Nordiska Afrikainstitutet

Micro-regionalism in West Africa : evidence from two case studies

Upphovspersoner:	Söderbaum, Fredrik | Taylor, Ian
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Regional cooperation, regional integration, regional development, regionalization, case studies, West Africa, Sahel, Niger, Nigeria, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This collection seeks to complement and advance recent studies on regionalism in Africa and the implications that this has for the continent’s development. The two case studies on cross-border micro-regionalism in the borderlands of Mali-Burkina Faso and Niger-Nigeria are part of the work of the West Africa Borders and Integration (WABI). WABI is a research institute that looks at cross-border developments in West Africa, particularly at the convergence between political will and regionalisation on the ground. Providing a challenge to the considerable number of state-centric, formalistic and not seldom overly idealistic studies in this field, the two cases show quite clearly that formal borders either essentially do not exist in the Westphalian sense, being ignored by local populations and traders, or, are strategically used by (often self-styled) representatives of the state to extract resources and rents. In either case, the Eurocentric notion of fixed boundaries and bordered delineations has little purchase in the West African Sahel.

The Nordic countries and Africa : old and new relations

Upphovsperson:	Wohlgemuth, Lennart
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2002
Ämnesord:	Aid policy, Development aid, trade, Africa, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The Institute has asked one representative from each Nordic country to give an account of how their respective countries have dealt with Africa over the years (in some cases even over the centuries) but with an emphasis on the last 50 years. They were also asked to indicate what role Africa has played in the politics, trade, etc. of their countries. The diversity of the invited authors’ backgrounds and fields of specialisation is reflected in their contributions, but the authors have one thing in common: a long experience from, and deep engagement in, Africa’s development.

Afrika i det tjugonde seklet

Upphovsperson:	Davidson, Basil
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2001
Ämnesord:	Africa, History, Colonialism, Decolonization, Independence, Nationalism, Political development, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Ny omarbetad upplaga. Afrikas moderna politiska och sociala historia presenteras här insiktsfullt och översiktligt på ett sätt som gör den till ett standardverk i sig och en oundgänglig bakgrund till de enskilda afrikanska ländernas historia. Boken har skrivits i skuggan av de kriser som många afrikanska samhällen och institutioner drabbades av i slutet av 1900-talet och som fortfarande pågår. Bokens författare, den kände afrikaexperten Basil Davidson, diskuterar orsakerna till sönderfallet och de afrikanska staternas sårbarhet. Men han tar också itu med de industrialiserade ländernas misslyckanden att förändra förhållandet mellan de rika länderna i nord och de fattiga i syd. Boken avslutas med en diskussion om hur Afrika idag söker sina egna lösningar. I boken finns ett detaljrikt och praktiskt index och flera specialritade kartor. Den är lämplig som studie- och referensbok på gymnasiet och i vuxenutbildningen. Basil Davidson är en brittisk journalist och historiker som skrivit ett 20-tal böcker om Afrikas historia. Han har nått en stor publik i sina strävanden att framställa Afrikas historia ur ett afrikanskt perspektiv med afrikanska källor.

Begging and almsgiving in Ghana : Muslim positions towards poverty and distress

Upphovsperson:	Weiss, Holger
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Muslims, Islam, Economic conditions, Marginality, Poverty alleviation, Social welfare, Social security, Political islam, Ghana, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The vast majority of Muslims in Africa generally do not 'objectify' concepts such as poverty and religion in discussion. Poverty is a situation for 'ordinary' poor people in rural or urban poor areas where people seek to make marginal gains in income to avoid ever-threatening destitution and social disintegration. Most of these 'ordinary' poor people, especially poor and illiterate women, do not really believe that things can change. There exists, however, in all Muslim societies and communities in Africa a minority that criticize social and political conditions in society with the stated aim of striving for an Islamic solution to poverty and injustice. The common denominator for this group is that they are urban educated Muslims, having both a traditional educational background and, usually but not always, a modern, secular one, too. For them, the concept of poverty more readily forms part of a religious discourse involving feasible strategies for change. Their basic idea is to highlight the possibilities of generating new forms of financial resources by combining Islamic ethics and norms with a modern development-oriented outlook. Their vision is the usability of obligatory almsgiving in a modern context, namely that, instead of the traditional individual-centred 'person-to-person' charities, zakāt or obligatory almsgiving should be directed to become the source of communal and collective societal improvement. This study focuses on the conditions of poverty and the debate among Muslims in Ghana, a West African country with a substantial but largely economically and politically marginalized Muslim population.

