Development and Cultural Change in Islamic Context: The
Malaysian Experience.”
 List of Tables

Table 1.1 The State of Political Democratization in Africa, 2016 13

Table 1.2 The State of Socioeconomic Democratization
(Human Well-Being) in Africa, 2014 14

xv
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction: Framing the African

Condition

George Klay Kieh, Jr.

Introduction
The vagaries of colonialism—the suppression of political rights, mass
abject poverty and social malaise, among others—provided the major
causes that galvanized Africans from across the broad ethnic, class, gen-
der, ideological, regional and religious divide into organizing various
anti-colonial movements. In other words, the pedigree of colonialism
was uniformly unacceptable to Africans to the extent that they were pre-
pared to set aside their various differences, and join forces in struggling
against it. Amid the anti-colonial struggles, Africans entertained the hope
that the end of colonialism would usher in a new dispensation in which
their cultural, economic, political, religious and social rights, among oth-
ers, would be respected and promoted by the emergent post-colonial
state. Hence, when the wave of independence began to sweep across
the African Continent in the 1950s, the collective hope of Africans for a

G.K. Kieh, Jr. (*)

University of West Georgia, Carrollton, Georgia

© The Author(s) 2018 1

G.K. Kieh, Jr. (ed.), Contemporary Issues in African Society,
African Histories and Modernities,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49772-3_1
2 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

democratic and prosperous future reached fever pitch. Ramsay (1993: 3)

captured the tenor of the exuberance at independence:

The times were electric. In country after country, the flags of Britain,
Belgium, and France were replaced by the banners of the new states,
whose leaders offered idealistic promises to remake the continent and the
world. Hopes were high, and the most ambitious goals [seemed] obtain-
able. Even non-Africans spoke of the resource-rich continent as being on
the verge of a development take-off. Some of the old, racist myths about
Africa were [at] last being questioned.

Regrettably, while Africans were singing the requiem for the demise of
colonialism and demonstrating exuberance over the prospects of a new
beginning for the continent, the reality began to set in that the post-
colonial era would not be fundamentally different from its progenitor.
The overarching evidence was that the first generation of African lead-
ers—with few exceptions (Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Julius Nyerere
(Tanzania), Modibo Keita (Mali), and Seewoosagur Ramgoolam
(Mauritius)—failed to provide the requisite leadership for the disman-
tling, rethinking and democratic reconstitution of the “Berlinist state”,
which had been bequeathed to the continent by the colonialists (Kieh
2007, 2014). Clearly, the state is important because it sets the parame-
ters within which all societal activities occur. Hence, a state that is of the
wrong type cannot shepherd the process of constructing a human-cen-
tered democratic and developed society. In other words, the “Berlinist
state” was intrinsically anti-people, anti-democracy and anti-development.
Hence, it was incapable of serving as the foundation on which human-
centered development could be promoted, and holistic democracy (one
that transcends the political realm, and includes the cultural, economic,
environmental, religious, and social as well) could be championed.
Consequently, over the past six decades, the African peoples’ hopes
for a democratic and prosperous continent has been betrayed by the sub-
sequent generations of African leaders, with few exceptions (Longman
1998). Rather than focus on the needs of the African peoples, every
regime in every African state, with few exceptions, has made the primi-
tive accumulation of wealth through the instrumentality of the state
its preoccupation. Accordingly, the state in Africa has become akin
to a buffet service in which the members of the faction or fraction of
the ruling class that has control over state power at a particular histor-
ical juncture and their relations “eat all the can eat” (Kieh 2009: 10).
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 3

One of the major resulting effects was the serious deterioration of the
material conditions of ordinary Africans in the 1980s—the pervasiveness
of mass abject poverty, high unemployment, food insecurity, etc. This led
to the characterization of the decade of the 1980s as “Africa’s lost dec-
ade” (Meredith 2010).
Against this background, this chapter has several purposes. First, it
will examine some of the major dimensions of the African condition,
especially the challenges that need to be addressed in order for human-
centered democracy and development to take place on the continent.
Second, the chapter lays out the purposes of the book. Third, the the-
oretical framework that provides the analytical compass for the book is
articulated. Fourth, the chapter provides a summary of the key points of
the various constituent chapters of the book.

Dimensions of the African Condition

Background
As has been discussed, Africa has faced multiple cultural, economic, envi-
ronmental, gender, political, regional, religious, security and social prob-
lems over the past six decades of the post-colonial or post-independence
era. However, it is not possible to discuss all of these problems in either a
single chapter or a volume. Accordingly, only some of the dimensions—
ethnicity, religion, democratization, civil conflicts, conflict resolution,
non-governmental organizations, and international cooperation with the
European Union (EU) and the rest of the “Global South”—which are
reflections of the topics that are covered in the various chapters, will be
examined.

The Dimensions
Ethnicity is the most demonized social identity in the study of African
societies. This is reflected in two major ways. Some scholars and prac-
titioners portray ethnicity in Africa in a manner that suggests that it is
inherently bad (Reynolds 1985; Angstrom 2000). The other way is that
ethnicity is blamed by some scholars and practitioners as well as the prin-
cipal culprit for virtually every dimension of the multifaceted crises of
underdevelopment that has bedeviled the African Continent since the
post-colonial era (Lian and Oneal 1997; Adesina et al. 1999). For exam-
ple, the ethno-communal paradigm, the dominant perspective on the
4 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

root causes of civil conflicts and the resulting wars in the continent, iden-
tifies ethnicity as the major causal factor (Horowitz 2000; Sriskandarajah
2005; Denny and Walter 2014). This has led Mkandawire (2012: 107–
108) to observe, “In some essentialist (and often poorly veiled racist)
accounts, it is suggested there is something fundamentally wrong with
African cultures—and that senseless violence is an undisavowable excres-
cence of that culture.” So, the question is what is distinctively wrong
with ethnicity in Africa that makes it the cardinal source of the conti-
nent’s problems? Is ethnicity in Asia, Europe and the Americas of a dif-
ferent type that makes it inherently different? In the case of Europe,
how do we explain the implosion of ethnic conflicts and the resulting
wars with the associated deaths, injuries and destruction that rocked the
Balkans region, especially the former Yugoslavia, in the 1990s? Did these
wars also mean that ethnicity in Europe, like in Africa, is intrinsically
conflictual? Or were these ethnic conflicts aberrations?
Undoubtedly, ethnicity, in the post-colonial era, has contributed to
civil conflicts and other problems in various states in Africa. However,
on the other hand, ethnicity has also made major contributions to both
nation-building (the efforts to create nations out of the various ethnic
groups) and state-building on the continent (the efforts to construct the
governance multiplex and its associated values, institutions, rules and
processes). So, there is the need for a balanced approach to the examina-
tion of the role of ethnicity in African society. Such an approach must
begin with the historicization of the ethnicity-state-building nexus.
During the pre-colonial era, ethnicity was the central pillar of the vari-
ous indigenous polities that adorned the African landscape (Deng 1997;
Martin 2012). As Deng (1997: 1) notes,

Traditionally, African societies and even states functioned through an

elaborate system based on the family, the lineage, the clan, the tribe, and
ultimately confederation of groups with ethnic, cultural, and linguistic
characteristics in common. These were the units of social, economic, and
political organizations and intercommunal relations.

