The Nordic Africa Institute – Publications

This article explores how the protection of civilians is being militarized by African policymakers and diplomats. I draw on practice approaches to analyze what social groups are doing when they claim to “protect civilians.” I show how innovative protection mechanisms can be seen as a function of officials and diplomats coping with the changing circumstances of increasingly militarized politics in Africa. Specifically, accountability mechanisms for unintended and intended civilian harm by African security operations have originated in connection with this development. I argue that these are results of anchoring practices, which means that everyday informal interactions in one context become linked to another context. I argue that these emerging accountability mechanisms represent a new combination of practices, with the potential of changing the routine activities and mutual learning between policymakers and diplomats.

Climate change is considered to be a significant threat that faces mankind in this century. In Ghana, it isexpected to have a significant effect on agriculture and other climate dependent livelihoods in all ten regionsof the country. The development and implementation of policies on climate change in Ghana require theincorporation of local people’s perception and knowledge of the risks they are exposed to. A study to assessthe perceptions and knowledge of climate change was undertaken in the Offinso Municipality in Ghana. The study used a cross-sectional design where the information gathered represented what was going on at onepoint in time. Respondents (307) were selected from Kwapanin, Koforidua, Kyebi, Sampronso and Anyinasusocommunities using the systematic sampling method. The study used questionnaires, focus group discussionsand targeted interviews to collect primary information on local people’s perception on climate change. Theanalysis used descriptive statistics (frequency and percentages) and chi-square to detect any associationbetween demographic characteristics of local people and their perception of climate change. In addition theknowledge levels of respondents on climate change was analysed. The results indicate that perception ofclimate change is not influenced by origin, gender or level of education; however, it is significantly influencedby age. A knowledge portfolio showed that local people did not have in-depth knowledge on climate change ingeneral. There is therefore the need to create awareness and sensitize local people on causes, indicators andeffects of climate change.

On 9 June 2017 Namibia became poorer. A moral beacon physically left behind the people, whose right to live in freedom and dignity was his core motivation throughout most of his 92 years. (Herman) Andimba Toivo Ya Toivo – Toivo is Finnish for hope – was active until the end. He had just returned from a trip with his close friend and fellow inmate on Robben Island Helao Shityuwe – another largely ignored and little recognized icon in Namibia’s struggle for liberation. Hours later, at his home, Ya Toivo died in his sleep. The article combines a portrait of Ya Toivo and his legacy with the heroic narratives at play when the history of the liberation struggle is rewritten for political purposes.

This article presents an anatomy of power relations and policymaking within the ranks of the former liberation movement South West African People's Organization (SWAPO) in Namibia. It summarizes the features of Namibia's dominant party state and argues that Namibia is a case of competitive authoritarian rule. Our analysis documents how the first generation of SWAPO activists, in exile after the early 1960s, has since independence in 1990 remained the most influential segment of the former anti-colonial movement. This continuity is personified in the country's third president, Hage Geingob, and parts of his team in cabinet. Despite some gradual and increasingly visible shifts in the composition of SWAPO MPs, the party's first generation has so far remained largely in control of the country's political affairs. Analysing the background of the ministers serving since independence also shows that a second generation of SWAPO activists, in exile after the mid-1970s, gradually expanded their influence and took over leading positions. Given the dominance of SWAPO and the lack of any meaningful political opposition, a new leadership depends on upward inner-party mobility. Given the limited scope for a younger generation to move into higher offices, the strengthening of democracy through new leadership and innovative thinking is very limited. Rather, politics tends to be reproduced through established networks and bonds with a low degree of permissiveness, which reinforces the nature of the competitive authoritarian regime under the control of ‘old men’.

Africa’s leapfrogging information and communication technology development is fueled by mobile broadband. The number of mobile-broadband subscriptions on the continent has increased more than 15 times over the past six years, a growth rate that is three times the global average. However, there are also worrying trends, such as a growing digital divide between men and women, and between urban and rural areas.

Mit dem Ende des Kalten Krieges 1989, der Unabhängigkeit Namibias 1990 und dem Sturz des Apartheidregimes in Südafrika 1994 begann für viele Länder des südlichen Afrikas eine Zeit relativer Stabilität und des politischen Pluralismus. Die Friedensdividende erfüllte jedoch nicht die in sie gesetzten Erwartungen. Der Demokratisierungsprozess der Southern-African-Development-Community-Staaten (SADC) verläuft unübersichtlich; eine Wende hin zu autoritären Tendenzen zeichnet sich bei einigen Mitgliedstaaten ab.

With the end of the cold war, the independence of Namibia in 1990 and the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994, the Southern African region entered an era of relative political stability and competitive multi-party politics. But the peace dividend proved unable to finance the hopes and promises, and more and more political analysts point to the “mixed bag” of democratisation processes. 

