Final Exam Prep_Political History of Contemporary Africa Flashcards
The Derg
Ethiopia, 1974-87 (Junta formally “civilianized” the administration and stayed in power until 1991).
Sending students abroad to the USSR get an education of a different kind than those sent to the US. All of this is the gambit that Selassie has taken to modernize Ethiopia. Student begin to protest at home and organize abroad. The Revolution in 1974 begins with numerous protest of various kinds and ends with the military Derg taking power. From abroad, the students are seeing the famine in Ethiopia, and the question is whether Selassie is up to addressing it. Derg removes Selassie and moves into the palace. The Derg takes power, but they don’t have a program of reform, the students on the other hand do. The military begin to ostensibly co-opt the program of the students because they don’t want to be outflanked on the left. Politically, the Derg needs the students support because they are they ones on the streets spearheading the revolution. A rift forms in the students as to whether the Derg is just using them of if they should continue supporting the Derg. (Ethiopia mostly an agricultural society). The Derg brings about the Zemecha, and students are sent out into rural areas, many of which they don’t know the language, to implement the land reform/redistribution of land. ‘Students thought that they would change things immediately (24:30). Students had to confront powerful landlords. Furthermore, there is a large culture clash between the students and the rural population. (These policies were largely a failure, down the road, production would decrease because of the reorganization. Two student groups (late-70s) one aligns with the Derg—Meison—and the EPRP splits from the Derg (Red/White terror respectively). Meison and EPRP erupt into violent clashes. A spiral in the late 70s, the students at eachother’s throats, the Derg manipulating them.
The Derg is also facing war with Somalia on its eastern flank, also Eritrea and Tigre conflict simmers internally. The Derg eventually turns against all the students to consolidate power (the students who saw the Derg as a fascist military government parading as a Socialist movement were right).
1984 Broadcast of a ‘Biblical Famine’ on the BBC, very easy to see the effects, but much more difficult to divine the causes. Again, is this a crisis of capitalism or socialism, or is it caused by natural drought. (From the remnant of the Black Power movement within the black caucus) The idea that it is a natural famine is used by US officials to argue to help Ethiopia with food, even though they are now a Soviet client. The conservatives on the other side see it as a way to highlight the incompetence of Socialist ideology. The US is able to approve aid to Ethiopia. Conservatives also saw it is a way to offset the Reagan administration’s engagement with South Africa. Things like Live Aid concert come from this.
From the left (thinking about Bangladesh, the Sahel, and Ethiopia): specific conditions induced by the market economy have created the famine; shift production from subsistence to cash crops, then you become reliant on purchasing food to eat with cash crops, so if the price of the cash crops collapse, then you can’t pay for food. Fuel is also a big part of this. The Right says its elite corruption/mismanagement and the failure of the agrarian campaign to redistribute land.
Derg getting food/humanitarian aid from the US and military aid from the USSR.
The Tigraian forces fighting against the Derg, along with other guerrillas come to power, Eritrea is lost in 1991.
State Feminism
Rwanda? Ginnea Bissau? Burkina Faso?
Interahamwe/‘genocidere’
Rwanda is a pretty homogeneous place: one language, effectively the borders of the Rwandan mini empire from the past (counters arguments that artificial borders cause conflict). Colonial rule had favored the Tutsi aristocracy, which rapidly shifts at independence to support democratic rule (Hutu majority). This led to Hutu pograms against the Tutsi, though violence was going both ways. Belgian rigid class structure (Keeping Hutus out of the upper echelons of society) is a driver of this. A significant number of Tutsi refugees flee into eastern Congo and Uganda. In the guerrilla conflict in Uganda, much of the fighters are Rwandan. Kagame working with Museveni to take power in Uganda. The force that will come to be named the Rwandan Patriotic Force comes from this group of exiles. Are we looking at a civil war (invasion) or a genocide or a “complex emergency”? The way the government of Rwandan presents this in the months leading up is an invasion. The RPF class it as an army returning to reconquer their homeland. Somewhat of a developmental dictatorship at the time, a very tightly controlled state with no room for Tutsi. UN PKO comes to Rwanda before the genocide to help moderate the conflict (also Tanzania and others), lightly equipped, without any robust intelligence or idea of what is going on. Their is a strong faction within Rwanda calling for more violence against the Tutsi.(See PBS: “Ghosts of Rwanda”). Under the UN peace accord, the Hutu would be forced to share power with the Tutsi, but this falters fairly quickly. The Hutu faction does not want to accept this and instead decides upon a Tutsi genocide. The plane of two heads of states is shot down, but to this day no one is sure of who don it? Was it the RPF, the Hutu faction. The Rwandan government starts to set up checkpoints in Kigali to kill Tutsi (A result of Belgian governance—Rwandans had ID cards that noted their ethnicity) If you went through a checkpoint with Tutsi on your ID, then you would be killed.
