The article looks into the question of the nature and the rule of " modern governance ". It carries out to clarify the meaning of the main concepts. The concept of modernity appears as naturally combined to the idea of progress ; and the concept of governance refers to the idea of the administration of the supreme power (ROUSSEAU, MONTESQUIEU). Modern governance consists therefore on an administration which is in according with the people’s will, contrary to the archaic governance, that is to say the governance of a monarchy in the whole sense of the term, which is despotic. The consequence of this is that the republic is the real form of a modern State : this sort of State recognizes the right to criticize (KANT), and deprives the person in power on the dignity of sovereign, which is the modern title of the people. But how is modern governance possible in Africa in the actual geopolitics of globalization ? The article suggests that only an industrialized and united Africa can force to a fair " international pact ", analogically to the fiction of the " social pact ".