It was a widely dominant perception until the early 1990's that African rulers do not vacate their office alive. But even in the brutal reality of African politics, transition takes place and different former presidents have dealt with how to maintain power and privilege very differently. With new case studies examining the post-presidential years of the iconic Mandela in South Africa, Daniel arap Moi in Kenya, Nyerere in Tanzania, Rawlings in Ghana, Charles Taylor in Liberia, as well as the experience of Botswana, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Malawi, and Nigeria, this volume examines the dilemmas which demands for presidential transitions impose upon incumbent rulers and analyses the relationships which are evolving between new regimes and their predecessors. The contributors discuss the hybridal political systems that exist in post-independence Africa; the role allotted to or pursued by former African presidents; transitional politics and justice, and political stability. The book stimulates careful further observation and analyses concerning progress in this contested arena of institutionalised political power in Africa.

Professor Roger Southall is a Distinguished Research Fellow of the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) and was formerly Professor of Political Studies, Rhodes University and has also and researched in academic institutions and think-tanks in Lesotho, Uganda, the UK and Canada. He has a PhD in West African Studies / Social and Economic History from the University of Birmingham, England and an MA (Econ) degree from the University of Manchester. He has published widely on African and South African politics, and at present is working on Black empowerment in South Africa. He is a co-editor of the HSRC’s highly acclaimed State of the Nation volumes, collections of original articles upon South African politics and society, and is General Editor of the Journal of Contemporary African Studies.

Dr Henning Melber went to Namibia as a son of German immigrants in 1967, where he joined the national liberation movement SWAPO in 1974. He studied Political Science and Sociology in West-Berlin and obtained a PhD and a venia legendi in Development Studies at the University of Bremen. From 1992 to 2000 he headed the Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit (NEPRU) in Windhoek and was a member of the President's Economic Advisory Council. Since 2000 he is the Research Director at The Nordic Africa Institute in Uppsala, Sweden.