The Americans were behind the RPF (Many English speakers, since they had grown up in Uganda). Rwanda on the other hand is a Francophone government. French see it as Franafrique being imposed upon by anglophones.
The UN is skittish because some of their peacekeepers have been killed and mutilated.
Attacks against rural Tutsi and moderate Hutus begins to spread across the country. Hutu’s are told that the Tutsi are foreign invaders wanting to turn them into slaves, also reminding them of the colonial social structure. An extremist radio station told Hutus to kill their Tutsi neighbors. (Part of the colonial ideology is that the Tutsi are a Semitic-Aristcratic people coming from near Egypt to impose themselves on pastoralist Hutu who actually have a claim to the land.) The RPF coming from North is used to invoke these images and that they are foreigners with no claim to the land.
[From the outside powers] Is there a genocide going on (the Americans decide to not recognize it as genocide)? Could they tell (many argue that they could)? Is there a war going on? Should we intervene? Madeline Albright, US AMB to the UN, is instructed to push for withdrawal of the UN PKO. Samantha powers is pushing for intervention, while Susan Rice does not want this for election reasons.
Though the US stays out (only exfilling American diplomats and expats) the French do. French come in from the Southwest and present it as stopping the war, but the Tutsi see it as a way to protect Hutu power (Many of the Hutu militias fled into French lines). In May, June, July, it is clear that a genocide is occurring. The French are saying that the Tutsi are carrying out their own ethnic cleansing as they sweep through. In hindsight, it is clear that this allowed the Rwandan armed forces to escape, and that France was essentially supporting a genocidal regime. France refused to recognize this genocidal ideology, instead wanting to see a friendly Francophone country being invaded by English speaking outsiders. France’s intervention was unpopular in Rwanda, at the UN, and with the OAU.
Large numbers of refugees flee into the DRC—massive flows—helping to create a humanitarian catastrophe in eastern Zaire. This gives new life and importance to the Cold War relic, Mobutu Sese Seko, leader of Zaire—he’s a player once again. As the “refugees” flee into eastern Zaire, the RPF see this as all their enemies and that they need to be in hot pursuit. Who can run the refugee camps? The humanitarians become reliant on Hutu militias for logistics, external security, and internal order. The humanitarians feeding the Genocidere. The RPF doesn’t see these as refugee camps but as bases of their enemies. Mobutu’s regime begins to collapse in Kinshasa, but he is supporting the humanitarians. Further, the Congo military is in shambles (minus the presidential guard).
Rwandan forces, with Zairian rebels, and others (Cabila) invade and begin to march across the Congo with little resistance. Mubutu realizes that he has to engage in peace talks, which would be helmed by Nelson Mandela. Mubutu eventually flees Zaire to Morocco where he dies shortly after.
Also a boom of Colton prices, a rare mineral located in Eastern DRC and Western Rwanda (And a handful of other places, e.g., Australia).
The motivation for the second Congo war is partly the mineral value.
French say that these are civilians fleeing from an invading army? (This is what the French say). From the point of Kigame, is Mbutu taking care of civilians through the help of NGOs or is he harboring Interaghamwe fighters.