This meant that ethnicity was both the overarching tapestry of traditional
African societies, and a positive force for cultural, economic, political
and social development. And this was reflected in the major contribu-
tions that were made by several African polities in these areas. For exam-
ple, in the political domain, traditional African states made invaluable
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 5

contributions to the development of the rule of law and “checks and bal-
ances,” among others. In Pharaonic Egypt, for example, the rule of law
was reflected in the fact that the law applied to all citizens and foreign-
ers, irrespective of gender, class, and other forms of identities (Martin,
2012).
However, colonialism aborted the process of indigenous development
in Africa, as well as transformed ethnicity and intra- and inter-ethnic
relations. One major way was the division of ethnic groups into various
sections (Deng 1997). The other was the spreading of various ethnic
groups over several colonies (Deng 1997). In both cases, there was “lit-
tle or no regard for [the various ethnic groups’] common characteristics
or distinctive attributes” (Deng 1997: 1). The reason for the transfor-
mation was to subordinate ethnicity to the imperatives of the colonial
project, including its core pillar of external domination. The resulting
effects were the loss of sovereignty by the various ethnic groups, and the
establishment of the “Berlinist state as the pivot of the colonial govern-
ance architecture” (Kieh 2008: 3). To make matters worse, the hitherto
sovereign and autonomous ethnically-based African polities were subju-
gated by the colonialists and placed under the control of “outsider[s],
foreigner[s]” (Deng 1997: 1).
Importantly, the various colonial powers used ethnicity in various
negative ways in order to achieve their goals of political domination and
economic exploitation. For example, the colonial powers constructed the
mythology of so-called “superior” and “subordinate” ethnic groups. In
Rwanda, for instance, Belgian colonialism designated the Tutsis as the
so-called “superior” ethnic group and the Hutus as the “subordinate
one” (Mamdani 2001). The rationale for the Tutsis status was their so-
called European ancestry (Mamdani 2001). Accordingly, the Belgian
colonialists privileged the Tutsis by, among other things, giving them
access to education and mid-level positions in the colonial bureaucracy.
This laid the foundation for the polarization that developed between
the Tutsis and the Hutus, culminating in the 1994 genocide, in which
almost one million people were killed by genocidaires under the auspices
of the Interhamwe, a Hutu-based militia.
At independence, the colonizers continued the twin processes of
dividing and combining ethnic groups as the centerpiece of the pro-
cess of the construction of the post-colonial state. Since then, following
the footsteps of the colonialists, the first and subsequent generations of
African leaders in some of the states have continued to use ethnicity as
6 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

an instrument of “divide and rule.” For example, those Osaghae (2006:

6) aptly refers to as “ethnic gladiators,” have used ethnicity as an instru-
ment for personal economic and political gains in the name of serving
the broader interests of the ethnic groups. In other cases, the bureau-
cratic wings of the local ruling class have privileged some ethnic groups,
while marginalizing others. And this has found its most profound expres-
sion in the skewed distribution of societal resources, as well as patronage
(Berman 1998).
Consequently, the lack of ethnic pluralism and peaceful coexistence
has been one of the major pathologies of the neocolonial state in Africa.
That is, the managers of the neocolonial state failed to formulate and
implement pro-people policies that would have, inter alia, promoted
social justice, equality, fairness in the distribution of state resources,
political pluralism and tolerance. A major resultant effect was the occur-
rence of civil wars in various countries. For example, the failure of the
neocolonial Nigerian state to promote human-centered democracy and
development and their associated values of fairness, justice, equity, equal-
ity, pluralism and tolerance led to, among other things, ethno-regional
marginalization. In turn, this was one of the major precipitants of the
Nigerian civil war of 1967. The conflict pitted the Igbo ethnic group and
the eastern region against the Nigerian government. The Igbos and the
other easterners alleged that they had been marginalized by the Nigerian
government in the political and other spheres. Hence, they had made the
determination that secession was the best solution to the resolution of
the conflict. However, the Nigerian government rejected both the claims
and the drive for secession. Thus, unable to reach a peaceful resolution,
war broke out. Similarly, in the civil wars in the Sudan, Senegal, Somalia,
Djibouti, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among
others, ethno-communal conflicts constituted major dimensions of the
root causes.
One of the major emergent issues in the religious sphere on the
African continent has been the proliferation of charismatic churches
in the past two decades. These churches are grounded in the genre of
the Pentecostal tradition. Several factors have accounted for this devel-
opment. A major one is the argument that a traditional Christian sect
such as Catholicism lacks dynamism—the phenomenon Asamoah-
Gyadu (2014: 1) refers to as “cerebral Christianity.” Second, there is
the postulate that traditional Christianity lacks the experiential aspects
of faith (Asamoah-Gyadu 2014). Another factor is based on the claim
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 7

that “charismatic Christianity” fills the void concerning the importance

of instant healing and deliverance as part of the pantheon of “signs and
wonders.” As well, there is the imperative of the “prosperity gospel”
factor. That is, “charismatic Christianity” is pivoted on the notion of
encouraging its adherents to believe that all will be well, including the
acquisition of personal wealth. In other words, “charismatic Christianity”
portrays the religion in idyllic terms.
Clearly, the theology of “charismatic Christianity” is resonating well
with many Africans, most of whom are living precariously on the mar-
gins of various African states. And this is evidenced by abject mass pov-
erty and deprivation, unemployment, food insecurity and social malaise,
among others. The power of gospel of the “charismatic” Christian
churches is reflected in, for example, the burgeoning increase in the
number of adherents. In Nigeria, for instance, the Deeper Life Ministry
in Lagos claims attendance of about 120,000 people (Knight 2013). The
Living Faith Church in Lagos also asserts that its attendance is around
50,000 (Knight 2013). In the southern region of the African Continent,
the Rhema Bible Church North located in Johannesburg, South Africa,
claims attendance of more than 45,000 (Knight 2013). In East Africa,
the Jesus Celebration Center in Mombasa, Kenya notes an attendance of
15,000 (Knight 2013).
Undoubtedly, the charismatic Christian churches have become major
players in several major spheres in various African states. In the area of
education, for example, various charismatic Christian churches have
established schools, including universities, in Nigeria and other African
countries. While these institutions are providing academic training for
thousands of young people, this is always major sources of revenue for
these churches. Especially, since the costs of these charismatic-church
based schools are prohibitively expensive, only the children of the mem-
bers of the local upper classes in these various African states can afford to
send their children to these institutions.
In the economic sphere, several of the charismatic Christian churches
have major businesses, including convention centers and hotels,
which rival those owned by both local and foreign-based capitalists.
Importantly, these businesses also serve as major sources of revenues for
these churches. In addition, these businesses employ several of the local
folk, especially the members of these churches. Overall, these businesses
have positioned these churches as major players in various African states’
economies.
8 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

