Peacebuilding, Power, and Politics in Africa

Introduction: The Contested Politics of Peacebuilding in Africa

1 I N T R O D U C T I O N The Contested Politics of Peacebuilding in Africa d e v o n C u r t i S t H e A F r i C A n u n i o n ( A u ) d e C L A r e d 2 0 1 0 t o b e t H e “A F r i C A n Y e A r of Peace and Security,” with the campaign slogan urging people to “make Peace Happen.” At a meeting in tripoli in August 2009, African leaders committed themselves to dealing with conflict and violence, saying: “We as leaders simply cannot bequeath the burden of conflict to the next generation of Africans.”1 the chairperson of the African union Commission, Jean Ping, said that “of the many challenges facing the Au and Africa, the quest for peace and security is the most pressing ” and reaffirmed the Au’s commitment to peacebuilding efforts, in partnership with the international community.2 indeed, Africa has been the site of a large number of international and continental projects to promote peace. in 2011, Africa hosted seven of the sixteen united nations (un) peacekeeping missions in the world. the first five countries on the agenda of the united nations Peacebuilding Commission, established in december 2005, are all African: Sierra leone, burundi, the Central African republic (CAr), guinea-bissau, and liberia. the first four cases before the international Criminal Court (iCC) are also all African: uganda, the democratic republic of the Congo (drC), Sudan, and the CAr.3 the Au’s 2010 declaration therefore appears to be backed by a range of institutions, mechanisms, and programs to help build peace on the continent. furthermore, the increased attention to peacebuilding in 2 deVon CurtiS Africa has occurred alongside an overall decrease in violent conflict on the continent.the 2007 Human Security brief published by the Human Security Centre shows that between 1999 and 2006, the number of state-based and non-state-based armed conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa declined significantly.4 the number of battle deaths also declined, with the fatality toll dropping by two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa between 2002 and 2006.5 the 2006 Human Security brief said that the greatest decline in armed conflict was in sub-Saharan Africa, with the result that it was no longer the world’s most conflict-affected region.6 both briefs suggested that this decline was related to the major increase in international efforts to end wars and prevent them from restarting, including peacebuilding missions.7 this volume is a critical reflection on peacebuilding efforts in Africa. in light of new global and African institutions, initiatives, and activities set up in support of peacebuilding efforts, the time is ripe for a reassessment of peacebuilding concepts, practices, and implications in Africa. the contributors to the volume interrogate whether the optimism reflected in policy reports is merited, and question how and why certain peacebuilding ideas and initiatives are adopted over other ones in Africa. the volume grows out of a collaborative project between the Centre of African Studies at the university of Cambridge in the united kingdom , and the Centre for Conflict resolution (CCr), based in Cape town, South Africa, involving Africa-based as well as Western-based scholars with diverse perspectives on peacebuilding in Africa. the volume represents a small selection of the work presented by scholars from a weekly Cambridge seminar series in 2008–9, at the march 2009 Cambridge workshop “rethinking Peacebuilding in Africa,” and at a large international conference of scholars and peacebuilding practitioners organized by CCr in gaborone, botswana, in August 2009, in collaboration with the university of botswana and the Cambridge Centre of African Studies. Although not all of this work is included here, the contributions of all participants have helped inform the ideas and arguments in this volume. taken together, the contributions in this volume show that there is no consensus about the role, aims, and effects of continental and international peacebuilding programs and initiatives in Africa.the contributors highlight that although the local, regional, and global spaces for peace in Africa have been altered through discourses and practices of peacebuilding, these practices play out differently in different locales. 3 introduction: the Contested Politics of Peacebuilding Peacebuilding ideas and initiatives are at various times reinforced, questioned, subverted, or reappropriated and redesigned by different African...