African Renaissance
Mbeke was one of the intellectual architects of the renaissance, partly because of a couple famous speeches he made (“I am an African”—S. Africa is reintegrated into the continent). Mbeke is saying that we can once again be proud to be African. New Partnership for African Development NPAD (Wade, Mbeki, and Obasanjo involved)—privileging the market over the state. One development is the transition to the AU in 2000. About the state getting out of the way and letting the market do its thing, by protecting property rights. In the 2010s, Africa’s GDP growth is above the world average. The key money makers are quite capital intensive. A Zambian economist argues for more trade not aid.
Thabo Mbeki
Second President of S. Africa (1999-2008).
The ANC appeared out of a liberation movement. You get a declension in leadership: from Mandela as a moral authority, to Mbeki who says “I am an African, we S. Africans are reintegrated into the continent, and we have a pan-African view of the future.” Mbeke is foundationally a neo-liberal, a banker. Zuma (each of the three initial heads of state were parts of ANC wings) represents a decline into extreme corruption and private interests controlling the state. The other key feature that increases under Zuma is the economic freedom fighters: “this land is for African people and therefore its wealth should also be for African people.” AFF seek the redistribution forgone during transition.
Cape town: Abstain, Be Faithful; or use a Condom! [ABCs]) The real political challenge/question came when Mbeki became president (1999-2008). Very cookie cutter in his response to the pandemic: don’t discriminate against the infected, ABC’s, etc. However, Mbeke claims that migration, perinatal transmission, multiple partners are all racist BS. Says that these are all suggesting that Africans are especially promiscuous, etc. Denounces public officials telling him that. Mbeke says they need certain kind of roots and honey to cure aids, and don’t need to invest in drugs that prevent transmission from abroad. (Mbeke was already in charge of the H/A portfolio before he was president—a sort of aids denialism).
Certain images invoke Apartheid massacres: Saweko, Sharpesville—associating the post-Apartheid government with the Apartheid government. Protests against Thabo Mbeki’s denialism occur. Mbeke comes out pretty badly on Aids.
Mbeke was one of the intellectual architects of the renaissance, partly because of a couple famous speeches he made (“I am an African”—S. Africa is reintegrated into the continent). Mbeke is saying that we can once again be proud to be African. New Partnership for African Development NPAD (Wade, Mbeki, and Obasanjo involved)—privileging the market over the state. One development is the transition to the AU in 2000. About the state getting out of the way and letting the market do its thing, by protecting property rights. In the 2010s, Africa’s GDP growth is above the world average. The key money makers are quite capital intensive. A Zambian economist argues for more trade not aid.
Paul Kagame
A Rwandan politician and former military officer who has been the fourth President of Rwanda since 2000. He was previously a commander of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), a rebel armed force which invaded Rwanda in 1990. The RPF was one of the parties of the conflict during the Rwandan Civil War and the armed force which ended the Rwandan genocide.
Rwanda is a pretty homogeneous place: one language, effectively the borders of the Rwandan mini empire from the past (counters arguments that artificial borders cause conflict). Colonial rule had favored the Tutsi aristocracy, which rapidly shifts at independence to support democratic rule (Hutu majority). This led to Hutu pograms against the Tutsi, though violence was going both ways. Belgian rigid class structure (Keeping Hutus out of the upper echelons of society) is a driver of this. A significant number of Tutsi refugees flee into eastern Congo and Uganda. In the guerrilla conflict in Uganda, much of the fighters are Rwandan. Kagame working with Museveni to take power in Uganda. The force that will come to be named the Rwandan Patriotic Force comes from this group of exiles. Are we looking at a civil war (invasion) or a genocide or a “complex emergency”? The way the government of Rwandan presents this in the months leading up is an invasion. The RPF class it as an army returning to reconquer their homeland. Somewhat of a developmental dictatorship at the time, a very tightly controlled state with no room for Tutsi. UN PKO comes to Rwanda before the genocide to help moderate the conflict (also Tanzania and others), lightly equipped, without any robust intelligence or idea of what is going on. Their is a strong faction within Rwanda calling for more violence against the Tutsi.(See PBS: “Ghosts of Rwanda”). Under the UN peace accord, the Hutu would be forced to share power with the Tutsi, but this falters fairly quickly. The Hutu faction does not want to accept this and instead decides upon a Tutsi genocide. The plane of two heads of states is shot down, but to this day no one is sure of who don it? Was it the RPF, the Hutu faction. The Rwandan government starts to set up checkpoints in Kigali to kill Tutsi (A result of Belgian governance—Rwandans had ID cards that noted their ethnicity) If you went through a checkpoint with Tutsi on your ID, then you would be killed.