Politically, these charismatic churches serve two major functions. A

key one is legitimation. Given their large memberships, the leaders of
these churches are heavily sought after by presidents, cabinet ministers
and other government officials to endorse their performances. In addi-
tion, their massive youth following makes them attractive to politicians
for electoral purposes (Asamoah-Gyadu 2014). For example, Pastor
T.B. Joshua, the General Overseer of The Synagogue Church of All
Nations (SCOAN), a Nigerian-based emerging international charismatic
Christian ministry, has become the coveted friend of presidents, and
other government officials in Nigeria, Ghana and in other West African
states.
The other major function is that of the providers of “supernatu-
ral powers” (Asamoah-Gyadu 2014). It is widely believed both among
politicians and the masses of the people that the leaders of these char-
ismatic churches possess “supernatural powers.” Thus they are sought
with missionary zeal by politicians for access to these so-called powers
with the belief that these “supernatural powers” will serve as a protective
shield around politicians to ensure that they have a long and uninter-
rupted tenure of office. Seizing on this “golden opportunity” to amass
personal wealth and to acquire other material possessions such as private
jets, the leaders of these charismatic churches have successfully marketed
the mythology of their so-called “supernatural powers” to vulnera-
ble and gullible politicians, including corrupt and authoritarian leaders
(Asamoah-Gyadu 2014).
The struggle for people-centered holistic democracy (the combination
of political and other rights and freedoms, including economic and social
ones) in Africa has spanned three major cycles: the “first wave,” (1885–
1960s), the “second wave,” (1960s–1990), and the “third wave” (the
current cycle) (1990–present). Each wave was shaped by major domestic
and external forces and factors. Some of these forces and factors were,
and are inimical to the establishment of human-centered democracy in
Africa, while others are struggling for such transformation.
The “first wave” had as its central thrust ridding the various African
societies of European colonialism, which was imposed upon hitherto
sovereign and independent African polities, as the result of the notorious
Berlin Conference of 1884–1885. The conclave of European imperialist
powers witnessed the carving up of African territories for the overarch-
ing purpose of exploiting them for their natural and other resources. The
results were the labyrinthine of cultural, economic, political, religious
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 9

and social vagaries, including the demonization of African cultures and

the resulting imposition of Euro-Western ones; economic marginali-
zation and exploitation; the suppression of political rights and civil lib-
erties such as the right to participate in the political process, as well as
the freedoms of assembly, association, press and speech; the vilification
of traditional African religions as barbaric and heathenistic; and the will-
ful neglect of the educational, health and related needs of the colonized
Africans.
Exasperated by the adverse effects of colonialism, the colonized
Africans organized various nationalist movements with anti-colonialism
as its pivot. Using their anti-colonial anchor, these movements were
able to mobilize Africans from across the ethnic, regional, gender, pro-
fessional, religious and class divides. Importantly, these anti-colonial
movements employed various methods to wage their struggles. Some
used the armed struggle as the instrumentarium, these included move-
ments in Algeria, Angola, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique
and Zimbabwe. On the other hand, others, the majority, employed
non-violent methods such as protests, demonstrations, strikes and peti-
tion drives. Yet, others used a combination of violent and non-violent
methods.
Cumulatively, the various anti-colonial struggles that were waged on
the African continent along with other factors, such as the devastating
impact of World War Two on the economies of the European colonial
powers, led to the collapse of colonialism and the resulting process of
decolonization, and then political independence. That is, the various
European colonial powers were overwhelmed by the combined cost of
these anti-colonial struggles and the Second World War, as well as the
demands from their citizens for them to address pressing domestic eco-
nomic and social issues. In addition, the United States, which emerged as
the new leader of the global capitalist bloc, pressured the European colo-
nial powers to dismantle their respective colonial empires. Clearly, the
American intervention was dictated by the U.S.’ desire to deal directly
with African societies. In other words, as an emergent “superpower,” the
U.S. saw the African Continent as a prime region for the pursuance of
its economic, political and strategic interests. But, this could not have
been done in the context of colonialism, especially the practice of abso-
lute control of African colonies by the various colonial powers.
Significantly, the decolonization process was attended, by and large,
by hastily organized elections based on the governmental models of the
10 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

various colonial powers. For example, the British imposed their parlia-
mentary model on their colonies such as Nigeria, while France forced
its mixed model (the combination of the parliamentary and presidential
models) on its colonies, like Senegal. One of the central issues was that
the various African societies had no understanding of the operations of
these models of government. Hence, they were destined to fail. In addi-
tion, in the majority of the cases, the departing colonial powers hand-
picked Africa’s “first generation of leaders.” Essentially, these new leaders
were compradors, who had been socialized in the ways of the various
colonial powers, and were thus subservient to these imperialist powers’
interests. However, Portugal refused to give up its colonies in Angola,
Cape Verde, Guinea Bissau and Mozambique, until 1975.
Africans greeted the end of European colonialism with great relief
and expectation for the construction of human-centered democratic and
developed states. However, just a few years later the horrendous perfor-
mance of most of the continent’s post-colonial first generation regimes
brought Africans to the realization that the colonial state was still intact,
howbeit, with fellow Africans as the rulers. This was because the first
generation regimes, with few exceptions, continued the colonial poli-
cies of political repression, the manipulation of ethno-communal iden-
tities, and the neglect of basic human needs, among others. Thus, the
post-independence era became more of a “struggle for survival” (Ramsay
1993: 3).
Disappointed by this outcome, various pro-democracy movements
emerged throughout the continent with the primary goal of waging
struggles against these emergent authoritarian regimes that had simul-
taneously failed to promote the material well-being of the majority of
Africans. Amid the “tugs and pulls” between the pro-democracy forces
and the continent’s various authoritarian regimes, putschits and other
militarists hijacked the democratic struggles by staging military coups,
and instigating rebellions that eventually led to civil wars (Japhet 1978;
Mwakikagile 2001; Kandeh 2004; Kieh 2002, 2004; Keller 2014). For
example, in the 1960s, there were 23 successful military coups on the
continent (Kieh 2004, 2008). Also during the same period, civil wars
broke out in the countries like Sudan, Senegal, Nigeria and Chad. Coup-
making and war-making continued throughout the decades of the 1970s
and 1980s. Similarly, the support received by some of the continent’s
various authoritarian regimes from the United States and its allies and
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 11

the Soviet Union and its allies undermined the success of the various
pro-democracy struggles as well.
The dawn of the decade of the 1990s witnessed an upsurge in pro-
democratic activities throughout the continent (Bratton and Van de
Walle 1997; Nzongola-Ntalaja 1998; Kieh 2008). This led Africa News
(1992: 1) to proclaim, “Africa is experiencing a revolution as profound
as the wave of independence that began to sweep through the conti-
nent three decades ago.” This development was caused by several major
factors. A major one was the collapse of the Soviet Union and Stalinist
socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, and the resulting end of the
Cold War. Importantly, this development adversely affected some of the
continent’s authoritarian regimes that were client states of the Soviet
Union and its allies. Similarly, with the end of the Cold War, the United
States and its allies also determined that some of their client regimes on
the continent were also disposable. In turn, these client African regimes
lost their supply of the “economic, political and military oxygen” that
enabled them to rule. Another factor was the success of the various pro-
democracy movements in Central and Eastern Europe in forcing the
removal of various Stalinist regimes from power, and the resulting setting
into motion the process of democratization.
Interestingly, the “third wave” on the African Continent has focused
primarily on the attainment of liberal democracy and its attendant bat-
tery of political rights and civil liberties. This means that very little
attention has been paid to the centrality of the material well-being of
the majority of Africans. This is quite unfortunate, because the clamor
for democracy on the continent was caused by the ardent desire of the
majority of Africans to democratically reconstitute the postcolonial
African state, so that it could adequately address their cultural, economic,
environmental, political, security and social needs. To make matters
worse, the suzerains of the world capitalist system—the United States,
its allies and the international economic institutions (the International
Monetary Fund and the World Bank)—have imposed on African states
a neoliberal development strategy that has led to the deterioration of
human material well-being throughout the continent (Harrison 2005;
Mensah 2008; Harrison 2010).
So, after more than two decades, what is the current state of democ-
ratization on the African continent? In order to address this important
question, two major sets of variables are examined: political democ-
ratization (political rights and civil liberties), and socioeconomic
12 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