Bushmen and diamonds : (un)civil society in Botswana

Upphovsperson:	Good, Kenneth
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2003
Ämnesord:	Botswanana, politics, democracy, Diamonds, Human rights, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Botswana's democracy is often considered to be a comparatively advanced and positive example of an African state in terms of political culture and the notion of "good governance". This paper challenges the assumption that the country's current political and socio-economic system is, in fact, exemplary. It highlights some of the limitations by focussing on the particular situation of the Bushmen/San as a margina-lized minority denied citizens' rights and losing out against the material interests accompanying the exploration and exploitation of diamonds, the most lucrative natural resource contributing to Botswana's "success story".The author has on previous occasions presented and published related analyses within the research network on "Liberation and Democracy in Southern Africa" (LiDeSA), which is currently coordinated through the Nordic Africa Institute. This publication is another result of the collaboration within this project.

Chad - towards democratisation or petro-dictatorship?

Upphovspersoner:	Eriksson, Hans | Hagströmer, Björn
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2005
Ämnesord:	Democratization, Petroleumextraction, Governance, political development, Economic and social development, Chad, Political science, Statsvetenskap

This study provides a background of the socio-political situation in Chad and the oil project, and analyses how the two will develop and interact in the future. A key feature is an analysis of the incentives in the oil project and their possible future changes. Chad is currently undergoing two processes of significant importance for its future development - political democratisation and transformation into an oil economy. For a country plagued with civil war for decades until 1990, and known as one of the poorest and most corrupt states in the world, this is a real challenge. The oil export started in late 2003, and boosted the economy in 2004. To avoid the disastrous experiences of most poor African oil states, unique oil management, control mechanisms and other conditionalities have been imposed by the World Bank - much thanks to pressure from the civil society and the international community. If implemented well, Chad may become a model for how a poor resource-rich country is able to promote socio-economic development and poverty reduction. However, this demands a close and coordinated cooperation between the Chadian government and the civil society, based on accountability and good governance, and with continuous support of the World Bank and the international community. The situation is fragile and progress is uncertain. If a broader economic development is achieved, conditions for an improved democratisation can be created in the long term.The Chadian oil project deserves continued close attention and monitoring.

Politics, property and production in the West African Sahel : understanding natural resources management

Upphovspersoner:	Lund, Christian | Benjaminsen, Tor A.
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2001
Ämnesord:	natural resources, land ownership, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

Understanding natural resources management requires an interdisciplinary approach. Through a number of case studies from the West African Sahel, this book links and explores natural resources management from the perspectives of three distinct but interrelated spheres (politics, property and production) and within a broad and empirically based political ecology. Natural resources management is first of all profoundly political. Seen from above, it is constantly the object of planning efforts where one 'master-plan' follows another, each sponsored by one of the major international donors. Policies and plans are again informed by global discourses of 'decentralisation', 'disengaging the State', 'democratisation' or 'desertification'. Seen from below, natural resources management is always the object of power struggles and politicisation linked to property rights to land. Property may in fact be one of the most comprehensive, yet at the same time most elusive, concepts in the natural resources debate. To say that someone has a 'right' to land is to summarise in one word a complex and highly conditional state of affairs. African and Sahelian land tenure is a field where property relations are multifarious, overlapping and competing. The prospects for African and Sahelian production systems and their influences on the environment are also contested. The conventional belief says that these systems are marked by agricultural stagnation and environmental degradation, but this is increasingly being questioned or qualified. Under certain policy environments production systems and resources seem to follow more optimistic paths. Such emerging experiences which cut against the grain of conventional perceptions of the Sahelian environment should encourage us to rethink both Sahelian research and policy formulation.