African scholars argue that Africa’s intellectual agenda has largely been set by Euro-American interests and that this reflects former colonial relationships and geopolitical power. They worry that they are being crowded out of setting their own intellectual agenda.

Concerns over Zambia’s public debt, in particular from China have attracted debate on debt sustainability, Chinese loans and the role of the International Monetary Fund.

In opaque and unregulated financial markets, there can be strong incentives for banks to provide loans even when the appropriate guaranties or assessments are lacking. This is part of the Mozambican debt story, according to NAI researchers Navarra and Rodrigues. In this case, the consequences are most likely to be borne by Mozambican people, strongly affecting their living conditions.

"Ethiopia has shown encouraging economic development in the past years. The swirls of economic bubbles are impacting the different regions of the country. At the moment, there are several national and regional development projects being implemented in the Gambella Region in Western Ethiopia. However, being part ofthe development scheme of the federal state does not necessarily guarantee that this peripheral region will be integrated and brought closer to the political, cultural and economic core.

This report is an attempt to contribute to this debate by focusing on two major themes: large-scale agriculture and the villagization programmes. It examines the dynamics of Gambella’s political economy and the process of incorporating the region – and the Nuer transhumant communities in particular – into the national economy. Specifically, it explores how processes of commercial farming investments and the villagization programme impact Nuer pastoralists. A policy recommendation to be concluded from this research is to acknowledge the nexus between two pastoral development approaches – pastoral area development vs. pastoralism development – so as to make them run in tandem without one excluding the other. By recognising them as mutually reinforcing, pastoralism could be promoted while resources are developed."

Violent political revolt has been common in independent Uganda. For a long time such revolts were exclusively expressed as rural-based rebel groups fighting the government. Since the mid-2000s, however, this seems to have come to an end. Instead, urban riots, very rare in the past, have become much more common. This article analyses the changing patterns of types and location of violent political revolt in Uganda under the National Resistance Movement. It argues that the earlier prevalence of rural rebellions can be explained by the combination of a coercive and militarised state, and weak and ethnically factionalised political forces who took their violent resistance to rural regional bases. Over time, however, government counter-insurgency became more effective and the conditions for insurgency were undermined by withdrawal of external support. Furthermore, the reintroduction of multi-party politics in 2005 opened up new avenues for political expression. The changes to the political system were however more nominal than real in many respects. While the rebel option had become less attractive and feasible, a series of social, economic and political grievances remained which were only partly channelled through party politics. They also found expression through sporadic urban violent revolt.

Multiparty elections have become the bellwether by which all democracies are judged, and the spread of these systems across Africa has been widely hailed as a sign of the continent’s progress towards stability and prosperity. But such elections bring their own challenges, particularly the often intense internecine violence following disputed results.While the consequences of such violence can be profound, undermining the legitimacy of the democratic process and in some cases plunging countries into civil war or renewed dictatorship, little is known about the causes.

By mapping, analysing and comparing instances of election violence in different localities across Africa – including Kenya, Ivory Coast and Uganda – this collection of detailed case studies sheds light on the underlying dynamics and sub-national causes behind electoral conflicts, revealing them to be the result of a complex interplay between democratisation and the older, patronage-based system of ‘Big Man’ politics.

Essential for scholars and policymakers across the social sciences and humanities interested in democratization, peace-keeping and peace studies, Violence in African Elections provides important insights into why some communities prove more prone to electoral violence than others, offering practical suggestions for preventing violence through improved electoral monitoring, voter education, and international assistance.

Post-war democratization has been identified as a crucial mechanism to build peace in war-ridden societies, supposedly allowing belligerents to compete through ballots rather than bullets. A byproduct of this process, however, is that military leaders often become an integral part of the new democratic system, using resources and networks generated from the previous war to dominate the emerging political landscape.

The crucial and thus-far overlooked question to be addressed, therefore, is what effect the inclusion of ex-militaries into electoral politics has on post-war security. Can 'warlord democrats' make a positive contribution by shepherding their wartime constituencies to support the building of peace and democracy, or are they likely to use their electoral platforms to sponsor political violence and keep war-affected communities mobilized through aggressive discourses?

This important volume, containing a wealth of fresh empirical detail and theoretical insight, and focussing on some of Africa's most high-profile political figures – from Paul Kagame to Riek Machar to Afonso Dhlakama – represents a crucial intervention in the literature of post-war democratization.

This article examines the transformations to urban social stratification inAngola during the last decades. The analysis is centered on the indicators of socialdifference throughout these years: the racial criteria of the colonial times; the politicalprecedence in the first years after independence; and the multi-criteria of thepostwar period. Based on research conducted before and after the end of the civilwar in 2002, the article explores the construction and reconfiguration of urban societytoday, providing evidence of increased social mobility—despite the poverty anddeeper inequalities—and of the importance of economic and residential criteria.