democratization (human development or well-being). Based on the data

from Freedom House for 2016 on political democratization, 10 African
states were politically democratic. In terms of the regional break-down,
this consists of 1 country each in Central Africa and North Africa, none
in East Africa, 4 in West Africa and 4 in Southern Africa (see Table 1.1).
Twenty two countries were authoritarian; of these, 9 are in Central
Africa, 6 in East Africa, 3 in North Africa, and 2 each in West Africa and
Southern Africa. The remaining 22 states were hybrid (with elements of
political democracy and authoritarianism): none in Central Africa one
in North Africa, 5 in East Africa six in Southern Africa, and 10 in West
Africa.
In terms of socioeconomic democratization(human material well-
being), according to the data from the United Nations Development
Program’s Human Development Report, in 2015, no African state
attained the ‘very high’ category of socioeconomic democratization (see
Table 1.2). Five states attained a ‘high’ level of socioeconomic democ-
ratization, including Algeria and Libya, which were both classified as
authoritarian states, and the Seychelles that was categorized as a hybrid
state. This is a reflection of the fact that a high level of political democ-
ratization does not automatically lead to a high level of socioeconomic
democratization. In other words, politically democratic states can have
high, medium or low levels of socioeconomic democracy, as the cases
of democratic states (politically) such as Botswana, South Africa, Cape
Verde, Namibia and Ghana show (see Table 1.2). All of the aforemen-
tioned democracies had a ‘medium’ level of socioeconomic democrati-
zation. Fourteen states were classified as attaining ‘medium’ level of
socioeconomic democratization, while the overwhelming majority of 35
states attained only a ‘low’ level of socioeconomic democratization (see
Table 1.2 for the regional distribution).
Since the post-independence era, the African continent has been
plagued with various types of civil conflicts. For example, as has been dis-
cussed, the coup d’état has been one of the major enduring forms of civil
conflicts on the continent. Beginning in 1952, with the Free Officers-
led military coup in Egypt, the phenomenon spread like an epidemic
throughout the continent with the exception of Southern Africa (Japhet
1978; Mwakikagile 2001; Kieh 2002, 2004; Kandeh 2004; Collier and
Hoeffler 2005). Clearly, the multidimensional crises—cultural, eco-
nomic, political, security and social—of the neocolonial African state pro-
vided the causes of the phenomenon. But the various military regimes
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 13

Table 1.1 The

Democratic States
State of Political
Democratization in State Region
Africa, 2016 Benin West
Botswana Southern
Cape Verde West
Ghana West
Mauritius Southern
Namibia Southern
Sao Tome and Principe Central
Senegal West
South Africa Southern
Tunisia North
Authoritarian States
State Region
Algeria North
Angola Southern
Burundi Central
Cameroon Central
Central African Republic Central
Chad Central
Democratic Republic of the Congo Central
Djibouti East
Egypt North
Equatorial Guinea Central
Eritrea East
Ethiopia East
Gabon Central
Gambia West
Libya North
Mauritania West
Rwanda Central
Somalia East
South Sudan East
Sudan East
Swaziland Southern
Hybrid States
State Region
Burkina Faso West
Comoros East
Congo Central
Cote d’Ivoire West
Guinea West
Guinea-Bissau West
Kenya East
Lesotho Southern
(continued)
14 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

Table 1.1 (continued)

State Region
Liberia West
Madagascar East
Malawi Southern
Mali West
Morocco North
Mozambique Southern
Niger West
Nigeria West
Seychelles Southern
Sierra Leone West
Tanzania East
Togo West
Uganda East
Zambia Southern
Zimbabwe Southern

Source Compiled from Freedom House, Freedom in the World,

2016, (Washington DC: Freedom House, 2017)

Table 1.2 The State

Very High Level of Socioeconomic Democratization
of Socioeconomic
Democratization State Region
(Human Well-Being) in
No country
Africa, 2014
High Level of Socioeconomic Democratization
State Region
Libya North
Mauritius Southern
Seychelles Southern
Tunisia North
Algeria North
Medium Level of Socioeconomic Democratization
State Region
Botswana Southern
Egypt North
Gabon Central
South Africa Southern
Cape Verde West
Namibia Southern
Morocco North
Ghana West
Congo Central
Zambia Southern
Sao Tome and Principe Central
(continued)
 1 INTRODUCTION: FRAMING THE AFRICAN CONDITION 15

Table 1.2 (continued)

State Region
Equatorial Guinea Central
Angola Southern Africa
Cameroon Central Africa
Low Level of Socioeconomic Democratization
State Region
Kenya East
Swaziland Southern
Angola Southern
Rwanda Central
Cameroon Central
Nigeria West
Madagascar East
Zimbabwe Southern
Comoros East
Tanzania East
Mauritania West
Lesotho Southern
Senegal West
Uganda East
Benin West
South Sudan East
Sudan East
Togo West
Djibouti East
Cote d’Ivoire West
Gambia West
Ethiopia East
Malawi Southern
Liberia West
Mali West
Guinea-Bissau West
Mozambique Southern
Guinea West
Burundi Central
Burkina Faso West
Eritrea East
Sierra Leone West
Chad Central
Central African Republic Central
Democratic Republic of Congo Central
Niger West

Source Compiled from United Nations Development Program,

Human Development Report, (New York: Oxford University Press,
2016)
16 G.K. Kieh, Jr.

