When Africans complain about aspects of bad government and political instability such as corruption, the failure to relinquish power after holding it for so long, authoritarianism, dictatorship, and military regimes, those outside the continent—especially people in stable political systems—tend to wonder why there is no revolution or how the people can be so tolerant of their leaders. Africans want a revolution, and they have been demanding one for a long time. Africans are not tolerant of their leaders—on the contrary, an uncountable number have lost their lives in the quest for change. Violent changes have occurred, but without revolutionary changes. Disappointments have not necessarily led to any mass resignation to the system. Civil society is now even stronger; cyberpolitics and warfare use all the resources of the Internet to build political connections and demand farreaching reforms; and university students have organized countless numbers of protests. However, in many countries, the louder the complaint, the worse things become; the greater the protest, the greater the brutality by those in power. The bottom line remains the same: politics is unstable and the government is antidevelopment. We all should ask: what is wrong with Africa?

With political instability as the context, this chapter explores a number of core issues in political culture. To start with, it is impossible to understand contemporary politics without understanding past and present cultures in such areas as the beliefs and conventions of Africans, their religions, philosophy, established practices for power relations, social stratification, and concepts of power and the “big man.” Ideas and values are not constant, and they have responded to historical changes. The chiefs and kings of the nineteenth century ruled in the context of an economy and political ideologies which have been modified in the twentieth century. A new generation of African elite emerged during the twentieth century. Colonial rule changed the nature of African ethnicity. When the European empires crumbled, the first generation of African leaders that managed the postcolonial states were largely unsuccessful. Dictators and single parties emerged, changing political practices in a way that induced more abuses and corruption.