"Pluralism and Democracy - The African Experience"

Bart Dijkstra of Free Voice gave a speech where he outlined crucial components of democracy "...good government is all about respecting the freedom of others and to realise that your freedom is not an absolute right. In Africa this is known by the concept of Ubuntu. This means that if you overstep your boundaries, inflict hardship on others or deprive others what is rightfully theirs you inflict this hardship on yourself; you deprive yourself of what you deny others. I see this concept of Ubuntu very much alive in the countries in Africa I know. I lived some years in Zimbabwe and others countries in the South and I have noticed that this concept is an important cornerstone of the bottom-up democratic process, which even when the top down process fails, which happens to many countries on this continent at present, still will guarantee that democracy has a very good change to emerge even if the top-down process is in shambles..."