that came to power after these coups, by and large, failed to perform
better than their civilian predecessors (Agbese 2004; Brooker 2013;
Houngnikpo 2013). Furthermore, in some cases, the military regimes
disengaged from politics as rulers, and were replaced by civilian regimes.
That is, the military regimes presided over the process of returning the
affected countries to civilian rule, and then transferred power to the
newly elected civilian leaders, for example, Nigeria in 1979 and 1999.
But, in other cases, the military regimes consolidated their rule through
a process of civilianization—the military rulers simply replaced their uni-
forms with civilian regalia. Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the
Congo), Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger provide excellent cases. Yet, in
other cases, the military re-intervened in the political process and seized
power: Ghana, Congo, the Central African Republic and Nigeria are
noteworthy examples.
Civil wars constitute another major dimension of civil conflicts on
the continent. Like military coups, civil wars were, and remain the by-
products of the failure of the neocolonial state in Africa to address the
cultural, economic, political, security and social needs of the major-
ity of Africans. The resulting crisis of legitimacy and the erosion of
mass support have made the various affected countries ripe for implo-
sion. For example, in the case of the Sudan, the country degener-
ated into civil war months after it declared its independence from the
United Kingdom in 1956. This was followed by civil wars in Senegal
and Nigeria in the 1960s; Chad, Angola, Ethiopia and Mozambique,
among others, witnessed the eruption of civil war in the 1970s; Somalia
and Liberia, among others, were gripped by civil war in the 1980s; while
in the 1990s, Rwanda, Burundi, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau and the
Democratic Republic of Congo, as well as several other African states
were ravaged by internecine war, and in the first decade and half of the
twenty-first century, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Mali, and the newly independent state of South Sudan joined the list of
civil war-affected countries on the continent.
In addition, terrorism is the other important dimension of the civil
conflict grid. Although, it is not a new phenomenon in Africa or else-
where in the world, it has become the frontier global security issue ever
since Al Qaeda carried out its terrorist attacks against the American
homeland on September 11, 2001(Kieh and Kalu 2012). Particularly,
the emergent focus is on private terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and its
various affiliates such as Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM),
Another random document with
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“That’s nothing,” was the answer. “He often comes in here, and
walks off with three or four books without paying for them. If we see
him we always politely call his attention to them. If we don’t, it
doesn’t matter, for he generally recollects what he has done when he
reaches home, and he sends the money for them. Yes, he is very
eccentric.”
“Then I did the right thing,” said Tom, “when I offered to wrap them
up for him.”
“Oh, yes. He and Mr. Townsend are great friends. He has bought
books of us for years.”
“Here—er—new boy—what’s your name!” suddenly called the book
store proprietor, from where he stood talking to Dr. Spidderkins.
“Wrap these books up.”
Tom hurried to his employer, and took several large and heavy
volumes which the old physician had evidently selected from the
shelves.
“Ah, there is the young man who helped me look up some facts
about—er—well now, isn’t that queer, I can’t remember what it was
about,” said the doctor, as he caught sight of Tom. “Was it about how
the Egyptians used to worship cats?”
“It was about belladonna and fruit cake,” answered Tom.
“Oh, yes, so it was. Yes, he was quite a help to me—I mean he
showed me that I had the wrong memoranda,” went on the
physician. “I must get a secretary if my memory keeps on failing me.
But I must pay you for these books, Mr. Townsend. I’ll take them right
along with me, or I’ll forget all about them.”
“Better let me send them,” suggested the proprietor of the
Emporium. “They’ll make quite a heavy bundle.”
“Perhaps you had better. Here is the money,” and the doctor held out
several bills.
“Do you want that book you have under your arm?” asked Mr.
Townsend with a laugh, pointing to a small volume, almost hidden by
the big sleeve of the doctor’s coat.
“Have I a book there? Why, bless my soul, so I have! I remember
now, I took it down to look up a certain fact about how the Chinese
use opium to deaden pain in sickness. It is just like a book I have,
only mine is an earlier edition. I think I will take this. You may wrap it
up with the others. Queer, how forgetful I am becoming. Now be sure
those books are up to my house to-night.”
“They’ll be there,” Mr. Townsend assured the physician, as Tom went
to the counter to wrap them up.
Dr. Spidderkins took his departure, and soon after this, Tom was told
he could go out and get some lunch. He did not eat an elaborate
meal and was soon back at his place.
During the afternoon he went on a number of errands, arranged
several shelves of books, dusted off long rows of volumes, and
waited on one or two customers.
“I’m beginning to learn the book business,” thought the lad proudly,
after he had made his third sale without an error. True they were only
small ones, involving the purchase of a pad, a pencil, and the last
one being a small book, purchased by a girl. But they meant a lot to
Tom.
“It will be closing time in half an hour,” remarked one of the younger
clerks to Tom. “Do you live far from here?”
“Not very. About half an hour’s walk. But I thought you kept open late
during the holidays?”
“We will, beginning next week. It will be ten o’clock every night then,
but we get supper money.”
“That’s good,” remarked Tom.
“Here, what’s this!” suddenly exclaimed Mr. Townsend, as he saw the
bundle of books which Tom had wrapped up for Dr. Spidderkins.
“Haven’t these books been called for by the expressman?”
“No, sir,” replied the clerk, in charge of that part of the work.
“This will never do,” went on the proprietor. “The doctor wants the
books to-night. Call up the express office and see if they are
coming.”
The clerk put the telephone into operation, and presently reported to
Mr. Townsend:
“He says the man forgot to call on his afternoon trip, and it’s too late
now.”
“That’s too bad!” exclaimed Mr. Townsend. “Those books must go to
Dr. Spidderkins to-night, or he’ll be very much disappointed, and he’s
too good a customer to disappoint. Tom, you had better jump on a
car and take them to him. Do you know your way around the Back
Bay district?”
The Back Bay district is the section of Boston where are located the
residences of the rich, and it is quite exclusive.
“I guess I can find the place, sir,” said Tom confidently, though he
had only been in the locality a few times.
“Well, here is your car fare. Be careful of the books now, as some of
them are quite expensive. Be on hand early in the morning.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Tom, as he put on his overcoat, and with the
bundle of books, which were quite heavy, he started off.
He was soon in the Back Bay district, and a little inquiry enabled him
to find the doctor’s house.
“My, it’s a big place!” exclaimed Tom. “He must have money to live in
a house like that.”
He went up the front steps and rang the bell. The door was presently
opened by a woman, and, in the light that streamed out into the
darkness from the hall, Tom saw that she was about middle age, and
that her features were rather sharp and hard. Her face was not made
more attractive by the way her hair was arranged, for it was drawn
tightly back on both sides of her head.
“Well, what do you want?” she asked snappishly. “We don’t want to
buy anything, and if you’re the boy from the grocery you’re too late
with the stuff, and you must go round to the back door. I can’t have
tradesmen coming to the front door.”
“These are some books Dr. Spidderkins purchased to-day,” replied
Tom. “I brought them, because the expressman forgot to call.”
“What’s that? Books?” asked a voice from within, that the boy
recognized as the doctor’s. “Who has books for me?”
Tom caught a glimpse of the elderly gentleman. He was in his
slippers and a dressing gown, and his arms were so full of books
that he could not have carried another one.
“They are books from Mr. Townsend,” said Tom.
“Oh, yes. Come right in,” invited the doctor. “I was wondering why
they didn’t arrive. Come right in with them, my boy. I want to look up
something about a certain rare plant——”
“He’ll do nothing of the kind!” interrupted the woman. “I guess I’m not
going to have snow tracked into my house! Besides, you know you
started to go to supper, and there you are puttering over those
books. Oh, Lemuel, you’re so forgetful!”
“So I am! So I am,” admitted the doctor in a queer sort of voice. “I
remember now, I did start to go to supper. I knew it was something I
ought to do. I’m glad you reminded me. I’ll eat at once,” and, placing
the books he was holding on a chair in the hall, the old gentleman
turned back.
“Leave the books here,” said the woman to Tom. “Are there any
charges?”
“No; everything is paid.”
“All right,” and she abruptly shut the door.
“Rather a cool reception,” murmured Tom. “My, but she’s cross! I
shouldn’t like to live with her. I wonder how the doctor stands it, he’s
so quiet and studious? I wonder if she’s his wife? No, she can’t be.
The clerk said he wasn’t married. She must be a housekeeper, or
some relation. My, but she seems to be able to make him do just as
she likes! The idea of not letting him take his own books that he
bought and paid for. I guess he’s so easy that she has him under her
thumb.”
The time came when this was demonstrated to Tom, even more
forcibly than it was on this occasion.
 CHAPTER III
BUSY DAYS