The Americans were behind the RPF (Many English speakers, since they had grown up in Uganda). Rwanda on the other hand is a Francophone government. French see it as Franafrique being imposed upon by anglophones.
Republic of Biafra
Biafra, attempts to succeed from Nigeria 1967-70.
Political regional tensions between three Nigerian regions begin to play out in the forms of pograms and political violence against Ebo people in the north. Culminates with the breakaway republic of Biafra. Most of the oil is being produced in the SE (Biafra). It would represent a huge economic loss to Nigeria (similar to Katanga in the Congo). When Biafra attempted to secceed, the federal government subdues it—usually called a civil war. (Sort of a neo-Biafra ideal—an older idea had been put down earlier). After, there is sort of a sense that let’s forget that this happened. The British don’t want this to happen because they want to keep this part of the former empire together, however, the French want this to happen because they like to see the British empire fragmented. Ojouku, general and head of state (Check spelling) becomes a key figure. The intelligentsia and political leaders are somewhat split over Biafra succession. (See Yellow Sun novel). See publicity photo with a mish-mash of various weapons and caliburs, would have been difficult to supply. Once Biafra loses Port-Harcourt, the conflict stalemates. The Nigerian vision at this point is to starve Biafra into submission. Biafra is the Catholic heartland of Nigeria (Many priest coming from Ireland). Biafra claims genocide, and a large external support network, Jewish aid (Many American Jews support Biafra), Catholic aid, church aid from the US. On the other hand, many African Americans support Nigeria. There was clearly children suffering and it was a highly televised conflict. US government supported Biafra, partly because they though Ojouku was too squishy on the left, somewhat socialist rhetoric. Doesn’t make a lot of sense ideologically since the Catholic Church (supporting Biafra) and Communism didn’t mesh. There is a lot of back and forth of whether the humanitarian supply flights are bringing in military materiel. Overall, very much a political crisis. A break in ICRC, which had always strove to be apolitical. Doctors without borders broke away from this to take a much more political stance of genocide. This helps lead to a newfound prominence of MSF/DWB in the coming years. Simultaneously genuine and self-aggrandizing move by MSF. Its somewhat mistaken in hindsight, there wasn’t a policy of genocide. Many people think the conflict was drug out (and would have ended in 68 instead of stretching to 70) by the humanitarian aid, which diminished the effectiveness of the blockade. Remember, OAU stipulated that African nations should stay out of eachothers’ affairs, and international humanitarian aid is inserted into this dynamic. Since the 70s, the additional protocols of the Geneva convention define intentional starvation as a war crime.
Ken Saro-Wiwa
(1941-95) Nigerian writer and activist, who spoke out forcefully against the Nigerian military regime and the Anglo-Dutch petroleum company Royal Dutch/Shell for causing environmental damage to the land of the Ogoni people in his native Rivers state.
Saro-Wiwa was arrested in 1994 after the deaths of four Ogoni chiefs at a political rally. In a trial by special tribunal that was denounced by foreign human rights groups, he was found guilty for alleged complicity in the murders.
There is also a conceptional shift here (See Ekke’s civic public and primordial public). Ekeh conceptualizes the primordial public as primarily ethnic. Ken Saro-Wewa and Shell/Abacha Regime is an example of this. Saro-Wewa is trying to protect his primordial public not only against the state (Abacha’s civic public)—however, nobody thinks they can put pressure on Abacha to not execute Saro-Wewa, they think they can put pressure on Shell. A new public of international corporations like shell and INGOs like amnesty international.
Free market/neo-liberal economic package transforms into a political package in the 90s. Development economics to macro-economics, from planning to projects. Economic visions is continuously being laid down by technocrats from abroad. Colonial developmentalism, to state-led development (Much debate about why this failed, Mann: Failed for overly idyllic/overly ambitious planning, white elephant projects that don’t come to fruition), to a neo-liberal period.
