Understanding African Conflicts: Theoretical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives

On the eve of the first decade of the twenty-first century—and some fifty years after independence—many African states continue to be plagued by ethnoregional conflict, while a number of others are barely emerging from decades of devastating civil wars. Peace and security—essential prerequisites for democracy and development—continue to elude far too many African countries. Building upon the pioneering work of Christopher Clapham in African Guerillas (James Currey, 1998), Morten Bøås, Kevin Dunn, and their nine contributors—including Clapham, author of the concluding chapter—revisit the analysis of African guerilla movements. Rejecting single-factor explanations (such as greed, competition over resources, and cultural conflict), the editors argue for "a more nuanced, holistic approach that is historically grounded and integrates multiple levels of analysis, from the local and national to the regional and global" (3). Further inspired by the groundbreaking research of the anthropologist Paul Richards (No Peace, No War, James Currey, 2005), Bøås and Dunn believe that "African insurgencies are best understood as rational responses to the composition of African states and their polities" (4); and they approach war as "a social drama over the distribution of ideas, identities, resources and social positions" (5).

In a comprehensive and thoughtfully argued introductory chapter, the editors explain the persistence and political motivations of African guerilla movements. In their opinion, such movements are characterized by a paucity of ideological motivation, the anger of marginalized regions or social groups, and a "crisis of modernity" in which indigenous African institutions and practices are being reinterpreted, reinvented, and reemployed. All of these powerful mobilizing sentiments occur in a larger context in which multiple factors operate, in varying combinations: the crisis of illegitimacy of the state and the bankruptcy of the Westphalian state model; the recycling of elites; the end of foreign military assistance following the end of the Cold War; and unresolved (or redefined) issues of autochthony, land, and belonging. This introduction is followed by two thematic chapters. In the first, Morten Bøås argues that it is because they are permanently exposed to bribery, corruption, mismanagement, and the abuse of power that marginalized young people have so readily taken up arms in many parts of Africa (such as Sierra Leone). In the second, Pierre Englebert makes another—though ultimately unconvincing—argument for separatist movements and state disintegration in Africa. Seven country case studies—Liberia, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo/DRC, Uganda, Sudan, Senegal, and Angola complete this volume.

In his perceptive analysis of the role played by the Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy (LURD) in reviving Liberia's conflict in 1999, William Reno reveals that this rebel movement and its leaders merely acted as a front for British and American interests, using Guinea as a proxy regional power. In their exhaustive case study of Côte d'Ivoire, Richard Banégas and Ruth Marshall-Fratani analyze the discourses of autochthony, xenophobia, and ultranationalism, all politically manipulated by both government-sponsored militias and rebel movements. The overwhelming politico-strategic and economic influence of key regional actors (Rwanda and Uganda) in the DRC conflict is brought to light by Denis Tull, while Øystein Rolandsen shows that the Janjawiid militia is used by the Sudanese government to punish civilians believed to support the rebels in Darfur. Vincent Foucher provides a rare analysis of the separatist movement of southern Senegal (Mouvement des Forces Démocratiques de Casamance/MDC), which has been fighting for the independence of the region of Casamance since 1982. Finally, Assis Malaquias explains the eventual...