Tom was on hand so early at the book store the next morning that he
found the Emporium had not yet opened. He had to stand out in the
street, until the porter came along to unlock the door.
“You’re early; ain’t you?” the man asked.
“Yes; I didn’t know exactly what time I had to begin, so I thought I’d
get here as soon as I could. Where will I find a broom? I have to
sweep out the place.”
“I’ll get you one. You want to sprinkle damp sawdust on the floor, and
cover up all the books on the tables, so they won’t get dusty. Mr.
Townsend is a very particular man.”
“I believe he is, but I like him—what little I have seen of him.”
“Oh, you’ll find he’s all right,” went on the porter, as he opened the
door, and showed Tom where to find a broom. Then, while the man
went to the cellar to open up some cases of books that had arrived
late the previous afternoon, Tom began his sweeping. He had just
finished, and taken the cloths off the books, when the junior clerk
arrived. In a short time all the other employes were at their places,
and presently Mr. Townsend came in.
“Ah, good-morning, Tom,” he said. “I see you have the place in good
shape for us. Did you leave the books for Dr. Spidderkins?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Ah, a very fine man he is, very fine indeed, if he is a trifle eccentric.
Did he say anything to you?”
“Not very much. He said something about waiting for the books.”
“I hope they were not too late.”
“I went as quickly as I could with them.”
“I know you did, Tom. I mean I hope I sent you off with them in time.
The doctor likes to have things the minute they are promised,
though, often, after he has them, he forgets all about them. Was he
much put out?”
“Not very. I didn’t have a chance to say much to him, as the lady who
answered the door told the doctor it was time for his supper.”
“Ah, I dare say he had forgotten all about it. That’s his way. What did
the woman say? She is his sister-in-law, I believe, though she has
married a second time.”
Tom related as much of the conversation as he could remember.
“Hum,” mused the bookseller. “She’s a strange woman—very
strange. Well, I guess the books got there in time. Now, Tom, I want
you to go on an errand for me.”
When Tom got back from having taken some books to a customer
who was stopping at the Parker House, he found the Emporium a
busy place. There were a number of customers present, for the
holiday rush was on, and all the clerks, and Mr. Townsend, were
engaged in showing books, or wrapping up parcels.
Seeing that Mr. Townsend was busy, Tom decided to defer for the
present reporting on the result of his errand. He hung up his coat
and hat, and as there seemed to be nothing else for him to do, he
proceeded to tidy up a table of small booklets, that was usually in
disorder, as customers were continually looking over the stock.
While he was thus engaged he was approached by a young man,
whose clothes were of expensive cut and material.
“I beg your pardon,” he said, in a peculiar drawling accent, “but
would you kindly get me a volume of Browning! I can’t seem to
locate it amid all the maze of books here, and all the clerks seem to
be engaged. I presume I am right in assuming that you are employed
here?”
 “Browning, the ball player!” exclaimed the young man.
Page 25.
“Oh, yes, I work here,” answered Tom, who paid little attention to
accent. “But I’ve only been here two days, and I don’t know much
about the books yet.”
“Then perhaps you can’t find for me a volume of Browning?”
“I guess I can,” said Tom confidently. “I’ll look in my special
catalogue,” and he produced the one Mr. Townsend had arranged for
him. “Browning, the baseball player, you mean, don’t you?” he
asked, for there was an athlete of that name, who had made quite a
reputation for himself in the New England circuit that fall.
“Browning, the ball player!” exclaimed the young man, as if horrified.
“Yes, the one that played short. He’s got the highest batting average
——”
“Don’t! Don’t, my dear young man; don’t I beg of you,” spoke the
customer, waving his hands. “Baseball is such—such——”
“It’s a bully game!” exclaimed Tom, enthusiastically. “I used to be
captain of a team, when I went to school. Tim Browning——”
“No, no! I mean Browning, the poet,” said the young man hastily. “I
want a volume of his verses to send to a young lady. She is very
fond of him. So am I.”
“Oh!” said Tom suddenly, much enlightened. “I thought you meant
the other Browning. I was looking for the book among the sports. I’ll
turn to poetry. Yes, here it is,” he added a moment later, as he found
it in the catalogue. “I’ll get it for you.”
He got several different styles of the poet’s work and handed them to
the young man.
“Ah, that is what I want!” he exclaimed. “Don’t you think his poetry is
simply perfect?”
“I—I don’t care much for poetry,” replied Tom, who, since he worked
in a book store, did not want to confess that he had never read a line
of Browning.
“Not care for poetry! Not an admirer of Browning! You have missed
much, my young friend,” murmured the customer. “I will take this
copy,” he went on, selecting an expensive one and handing Tom the
money.
“I don’t much care whether he buys poetry or books on sport as long
as I sell ’em,” thought the lad as he wrapped up the book. “Five
dollars for a book! Whew! I work a week for that. But I’m glad I sold it
to him.”
The young man went out, fondly holding the volume of verse to his
side. Tom went on arranging the booklets, but presently he had to
stop to wait on a lady who wanted a fairy story for her little girl. Here
Tom was more at home, and he found the lady quite ready to defer
to his judgment as to what sort of a book was best.
Presently a young lady appealed to Tom to find for her a book on
philosophy, and though the boy could hardly pronounce the title of it,
he managed to locate it.
All that day Tom was kept busy, and he was acquiring more
confidence in himself with every sale he made. At the close of the
day, when Mr. Townsend looked over the slips made out by the
different clerks, he congratulated Tom on the success he had had.
“I hope he keeps me after the holidays are over,” thought our hero.
“That’s what I want, a good, steady job, so I can earn money, and
then mother and Aunt Sallie won’t have to work so hard.”
Toward the end of that week Dr. Spidderkins paid another visit to the
Emporium. He wandered in, and was soon examining volumes in
that part of the shop given over to rare and costly books.
“Ah!” he exclaimed as Tom passed him on his way to get some
wrapping-paper. “Here is just what I have been looking for. It is a rare
old copy of Shakespeare. When did this come in? Why, bless my
soul! If it isn’t the boy who prevented me from carrying off books
without paying for them the other day,” he added as he recognized
Tom. “How are you, young man?”
“Very well, sir.”
“I must have this book,” went on the old doctor. “Let’s see—it will just
match that volume of Milton I bought the same day I got the copy of
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. No, it wasn’t, either. It was the day I
bought Darwin’s volume on evolution, or the day after. I declare, I
can’t remember which. But I must take this book along with me.
What’s the price?”
“Ten dollars,” answered Tom, after a look at the mystic letters on the
fly-leaf.
“Ah, very reasonable—very reasonable, indeed.”
Tom thought it very unreasonable, for the book was an old one, and
he knew of whole shelvesful of brand-new books at much lower
prices than that. Dr. Spidderkins, however, seemed to think he had a
bargain.
“I’ll take it,” he said, putting his hand in his pocket. Then a blank look
came over his face. “Bless my soul, I’ve lost my pocketbook!” he
exclaimed.
“Lost it?” repeated Tom. “Do you think you dropped it here?”
“I don’t know, I’m sure. Maybe I left it at home. I’m so forgetful.”
“We have a telephone here—you could call up your house and ask if
it’s there,” suggested Tom.
“So I could. I never thought of that. But I can’t talk very well over the
wire, and my sister-in-law can’t hear me as well as she can some
persons. Suppose you call up for me? I’ll give you the number. It’s
2256 Back Bay.”
“I’ll call up for you,” said Tom. “Shall I wrap up this book?”
“Yes. I’ll take it, anyhow, and send Mr. Townsend the money. Queer I
can’t remember when I last had my pocketbook.”
 CHAPTER IV
STRANGE ACTIONS

