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Publisher’s Note:
'The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission: An Annotated Bibliography' is a much-needed reference work for those who are studying and pursuing the outcomes of Truth Commissions around the world. However, it is also a valuable tool for all researchers from diverse disciplines. For example, those specialising in the fields of sociology, political science, and literature will find material that appeals and is relevant to their areas of research. There is little doubt that students and researchers pursuing courses such as Conflict Resolution, Good Governance and International Relations would find this compilation more than beneficial since it covers not only an assortment of themes but it also includes ingenious cartoons by the famous Zapiro and memorable photographs by George Hallet. In addition, the compiler also inserted a select number of poems that dealt with the issues and themes related to the TRC process.
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Abstract:
The article seeks to theorise an integrated decolonised feminist frame for peacebuilding in an African context. Arguing that a decolonial-feminist lens has the potential to change the way we look at peacebuilding practices, I propose the notion of ‘feminist frontiers’ – an engaged yet stabilising heuristic tool for analysing racialised and gendered relations post-conflict. The argument is structured around three pillars, namely: metageographies as metaphoric mental-space constructions of a colonial peace; masks that constrain the introduction of complicated and intersected human subjecthoods; and mundane matter that elicits ambivalent engagements between human and post-human subjectivities in the areas of everyday political economies and infrastructural rule of peacebuilding. I conclude that such feminist frontiers represent intermediate and mediated spaces or epistemological borderlands from where the undertheorised and empirically understudied discursive and material dimensions of peacebuilding from a gender perspective can be investigated.
Comment: This article is useful for students of of conflict resolution as it proposes an alternative means through which to approach peace keeping and peace building.
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, Contributed by: Simon van der KnaapAbstract: Peace keeping operation as part of humanitarian intervention is a close issue to human rights. It is assumed to be a way to achieve human right particularly in situation of conflict. This essay analyses the difference between humanitarian intervention and the promotion of human rights and reason state join peace keeping operation in humanitarian intervention from constructivist view? This essay chose Case study China peace keeping operation in Darfur. It concludes that Constructivism sees human rights as a norm that can be promoted by social movement as well countries accept that norm. China has to adopt human rights as one of the primary norm and join peace keeping as an idea that this country accepts the human rights norm. In this step China is a norm cascade stage. China receive human rights but still question the appropriate behavior regarding the norm.
Comment: This article provides a clear example of how to use an International Relations theory (constructivism) in a case. The case of Chinese humanitarian intervention in Darfur is used to illustrate. The article could be used to clearly illustrate the idea of 'constructivism'.
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Publisher’s Note: World War I gave colonial migrants and French women unprecedented access to the workplaces and nightlife of Paris. After the war they were expected to return without protest to their homes—either overseas or metropolitan. Neither group, however, was willing to be discarded. Between the world wars, the mesmerizing capital of France’s colonial empire attracted denizens from Africa, the Caribbean, and the United States. Paris became not merely their home but also a site for political engagement. Colonial Metropolis tells the story of the interactions and connections of these black colonial migrants and white feminists in the social, cultural, and political world of interwar Paris. It explores why and how both were denied certain rights, such as the vote, how they suffered from sensationalist depictions in popular culture, and how they pursued parity in ways that were often interpreted as politically subversive.
Comment: This book uses a wide variety of sources and methods to discuss the social, political, and cultural history of the French Empire. Prior but limited knowledge of interwar Paris is necessary. Can be used as both an introduction to themes of colonial empire and race and an introduction to new methods of archival research.
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, Contributed by: Joep BrandenburgAbstract:
Newly elected US President Joe Biden confronts enormous challenges in Africa with regard to reversing four years of the Donald Trump administration that was largely characterised by disdain, disinterest and derision toward the continent. The change of the guard in the White House come January 2021 is expected to herald a shift in tone and style toward the continent, which has always yearned for a prime spot on a crowded US foreign policy agenda. As I argued previously, there are high expectations of his presidency because most Africans regard democratic administrations to be more closely aligned to Africa's concerns and interests. This essay analyses growing perceptions in Africa about the Biden administration and the possibilities for it meeting some of the continent’s objectives.
Comment: This text can be used in teaching to demonstrate how a person who has knowledge of multiple sides about a subject because he has literally lived in both worlds can make a balanced and clear analysis and comparison about this subject.
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Publisher’s Note:
One of the fundamental questions in Africa’s search for meaningful political and economic integration is how small states with limited resources promote change in their regional neighborhoods. This study looks at Africa’s Frontline States—Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—to assess their role in southern African security since the 1970s. Several issues formed the basis for collaboration among these Frontline States (FLS) in the 1970s and 1980s: advancing Zimbabwe’s and Namibia’s independence, building regional economic institutions, and managing South Africa’s dominance. The FLS contributed to decolonization and economic integration by aggregating their collective strengths and attracting external actors into the region.
Through the eyes of principal African actors, this study explains local and international efforts at resolving conflicts across the racial and economic divides of southern Africa. It complements the myriad studies on security, conflict resolution, and regional integration in an area undergoing tremendous transformations as it attempts to leave the decolonization conflicts of the 1970s behind.
