Politics and Dynamics of Personality Cult in Africa

Abstract

A personality cult is a circumstance where an open figure is purposely introduced to the individuals of a nation as an extraordinary individual who ought to be appreciated and adored. It is relevant to comprehend those distinctive African nations had early fathers from the religious to secular world who contributed colossally to the disclosure and systematization of country states. These personalities are expected to be adored as trailblazers of nationhood but have been subverted with present-day characters whose belief systems and perspectives are very unusual to the nations. The thrust of this paper is on a personality cult, religion and politics in Africa. Data were collected using the documentary method and analyzed via the content analysis method. The study was anchored on the theory of charismatic leadership propounded by Robert Tucker (1968). The study discovered that cults were part of a larger universe of symbolic politics that played a vital role in disseminating party goals and social hierarchies and that they served to centre emotions and loyalties in a particular symbol. However, a pure instrumentalist view fails to account for the cults’ numerous popular manifestations, particularly in local contexts. The examination in this way prescribes, among others, that authority and non-formally attributed implications ought to be paid attention to in state-society connections to encourage and continue pioneer cliques.