The experience Tom had once had, as a clerk in a grocery store,

where he took orders over the telephone, had made him fairly expert
in the use of the instrument. He soon got the aged doctor’s house on
the wire, and was inquiring of Mrs. Barton Sandow (which the
physician gave as his sister-in-law’s name) whether the pocketbook
had been left there.
“Yes, it’s here,” answered Mrs. Sandow shortly. “He forgot it, as
usual. Tell him he left it on the breakfast-table. Why, is he in trouble?”
“No; only he wants to buy some books, and he hasn’t the money with
him,” answered Tom politely.
“Well, tell him to be sure and not forget to come home to dinner,”
said Mrs. Sandow, as she hung up the receiver with a click that
snapped in Tom’s ear.
“What does she say?” asked the old doctor.
“It’s there,” answered the boy. “And she wants you to be sure not to
forget to come home to dinner.”
“I’ll not. I’ll start right away, and then I can’t forget. But I must tell Mr.
Townsend about this book. I remember once I took a volume without
paying for it—let me see, it was the same day I picked up a rare
copy of Bacon’s works—and I forgot to send the money for a week, I
got so interested reading it. I want him to send after the money for
this, in case I don’t forward it right away.”
Tom found the book-store proprietor and told him of Dr. Spidderkins’
desires.
“Tell him to take the book, and welcome,” was the reply Mr.
Townsend sent back. “He can take all the books he wants. He is
good for them.”
The doctor left, after insisting that a messenger must be sent to his
house that evening for the ten dollars, in case he did not send it
sooner.
“I guess you’d better stop up and see the doctor, Tom,” said Mr.
Townsend, when it came closing time. “He hasn’t sent the money,
and, while I know he’ll pay it, he always likes to have things done just
as he requests. I don’t want to offend him. So just take a run up
there. You know where the place is now.”
“Yes, sir. Shall I bring back the money to-night?”
“No; fetch it with you in the morning. I suppose you know that,
beginning next week, we shall keep open quite late, on account of
the Christmas trade?”
“Yes, sir. I don’t mind.”
“I’m glad you don’t. The boy who had the place you now have left on
account of that.”
Tom made up his mind it would take a good deal more than that to
make him give up his job.
He took a car for the Back Bay district, and arrived at the
Spidderkins mansion about seven o’clock. His knock was answered
by the woman he now knew to be Mrs. Sandow.
“Well?” she asked ungraciously.
“I called to see Dr. Spidderkins.”
“What about?”
“I was told to collect ten dollars for some books.”
“Oh! Those everlasting books!” exclaimed Mrs. Sandow. “My brother-
in-law spends more money on them than he does on the house. It’s
all foolishness!”
She opened the door a little wider, and Tom took this for an invitation
to enter.
“Are your feet clean?” she asked suspiciously.
“I wiped them carefully on the mat.”
“I don’t believe you half did. I never saw a boy yet with clean feet.
Wait here, and I’ll tell the doctor.”
“Ah, good evening, my lad,” exclaimed the aged physician, as, with
his spectacles half-way down on his nose, and holding a book in
each hand, he came out to greet Tom. “You are from the printer’s,
aren’t you? Have you the proofs of my new book on ‘The Influence of
Environment in Nervous Diseases’?”
“No, sir. I’m not from the printer’s,” said Tom. “I came about the ten
dollars, for Mr. Townsend.”
“Oh, yes, to be sure. How stupid of me. I wonder where my
pocketbook is?”
“Didn’t you find it?”
“Find it? Did I lose it?”
“Yes. Don’t you remember me telephoning about it for you, when you
were in the store?”
“Oh, yes, to be sure. Now I know who you are. Dear, dear, I am
getting to have a bad memory, I’m afraid!”
He already had it, Tom thought, but the old gentleman was such a
delightful character, that the boy could not help liking him.
“Come right into the sitting-room,” went on the doctor. “Let me see,
your name is Theopholus, isn’t it?”
“No, sir, it’s Tom Baldwin.”
“Oh, yes, I recollect now. Well, Tom, just sit down a minute, and I’ll
get the money. Please don’t disturb any of the books or papers. I’m
writing another book on how to avoid taking colds, and I’m looking up
all the authorities about that form of disease.”
The table was covered with books and papers, and Tom took a seat
far enough away so that there would be no danger of disturbing
them.
“Eliza, have you seen my pocketbook?” Dr. Spidderkins called, as he
left the room.
“I put it right on top of your desk, where you couldn’t help but see it,”
answered Mrs. Sandow.
“Oh, yes, of course; I remember now. I have it in my pocket.”
The doctor came back into the sitting-room. He was followed a
moment later by a tall, dark complexioned man, whose eyes, as Tom
noticed at a glance, seemed to be continually shifting about.
“Ah, Barton, are you going to sit here and read?” asked the doctor
pleasantly.
“I was going to, but you’ve got your confounded papers all over the
table, so I don’t see how I can very well,” answered the man, in surly
tones.
“I’ll make a place for you at once,” said the doctor hastily, sweeping
the papers to one side.
“You needn’t bother,” was the man’s ungracious remark. “I can go
somewhere else. I wish you, wouldn’t make such a muss.”
“But this is about my new book.”
“I don’t care what it is.”
The doctor seemed to shrink away from Mr. Barton Sandow, and
Tom felt a natural resentment against a man who would speak so
ungraciously to an aged person.
“Allow me to present a friend of mine to you,” went on the physician
courteously. “This is Tom Baldwin, Mr. Sandow. Tom, or I suppose I
should say Thomas, this is my brother-in-law. That is he is a sort of
brother-in-law. His wife was my brother’s wife, but my brother has
been dead several years, and his wife married again.”
“You needn’t go into the whole family history,” said Barton Sandow
surlily. “How are you?” he added to Tom, but his tone of voice was
such that he might as well have told the boy he did not care whether
he was well or ill.
“I—I wasn’t going to,” said the doctor gently. “I only thought—I—er—
and—er—” he seemed to forget what he was going to say.
“Did you call on business?” asked Mr. Sandow suddenly, looking at
Tom. “Dr. Spidderkins evidently has forgotten what it is about,” he
added with a sneer.
“I’m from Mr. Townsend’s book store,” was the boy’s reply.
“That’s it. I knew it was something about books,” said the doctor with
an uneasy laugh. “Thank you for reminding me. I had forgotten. I
must pay you that ten dollars.”
He drew out his pocketbook, and began fumbling with it, for his
eyesight was clearly not of the best.
“Ah, I thought I had a ten-dollar bill somewhere in it,” he said, as he
handed Tom an envelope. “I sealed it up in this, and meant to send
it, but I forgot it. But there ought to be more money in my wallet. I left
fifty dollars in it this morning, and now there are only fifteen. I wonder
what has become of the rest?”
“Do you think I took it?” asked Mr. Sandow, almost savagely.
“Why—er—no—of course not,” answered the old doctor, looking
over the tops of his spectacles. “I only thought——”
“You don’t know what you thought!” exclaimed the other quite
fiercely. “First thing you know you’ll be accusing me or my wife of
stealing money from you. ’Liza, come here!” he called.
His wife stood in the door.
“What is it, Barton?” she asked.
“The doctor has missed some money from his pocketbook, and he
accuses us of taking it.”
“No, no! Nothing of the sort!” said the physician quickly. “I—I didn’t
mean that. I—I thought I had more money than I have. But—er—I
must——”
“You spent it, and you’ve forgotten all about it,” declared Mrs.
Sandow with a hard laugh. “You’re always doing that, Lemuel. Didn’t
you pay for two tons of coal this afternoon?”
“That’s so, I guess I must have, but I don’t recollect about it. Did any
coal come?”
“Of course,” answered Mrs. Sandow, quickly, and Tom, looking up
suddenly, saw her making some kind of a motion to her husband.
“Then that must be where the money went,” agreed the doctor. “I’m
sorry I’m so forgetful. It may interfere with my new book. I don’t mind
the money, but I like to know where I spend it.”
“Probably you wasted it on books,” said Mr. Sandow, half growling
out the words.
“No, I never waste money on books, and I only spent ten dollars for
one to-day.”
“Ten dollars for a book!” gasped Mrs. Sandow. “You’ll be in the
poorhouse soon, at that rate.”
“It was a very rare volume,” pleaded her brother-in-law. “I—I couldn’t
very well let it go.”
“Humph!” sniffed the woman. “You’ll wish you had that money some
day. But it’s time you went to bed. You’re forgetting it’s past your
hour.”
“Is it?” asked the doctor humbly. “I knew there was something I ought
to remember. Well, good-night, Tom—is it Tom? Oh, yes, I remember
now. Perhaps you’ll have some more books to deliver for me next
week. I must get some more authorities on colds,” and the aged
gentleman tottered off, shaking his white head, as though vainly
trying to remember something.
“I guess that’s all that need detain you,” said Mr. Sandow rather
roughly to Tom. “We close up early here.”
“Yes; my business is finished,” replied the boy.
As he went down the stone steps, our hero wondered at the queer
actions of Mr. and Mrs. Sandow, for they seemed to have some
strange control over the aged doctor.
 CHAPTER V
CHARLEY GROVE’S IDEA

