Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa (review)

Postconflict Reconstruction in Africa is a study of the mechanics of peace building, rehabilitation, and reconstruction in specific conflict zones in Africa. The book’s contribution to the existing knowledge of peace-making in Africa cannot be overemphasized. The volume is divided into four parts comprising nine chapters. The first part is titled the “Ethnocultural Dimensions of Reconstruction.” It begins with Abdi Ismail Samatar’s essay, which argues that while the establishment of autonomous ethnic regions in a federal Ethiopia was a measure of progress in ethnic autonomy, that progress was nonetheless stifled when the central government interfered to micro-manage the political life of the various autonomous regions. Although Samatar supports this argument with evidence from the Somali region, his study would have been more instructive had the author introduced similar cases of government interference in other marginalized regions of Ethiopia.

The second essay, by Ousseina Alidou, underscores the failure of reconstruction efforts to address the root causes of the Tuareg Rebellion of the 1980s and 1990s—the problem of economic and political marginalization and regional inequalities. By focusing mainly on the demobilization of male war combatants and their reintegration into the army, the reconstruction process ignored the role women played in the fighting. While Alidou’s essay is very informative, the lack of acknowledged sources throughout the narrative is a minor setback. The first part ends with Atieno Odhiambo’s essay examining how ethnic “particularism” in postcolonial Kenya—and the ethnic tension and violence witnessed in Kenyan society during the first three decades of independence—resulted from the policies of Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Arap Moi, which marginalized ethnic groups other than those in the government.

The second part of the book is titled “Gender and Generation”; it begins with a thought-provoking essay by Antoinette Errante and Boia Efraime Junior on the plight of children affected by war-related violence in Mozambique. Focusing on the material, symbolic, and psychological needs of children who have experienced protracted violence, the authors note how difficult it is to achieve reconciliation, healing, and assistance to war-affected children if warring parties are required to acknowledge crimes committed against children and women. By contrast, Ismail Rashid sees a solution in “youth-oriented programs” in Sierra Leone, in which the voices of the hitherto marginalized sections of society (including those of youth and women) could be heard. Finally a concise essay by Susan McKay addresses the numerous problems faced by girls returning from war in northern Uganda and Sierra Leone, including the lack of community programs to assist them in gaining education and skills training, in resolving their numerous medical complications contracted during wartime, and in dealing with psychological problems, including the shame of having been involved in underage or premarital sex. But while McKay acknowledges that shame may be responsible for the tendency of girls returning from war to hide their experiences, she fails to point out that silence means that community programs do not get enough information to assist these girls.

The third part of the book is titled “Demobilization and Reintegration Programs” and concerns these issues in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zimbabwe. Tatiana Carayannis argues that in the DRC the transitional government failed to implement meaningful reconstruction programs because of the persistence of violence, the size of the country, disagreements on power-sharing principles, and problems encountered with creating an integrated army. She notes that reconstruction and peace-building can succeed only when all the different actors and networks in the Congolese wars participate with good faith in peace talks. Carayannis advances reasons why some external actors—Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, and Angola—participated in the wars. But apart from a brief discussion of economic networks of a military, financial, and political nature, there is no clear explanation as to why Zimbabwe, Libya, Namibia, and Chad intervened in the conflict. In the last essay of this section Norma Kriger writes that the laws implemented...