Introduction

One of the major tasks accomplished in this chapter is the mapping and analysis of the extent and significance of the more modest impact that the African system has had within some other African states (that is, other than Nigeria and South Africa). This discussion will form the basis for the argument that the available evidence points tentatively to the conclusion that the African system (like other IHIs) can under certain conditions contribute to the production of valuable correspondence, facilitated by activist forces, between some of its norms and the behavior of key domestic governmental institutions within some African states (what I have referred to earlier in this book as the “ACHPR phenomenon”). This discussion will of necessity be shorter than our examination, in chapter 4, of the African system's influence within Nigeria. This is explained by the fact that the bulk of the available evidence regarding the African system's domestic impact tends to lie outside these other countries.

The other major task that will be accomplished in this chapter is to attempt to specify, as broadly and accurately as possible, the conditions for the optimization of the African system's impact within African states. This analytical exercise will be grounded in the evidence adduced in chapter 4 (in respect of in Nigeria), chapter 5 (regarding South Africa), and in the present chapter (in respect of a sample of other African countries).