“Hey, Tom!” hailed a voice, as our hero got off the street car, near his
home. “Where are you going?”
Tom turned, to behold his chum, Charley Grove, whom he had not
seen since going to work in the book store.
“Going home,” replied Tom. “Where are you going?”
“Same place. Haven’t seen you in over a week. Where have you
been keeping yourself?”
“I’ve got a new job,” replied Tom.
“Where?”
“Down in Townsend’s Book Emporium.”
“What doin’? Readin’ books?”
“Not much. Don’t get any time for that. We’re busy on account of the
holidays. What are you doing?”
“Oh, I’ve got a new job, and it’s fine.”
“What at?”
“I run the telephone switchboard in a broker’s office. Short hours and
good pay. I get ten a week. All I got was eight in my last place.”
“That’s what I got, before the firm failed. Now I only get five.”
“You ought to strike for more money.”
“Wouldn’t do much good. I’m only an extra hand during the holidays.
I’ll be lucky if I stay there after the first of the year.”
“That’s too bad. You ought to learn to be a telephone boy. I know two
or three who make more money than I do.”
“Is it hard to learn?”
“Well, it isn’t so very easy, and if you’re in a busy office like mine it
keeps you on the jump. It’s no fun to have all three members of the
firm trying to get connections at once, and half a dozen parties on
the outside wanting to talk to the partners to give orders to sell or
buy stocks. I couldn’t do it at first, and I got all mixed up, but I can
work it all right now.”
“I’d like to have a place like that,” said Tom. “I used to take orders
over the telephone in the grocery store.”
“Bein’ on a private exchange is a heap different from that,” said
Charley, as he walked along beside Tom.
“Do you think there’s a place in your office for another boy?” asked
Tom, rather wistfully, as he thought of the good salary his chum was
getting.
“I don’t believe so. But I’ll keep my ears open, and if I hear of
anything in that line, I’ll let you know.”
“I wish you would. I’ll have to look for something after Christmas, and
I’m afraid I’ll have a hard task finding anything.”
“Where were you when I saw you getting off the car?” asked Charley.
“I’d been over in the Back Bay section, to collect some money from a
Dr. Spidderkins.”
“Dr. Spidderkins! Why he used to be our doctor,” said Charley. “He’s
too old to practice now, but I remember my mother saying she had
him for me, when I was a baby.”
“He’s rather a queer character,” commented Tom. “He’s always
forgetting things.”
“I wish I had his rocks! He’s got slathers of money.”
“He doesn’t look rich. His clothes aren’t very good, but maybe that’s
because he spends so much on books.”
“Oh, he’s got lots to spend,” said the other boy. “I heard my dad say
Dr. Spidderkins was worth close to half a million. But I guess he
doesn’t have much fun out of it.”
“Why?”
“Well, he’s always studying some queer subject or other, or writing
books or papers for the scientific magazines. And then I guess his
sister-in-law doesn’t treat him any too good.”
“I believe you’re right there,” agreed Tom. “She seems to make fun of
him, because he’s so forgetful.”
“From what I hear, though,” went on Charley, “his short memory just
suits Mr. Sandow—that’s his sister-in-law’s second husband.”
“Suits him? How do you mean?”
“Well, I’ve got an idea,” went on Tom’s chum, “that Sandow would
like to get control of part of Dr. Spidderkins’ money. He’s got slathers
of it, as I said, and I don’t believe he knows where it all is. He’s as
careless about cash as he is about other things, dad says. Forgets
what he does with his rocks.”
“How do you know Sandow would like to get hold of it,” asked Tom.
“Well, Sandow does some business through our firm. Not much,
though. He’s a ‘piker.’”
“What’s a ‘piker’?”
“That’s what we call a chap that buys a few shares of stock at a time.
Small business, you know. Well, Sandow does a little business with
us, and I heard him telephoning to our junior partner one day, giving
an order for a few shares. Mr. Fletcher, that’s the junior partner,
asked him why he didn’t buy more, and I heard Sandow say he
couldn’t, as he didn’t have the money. Then I heard him laugh, sort
of queer-like, and he said he might have more soon. Mr. Fletcher
asked him where he was going to get it, and Sandow said he
expected to get it from a friend of the family. Mr. Fletcher asked him
if he meant Dr. Spidderkins, and Sandow only laughed. That’s all I
heard.”
“Can you hear what both people say over the wire?”