To the students of social science in general and democracy in particular, this little educated thesis might sound far-fetched.
I stand to be corrected. Until then and unless I am proven to be wrong, I am going to stick to it for the following reasons.
More than a decade and a half ago, I came across an ad in a local newspaper to preview a documentary film titled: Greece, Secrets of the Past. The moment I saw the ad, I decided to go and watch it.
The documentary film was funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
I still remember scenes in the film, which came out back in 2006. I am not sure if the final version of the film has any changes from its preview version.
One of the things in the film that was quite new to me was that ancient Greece started to practice democracy after its seafarers learned new ideas from elsewhere. It didn't specify where that elsewhere might have been.
Later on, I came across a review by an American professor of an ancient novel about a romance between a Greek and a Merowe.
Then I read about Pharaoh Tutankhamun of ancient Egypt.
I later heard from a Borana man that Pharaoh means turn; this remains to be verified. I also noticed that it sounds ፈረቃ, which has a very close meaning.
I consider a term limit and peaceful transfer of power the main attributes of democracy, the type I consider universal to humanity instead of specific to any particular country.
Then, I remember the Borana ገዳ system, which embodies both of these attributes.
In the U.S. democracy is written out in its constitution. In Borana, it is taught as a culture.
Then again, if I am not mistaken, the pursuit of culture, ancient Greek culture during its Classical Civilization, was what Europe's Renaissance men were after.
Furthermore, if I am not mistaken, at least some of the writers of the United States Constitution were students of Europe's Renaissance men, men whom I pay homage to and get excited more reading about their works some centuries ago than about Africa's wars of the last century or this century. Who told you a scientist doesn't come from about anywhere? Ok, I was a wannabe scientist. Ok, I was a once upon a time wannabe scientist.
Only a few days ago, I was watching TV and saw a map showing the results of the recent Presidential election. It was before the projection for Georgia was announced. Looking at the map, I said to myself: This is not a democracy, this is geography. Needless to mention the ongoing argument in the aftermath of the election.
The map looked like three patches, west side, middle, and east side. A democracy is a quilt, not patches. Neither is it a battle of tribes but a battle of ideas, needless to mention that it was born out of tribal infighting at least in one case in Africa. I have heard or read somewhere that the Israeli Parliament where its parliamentarians fight over ideas during the day and can still have cordial discussions outside Parliament sounds close to the infighting over ideas. Maybe they found it a necessity in their environment.
In my limited reading, ever since humanity reckoned with civility and hence civilization, democracy has been its gravity. As a matter of fact, it is conceivable that if it wasn't for the tireless efforts of the Renaissance men, the discoverer of natural gravity, Isaac Newton, might not have come to be. If there is any grain of truth in that conception, it would be plausible to argue that the discoverer of natural gravity may have been a brainchild of humanity's gravity, democracy.
So, if a term limit and peaceful transfer of power are basic attributes of democracy, whether written out in a constitution or practiced culturally, would it be far fetched to present this thesis that it was born in Africa? Overlooking these attributes sounds yo me like the Amharic proverb: ከእጅ ያለ ወርቅ እንደ መዳብ ይቆጠራል። Roughly translated, it means gold in hand is seen as copper.
I am yet to be convinced about the dwarfed part of the thesis. I am guessing that if somebody came up with an overlay of maps showing the electoral college wins in the U.S. from the first President to the 46th President, we would see more of quilts than patches with respect to time.
Prove me wrong and I will stand to be corrected.