Comment: This is a valuable book for students of African studies, African history and African politics. Khadiagala presents a comprehensive examination of interstate relations in the southern Africa region, examining the extent to which relatively weak, majority-ruled states in southern Africa were able to organise a credible security alliance. The author provides theoretical and empirical insights on the limits and vulnerabilities of security alliances which are dependent on powerful external actors.
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Publisher’s Note:
Since the 1990s, African actors have been engaged in ending civil wars. These efforts have often been characterized as the quest for indigenous solutions to local conflicts. Using cases of mediation in Eastern Africa-Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, and Sudan - this study probes the strengths and weaknesses of African mediation initiatives. The book contends that although African actors have limited resources to mediate civil wars, over the years, they have learnt to seize opportunities that accrue from participating in conflict resolution to contribute to peaceful settlements. Conceptualized as building organizational power for mediation, this process has entailed evolving professional norms and standards of intervention. Eastern African mediators have also benefited from interaction with international mediators in conflict resolution.
Comment: Khadiagala’s book sheds light on the vagary of conflict mediation through citizen-led (elder statesmen), state-centric and regionally-driven initiatives. Recommended for scholars of peace, conflict resolution, history, politics and African studies.
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Abstract: The states of the western Sahel (Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, and northern Nigeria) are politically quite fragile. Recent severe changes in climate are accelerating conflict and violence in an already economically desperate region, causing increased skirmishes between pastoralists and farmers, while depleting water resources and encouraging many to migrate either within the region or to North Africa. This article provides a commentary on the increasing levels of violent conflicts in the Western Sahel. Larémont explains the role of climate change, jihadist groups and the failing role of the state. It further critically analyses the interference of Western countries in this region.
Comment: Connects climate change to violent conflict in the Western Sahel. Good for interdisciplinary teaching in history, conflict studies and climate change, particularly the socio-political effects of climate change.
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Abstract: This article analyses the role of the European Union (EU) in collaboration with the East African Community (EAC) in responding to challenges of policing against cross-border crime along the Tanzanian–Kenyan border. It assumes and argues that the EU’s capability as well as presence in regard to peace and security have a significant impact on addressing those challenges. The article intends to refer to the concept of interregionalism in order to describe and explain the nature of the EU–EAC relationship. The literature review and field data indicate several challenges faced by police forces in law enforcement related to the porous border between Tanzania and Kenya. The article highlights how these challenges have been hindering crime- combating efforts across the borders. The conclusion reached is that cross-border crime control calls for improved cooperation between concerned states as well as with external actors such as the EU.
Comment: Discusses cross-border crime between Kenya and Tanzania. Good for understanding the relationship between the EU and the EAC with regards to international security concerns/
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Abstract:
The adoption of the Constitutive Act of the African Union marked a historic moment in institution-building and the continuing "move to institutions" in Africa. The African Union can be understood, at least, at two levels: first, as a manifestation of Africa 's collective response to the twin-challenges of globalism/globalisation and regionalism/regional integration; secondly, as an expression of a resurgent commitment to the ideology of Pan-Africanism and the enduring quest for deeper African unity. This essay examines the politico-legal context behind the move from the Organisation of African Unity to the African Union. It argues that the establishment of the African Union is not merely the most recent attempt at continental institutional reform and institution building, but that it also represents a unique constitutional moment which has provided African states with the opportunity for fashioning a new body of normative principles to guide their interaction and cooperation. While offering no comprehensive examination of all the core provisions of the Constitutive Act, particular attention has been paid to some key principles. Chief among these is Article 4(h), relating to the right of intervention, which potentially constitutes both a significant and controversial African contribution to the mapping of new international law. Overall, it is argued that the new organisation represents a radical departure from the political, legal, and institutional framework of its predecessor, and that it is founded on a range of new normative principles reflecting a changed attitude and a new approach among African states to the management of their common interests and challenges. The essay concludes by suggesting that the move to the new institution and the adoption of new normative principles will only have qualitative meaning when AU member states move beyond the mere exhortation and expression of lofty principles and ensure their effective incorporation in praxis.
Comment: This article provides a useful overview of the establishment of the African Union, and the transition from the OAU to the AU. It intervenes in the debate over the transformation of the institutional framework for African inter-state cooperation and coordination from the OAU to its successor, the AU, as well as how traditional international organisations have adapted to deeply changing political circumstances over the years. It would be suitable for a course on the history of regionalism.
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Abstract:
This article, first given as a talk to a seminar of the Uganda Parliament in 2000, is a reflection on that aspect of the colonial political legacy that passes for common sense in the region of the African Great Lakes. The author takes a fresh look at recent events leading to civil war in Uganda (1981–6), Rwanda (1990–94) and eastern Congo (1997–.) The article contextualizes three issues: citizenship, civil society and political majorities and minorities as outcomes of the democratic process. To explore how notions of these issues have been changing over the past decade, the author examines the dilemma of a particular cultural group in the Great Lakes region—the Banyarwanda.
