CONSENSUS-BUILDING AND POPULAR PARTICIPATION IN CONSTITUTION-MAKING: LESSONS FROM EARLY CONSTITUENT PROCESSES IN TANGANYIKA AND ZANZIBAR

Authors

  • Idd R. Mandi University of Dar es Salaam

Abstract

This article seeks to contribute to the on-going debate
on the revival of a constituent process that stalled in
2014. In doing so it discusses two constituent processes
that led to the adoption of independence constitutions
[the Tanganyika (Constitution) Order in Council 1961
and the Constitution of the State of Zanzibar 1963].
The two processes were elitist and exclusionist as they
side-lined ordinary citizens and various interest groups.
Also, the British sought to impose their own version of
a constitutional design. Consequently, the two
independence constitutions lacked legitimacy and,
therefore, they were replaced and abrogated shortly
after their adoption. This indicates that popular
participation and consensus-building are crucially
important. Thus, in the light of the experience, the
article offers a major recommendation in case the
stalled process is revived: broad and inclusive
participation and consensus-building are necessary if
the envisaged constitution has any chance of enjoying
legitimacy and longevity.

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Published

2024-07-23

Issue

Vol. 49 No. 2 (2022): Eastern Africa Law Review

Section

Articles

License

Authors who publish in The Eastern Africa Law Review retain the copyright to their work and grant the University of Dar es Salaam a non-exclusive license to publish, reproduce, and distribute the article.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.