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FOCAC Twelve Years Later : Achievements, Challenges and the Way Forward

Upphovspersoner: Li, Anshan | Liu, Haifang | Pan, Huaqiong | Zeng, Aiping | He, Wenping
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Globalization, Trade and Regional Integration | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Africa, China, International cooperation, South south relations, Foreign policy, Institutional framework, Evaluation, SOCIAL SCIENCES, SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP
Twelve years have passed since the establishment of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), an event that marked an important milestone in China-Africa relations. The forum is a platform to promote mutually beneficial South-South cooperation between China and Africa, based on mutual respect and non-interference in the internal affairs of African countries. In its ten year existence, FOCAC has achieved in deepening China-Africa relationsin the economic field. Trade, investment, infrastructure and capacity building have been comprehensively promoted. But as FOCAC prepares to enter the second decade, a number of steps must be taken by Chinese and African partners to improve the current institutional arrangement by expanding space for private sector and civil society participation in decision-making and by increasing the frequency of follow-up processes to ensure effective implementation of agreed upon targets.

Self-Determination and Secessionism in Somaliland and South Sudan : Challenges to Postcolonial State-building

Upphovsperson: Bereketeab, Redie
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Somaliland, South Sudan, Independence, Self-determination, Secession, Nation-building, Political developmetn, International relations, comparative analysis
This paper analyses the notion of self-determination and secession by adopting acomparative perspective on two case studies, namely Somaliland and South Sudan. Somaliland declared its independence in 1991 following the collapse of the Somali state. Since then, Somaliland has been making relentless efforts to secure recognition from the international community. South Sudan successfully negotiated the right to exerciseself-determination, a right that was formalised in the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM). The people of South Sudan held a referendum and voted overwhelmingly for secession, with formal independence being achieved on 9 July 2011. International law may better qualify Somaliland for statehood than South Sudan for three reasons: (i) it was created by colonialism, (ii) it has already been recognised, albeit only for a few days, as an independent state in 1960, and (iii) it has proven to be stable, functional and relatively democratic. Yet Somaliland has failed to achieve international recognition. This paper interrogates this discrepancy. It concludes that the existence of a partner ready to accept the right of self-determination, and geostrategic concerns about security as well a seconomic and political interests, determine international recognition.

Movement for the emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) : political marginalization, repression and petro-insurgency in the Niger Delta

Upphovsperson: Courson, Elias
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala : Nordiska Afrikainstitutet
År: 2009
Ämnesord: Energy resources, Petroleum industry, Transnational corporations, Macroeconomics, Geopolitics, conflicts, violence, Marginality, Protest movements, Nigeria, Niger Delta, Political science, Statsvetenskap
This Discussion paper addresses the linkages between the political economy of oil and violent conflict in Nigeria’s main oil and gas producing region, the Niger Delta. It is based on a case study of the insurgent Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), which has targeted and attacked the interests of international oil companies and the federal government in the oil-rich, but impoverished, Niger Delta region of Nigeria, in its professed campaign for the control of the oil wealth of the region for the benefit of local people. Through this study of MEND, fresh perspectives are brought to bear on the causes and ramifications of the oil conflict in the region, and the role of various actors at the local, national and international levels. This is important in grasping the nature of the violence in the Niger Delta and Nigeria and the enormity of the task of resolving the complex conflict in which the region is immersed. It is a challenge, which as the author argues, transcends the resort to the militarized or securitized solutions that often fail to adequately address the roots of conflict.

Biafran ghosts : The MASOB Ethnic Militia and Nigeria’s Democratisation Process

Upphovsperson: Okonta, Ike
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Conflict, Displacement and Transformation | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 2012
Ämnesord: Nigeria, Biafra, Democratization, political development, Ethnicity, Ethnic groups, Interethnic relations, Social movements, nationalism, Political science, Statsvetenskap
The Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB), an ethnicmilitia, emerged in the Igbo-speaking region of Nigeria in 1999, shortly after military rule ended and Olusegun Obasanjo took office as elected President. MASSOB’s stated goal is the struggle for Igbo self-determination and the re-emergence of a new sovereign state in the eastern part of the country to be known as the ‘United States of Biafra’, thereby raising the spectre of a possible break up of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. This Discussion Paper examines the circumstances of MASSOB’s emergence in a period of political transition and considerable uncertainty as the Nigerian armed forces began to prepare to relinquish their grip on power, and the specific ways the promoters of this ethnicmilitia movement have shaped Nigeria’s still unfolding democratization process since 1999.

Brief presentation of the organs of Tanu

Upphovsperson: Maeda, Justin
Utgivare: Nordiska Afrikainstitutet | Uppsala, Sweden
År: 1969
Ämnesord:
The student organization Verdandi in co-operation with the Scandinavian Institute of African Studies (NAI) organized a special seminar on Tanzania for Verdandi members going to make a study visit in Tanzania in the summer 1969. During the ten meetings of the seminar various aspects of Tanzania's development - political, social, cultural and economic - were studied and discussed in detail. One of the topics discussed in this seminar was Tanzania's political system. In connection with this presentation, a detailed description of the organization and structure of Tanzania's ruling party (TANU) was given by Mr Justin Maeda, the leader of the seminar. We are pleased to present a modified summary of Mr Maeda's presentation which we consider to be of great value to people interested in Tanzania.

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