Comment: Drawing on particular cases from the East African region, the author reflects on the notion of citizenship in formerly colonised East African nation. This text can accompany a discussion on the notions of citizenship and the nation-state, and their colonial foundations and legacy. As a western construct, it is important that we study the implications of the continued use of colonial structures such as citizenship, and attempt to reform it in such a way that cultural identities are considered. Thus, this article intervenes in debates regarding citizenship, ethnicity and minority/majority interactions and rights.
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Abstract:
This essay understands the significance of Tahrir Square as a radical shift both n the way of doing politics, from armed struggle to popular struggle, and in the definition of political identity, from religious to territorial. It seeks to understand the historical significance of the shift by placing it in the context of technologies of colonial rule (both the Ottoman millet system and British indirect rule) and post-colonial attempts to rethink and reform this mode of rule. The result is a historical reflection that begins with Steve Biko and the Soweto Uprising in 1976, Mahmoud Mohamed Taha and John Garang in post-colonial Sudan, and closes with Sayyid Qutb and the significance of Tahrir Square.
Comment: This text provides an alternative understanding of the events at Tahrir Square and a way of 'doing politics' that is beyond the western norm. By locating the events of Tahrir Square within the vein of politics started by the Soweto Uprising in South Africa in 1976, the author provides a novel way through which to understand popular uprisings. This text can be used to historicise more recent historicise uprisings, in a course on political history and decolonising
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Abstract:
The contemporary human rights movement holds up Nuremberg as a template with which to define responsibility for mass violence. I argue that the negotiations that ended apartheid—the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA)— provide the raw material for a critique of the “lessons of Nuremberg.” Whereas Nuremberg shaped a notion of justice as criminal justice, CODESA calls on us to think of justice as primarily political. CODESA shed the zero-sum logic of criminal justice for the inclusive nature of political justice. If the former accents victims’ justice, the latter prioritizes survivors’ justice. If Nuremberg has been ideologized as a paradigm, the end of apartheid has been exceptionalized as an improbable outcome produced by the exceptional personality of Nelson Mandela. This essay argues for the core relevance of the South African transition for ending civil wars in the rest of Africa.
Comment: This article is relevant to student of peace and conflict studies and can be used as a starting point for debate about the best means to conflict resolution. It compares the Nuremberg trials to the CODESA process in South Africa, comparing political justice (CODESA) with criminal justice (Nuremberg).
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Abstract:
The British surprisingly faced no military resistance when they captured Asante in 1896. Previous works have focused on the agency of actors like Prempe and Frederick Hodgson to explain why. This paper, in contrast, approaches this epoch in Asante history from the context of the sociopolitical power structure within which the precolonial Asante state operated. It asserts that Asante's independence was contingent on having a strong military. But since it had no standing army, the state used Asante's ‘social contract’ to coerce its subjects into ad hoc armies to meet military threats. Starting from the 1874 Sagrenti War, however, the state disregarded the social contract. This unleashed a series of events that undermined the state's power to coerce Asantes into military service. The article posits further that this erosion of the state's coercive power ultimately prevented it from countering the British with armed resistance in 1896 to maintain independence.
Comment: This paper offers another interpretation of how colonial rule was imposed in the Asante Empire. Despite its military strength, the Empire submitted to the British in 1896. Using a version of Social Contract Theory, the author accounts for how the Asante state was, over time, undermined, which weakened its military. It is an easy paper to read, however the terms are very specific and niche to pre-colonial West Africa and requires a previous knowledge of the Asante Empire and its associated figures, such as Asantehene Prempe.
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, Contributed by: Wout DiddenAbstract: South Sudan’s latest peace deal has been lauded as a milestone in the country’s long road to peace and stability. The Revitalised Agreement for the Resolution of Conflict in South Sudan (R-ARCSS) outlines power-sharing arrangements between rivals President Salva Kiir and main rebel/opposition leader Riek Machar, and provides a blueprint for a sustainable peace and democratic transition. Despite this welcome development, South Sudan’s revitalised peace process has been marred by delays, uncertainty, divisions and the regionalisation of the conflict. As a result, key issues relating to state boundaries and security arrangements remain unresolved, leaving the primary drivers of the conflict untouched. The civil war in South Sudan – which broke out in 2013 – has cost an estimated 400 000 lives, displaced millions and plunged the nascent country into a state of deprivation. South Sudan and its people must urgently facilitate a return to peace, stability, reconciliation and unity. This paper contextualises the agreement, examines its contents and presents the key enablers of and barriers to the success of the revitalised peace process.
Comment: Overview, summary and discussion of the peacemaking process in South-Sudan. Views from an South-African scholar that is specialised in African actors influencing the peacemaking process. An objective view.
Comment: This book is a highly valuable source, providing a detailed annotated bibliography. The book is divided into sections along the themes of the South African TRC and has lists of literature pertaining to that theme. It is useful for students of South African history, transitional justice, truth commissions and political history.