Aminata Dramane Traore
Malian author, politician, and political activist (Anti-globalization angle concerning African Renaissance). Born 1947.
Mbeke was one of the intellectual architects of the renaissance, partly because of a couple famous speeches he made (“I am an African”—S. Africa is reintegrated into the continent). Mbeke is saying that we can once again be proud to be African. New Partnership for African Development NPAD (Wade, Mbeki, and Obasanjo involved)—privileging the market over the state. One development is the transition to the AU (from OAU–Organization of African Unity) in 2000. About the state getting out of the way and letting the market do its thing, by protecting property rights. In the 2010s, Africa’s GDP growth is above the world average. The key money makers are quite capital intensive. A Zambian economist argues for more trade not aid.
Another bundle of ideas come from people like Aminata Dramane Traore/Felwine Sarr—Neo-Sovereigntists. The key to development and integration of the continent, the way forward, should be found in Africa itself, its historical culture. Don’t believe in opening the gates to foreign trade/investment. Are suspicious of becoming too dependent. Both authors above lead with the idea of autonomy as the goal, see NPAD as ‘Knee-pad’ kneeling down to the powers that be.
Thomas Sankara
First President of Burkina Faso (1983-87), ushed for Burkinabbe self-reliance. Unlike contemporary machismo in West African Politics, he can be considered as a feminist.
Sankara saw himself as a revolutionary and was inspired by the examples of Cuba’s Fidel Castro and Che Guevara and Ghana’s military leader Jerry Rawlings.
Thomas Sankara, “The Revolution cannot triumph without the emancipation of women,” Thomas Sankara Speaks (1988), 256-90 (CW)
The other is the coups on the left, more so by junior officers, NCOs—closer to the people, more ideological. See Jerry Rawlings in Ghana. Also know for executing three prior heads of state and numerous high judges. But becomes to be seen as a sort of sage leader on the left during his years as an elder statesmen. Kind of moved into the populist space after the death of Sankara. Sankara the result of a leftist officer corp in Mali, educated by the prior generation of leftists. Sankara declares: “Consume what you produce.” Wants to get Upper Volta/Burkina Faso to a place of autonomy, rather than importing rice/clothe/etc.—wanted BF to be self-sufficient rather than on the periphery of the world market. Was assassinated by some of his comrades (Compari) in 78. Compara still tried to tie himslef to Sankara since he was so popular (There are still Sankara politics in BF today). Sankara is a symbol of separating Africa from this sort of Francafrique.
Steve Biko
South Africa (Late 60s, early 70s), Founder of Black Consciousness Movement. Believed that, instead of simply allowing Blacks to participate in white South African society, the society itself needed to be restructured around the culture of the Black majority.
In the late 60s/early 70s—Biko, leader of Black Consciousness movement—brings the idea of Blackness to S. Africa—saying it is not a struggle about class but about race—makes it much more palatable movement in the US (ergo not Communist). This is important in S. African politics because the great line of the ANC is that S. Africa belongs to all that live in it—an idea of a multiracial S. Africa (‘charterists’ It is clear that the charterists’ line of thought had essentially prevailed with the Mandela presidency). The contrary line is the Africanists—the struggle is against racist whites, and the goal is majority rule (Also the Black Consciousness movement [heavily influenced by the US Civil Rights Movement] falls into this train of thought).
Salem Mekuria
Ethiopian-born (1947) independent filmmaker known for: Deluge (film, 1997; excerpts screened in class). “YE WONZ MAIBEL” (DELUGE) is a one hour personal essay on history, conflict, loss and reconciliation. Told through a first person narrative it explores the momentous events which took place in Ethiopia between 1974 and 1991. The students and professors who initiated the struggles against Haile Selassie did not have an orchestrated vision, making it easy to split them into factions, and turn them against each other. Ye Wonz Maeibel shows how the fracturing of the student revolution in Ethiopia ripped apart members of the same family, childhood friends, traditional allegiances and all forms of stability. The entire streets of Addis Abeba became one long night during which only outlaws and gangs of sanguineous graffiti artists stalked the shadows, sporting spray guns.
