Africa: a cold war proxy field?

Résumé du document

In most discourses about International Relations, Africa is described as a ‘victim' of external powers – namely its former colonisers, the United States and, as far as the Cold War period is concerned, the Soviet Union. For instance, it is said that African wars in the post-colonial era were fueled by the Eastern and Western blocks. Interestingly enough, this framework of analysis is not only used among International Relations experts and students, but also by the Africans themselves. For instance, Sam Kobia, director of the “Study and Action” Group of the Kenyan Section of the Ecumenical Council of Churches (a non-governmental religious organisation which regroups 120 countries), said in a press conference in August 26th, 1999 that “Up to the fall of the Berlin Wall, political life on the African continent has been deeply influenced by the Cold War between both superpowers.” In his opinion, Western powers did everything they could to prevent the birth of democracy in Africa, because “it is easier to control people under a dictatorship”.

Extraits

[...] As Clarence Tshitereke admits it, “Most African civil wars started as clashes over access to natural resources.” A number of African states are exceptionally rich in key natural resources, such as oil or minerals. The civil war in the Democratic Republic of Congo was triggered by its attack by its neighbour states (notably Uganda and Angola), who now all occupy part of its territory and exploit its resources. Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler have examined a large number of civil wars, and compared two contrasting motivations for rebellion : greed and grievance. Most wars are led in the name of a cause. [...]

[...] Charles Zorgbibe, Book Notes, American African Policy”, African Geopolitics, no winter of 2001. Michael MacClintock, Instruments of Statecraft : US Guerrilla Warfare, Counterinsurgency, and Counterterrorism, 1940- Pantheon Books, Random House. Nyere's speech at the International Press Club in June in London, during the Commonwealth Conference : Daniel C. Bach, Nigeria et Etats-Unis in Politique africaine, no June of 1961. Clarence Tshitereke, African Security Review, Institute for Security Studies Press, Brooklyn Square, vol no Paul Collier & Anke Hoeffler, Greed and grievance in civil war, Oxford University Press, 2004. [...]

[...] After all, nearly all African states are multi-ethnic, and some of them are at peace. Differences in ethnicity or religion have to be instrumentalised for certain political and economic aims to become critical in the starting of a war. Typically, discrimination against a given population group may lead to violent reactions. For instance, the distinction between Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and Burundi was primarily a class difference before colonisation, with the Tutsis being land- and cattle-owners. Belgians have institutionalised this distinction, and made it hereditary. [...]

[...] However, these ideologies were mere rhetorical tools, which would have probably not even been used if it had not been for the tactical importance newly independent African states represented to the superpowers from the turn of the 1950s and 1960s to the end of the Cold War. Opportunity The decline of European colonial powers and the subsequent wave of decolonisation gave superpowers the opportunity to intervene in Africa, either to support anti-colonial guerrillas or to ‘recruit' states into their own block. The reasons for this endeavour were political and economic. [...]

[...] War in Africa has deeper roots, which stem back from its colonial and even pre-colonial legacy. A word should be said, for instance, on how the structure of international trade - which dates back to the colonial era - makes natural resources so strategic in Africa that they have become the centre of international and infra-national rivalries. One could also examine the effects of the economic reforms imposed on African states by Western-dominated institutions such as the IMF. However, the aim of this essay was only to prove that the Cold War is not a satisfying explanation pattern of conflict in Africa. [...]