On Africa : scholars and African studies

Upphovspersoner:	Wohlgemuth, Lennart | Melber, Henning
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2007
Ämnesord:	Africa, research, research workers, educational research, research policy, africanists, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

This volume is based on contributions to a seminar which was organised in honour of the Institute’s retiring Director Lennart Wohlgemuth in December 2005. African scholars presented their views on “The Role of Africa in ‘African Studies’”, while Nordic scholars and policy makers responded. The deliberations offer a spectre of relevant approaches on both academic as well as policy oriented research and advisory work in and on Africa.The contributions aim at bridging the gap between academics and practitioners. They share a common commitment to African affairs and seek to support and promote these in the international context. Contributors include:Olu Ajakaiye and William Lyakurwa, the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC)Adebayo Olukoshi, the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA)Göran Hydén, University of FloridaArne Tostensen, Chr. Michelsen Institute in Bergen

Fault-lines in South African democracy : continuing crises of inequality and injustice

Upphovsperson:	Hendricks, Fred T.
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2003
Ämnesord:	Post-apartheid, Political transition, political development, Democratization, South Africa, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP

The transition from apartheid to democracy in South Africa has raised questions, on the one hand, about the tension between the imperatives of justice and equality and, on the other, reconciliation. Transforming the decades' old apartheid system under conditions of a political compromise has turned out to be a formidable challenge. This paper is about the complexity of the transformation processgoing on in South Africa. Although too early for a real assessmentof the experiment, the tensions, dilemmas, contradictions, paradoxes and some of the changes have already begun to manifest themselves. In this Discussion Paper, the author gives the full measure of the tensions, dilemmas, and paradoxes involved in the transformation of South Africa. Apartheid was more than formal discrimination along racial lines: it was a system of exploitation and oppression in which race, class, gender and other markers of social identity all overlapped. The paper shows how political deals affect the administration of justice, and how they impinge upon the nature of democracy, often by frustrating efforts to realise social goals in the post-authoritarian phase. It also raises the fundamental question of the broader necessities for the long-term survival of democracy in South Africa, which, the paper argues, must include: - addressing the enormous disparities between wealth and poverty and black and white left in the wake of apartheid and - creating a legitimate polity that respects the rule of law.

The succession of Faure Gnassingbe to the Togolese presidency : an international law perspective

Upphovsperson:	Ebeku, Kaniye S. A.
Utgivare:	Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År:	2005
Ämnesord:	Presidency, Heads of state, inheritance, elections, democracy, constitutions, international law, Togo, Political science, Statsvetenskap

The African renaissance - the renewal of the continent - effectively started in the last decade of the second millennium. A critical element is the increasing and widespread democratic awakening in all parts of Africa since the early 1990s as evidenced by the number of multi-party elections. Demonstrating their commitment to democracy, African leaders, under the auspices of regional organizations such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU), have increasingly made a number of treaties, declarations and other political commitments in the field of democracy and good governance (including the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Declaration on Africa’s Response to Unconstitutional Changes of Government). Significantly, the recent politico-constitutional crisis in Togo, occasioned by the sudden death of President Gnassingbe Eyadema in early February 2005, after he had ruled the country with an iron-fist for 38 years, and the interim succession of his son, Faure Gnassingbe, to the presidency, raised issues of democracy and good governance and provided an opportunity for African countries to test the effectiveness of the various democracy-related instruments. Adopting a legal-jurisprudential perspective, the author skillfully examines the contradictions between the regional-international legal instruments that permit interference in the internal affairs of a Member State of ECOWAS and AU and the principles of international law that provide for sovereign equality of States and non-interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign State. Undoubtedly, this work will interest scholars, students and researchers in international law, international politics and international relations as well as general readers, especially those interested in African affairs. CONTENT Introduction Politico-Constitutional Antecedents of the Recent Developments Regional Instruments on Democratic Principles in Africa Some Basic Principles of International Law: In a Nutshell Faure’s Succession: Validity of the Removal of Fambare Ouattara Natchaba from Office Faure’s Succession and Legality of Constitutional Amendment Faure’s Succession and the Doctrine of State Necessity Faure’s Succession and Regional Instruments on Democracy and Good Governance Concluding Remarks References

Sidor