(Estimated Pub Date) the Challenge of Ethnic Conflict to National and International Order in the 1990S: Geographic Perspectives- October 1995

Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268
Summary of Discussion
Discussant: Rex Honey
I think we need to keep the African experience, as
with the former Soviet Union experience, in historical
context. We need to look at precolonial Africa to
understand the Africa of today. Much of the culture of
contemporary Africa predates the colonial time. To
take a word from social theory jargon, the cultures of
Africa have been deeply sedimented within traditional
structures that resist change. Nevertheless, existing
structures, such as kinship and traditional social ties
are being battered by the kind of changes that are now
occurring.
'
This is not to suggest that, before the colonial period,
there was an Africa that was ;stagnant. In the 19th cen-
tury, the Islamic Jihad had an impact across the Sahe-
lian region and penetrated south. Sub-Saharan Africa
has traded with other areas, such as the Middle East
and Europe, for a long time. Of course slave trade was
a terrible aspect of that trade, but only part of it; there
was trade before and considerable trade afterward. In
addition, there have always been migrations of Afri-
can peoples.
During the colonial period, there occurred the imposi-
tion of protostates and, eventually, the European
nation-state model on Africa, I think it would be use-
ful to consider how European states came about, the
structure of these states, and the kinds of things that
led to successful or unsuccessful states in Europe, and
then to look at the African states to see how they com-
pare. A very telling description of the evolution of the
European national-state—a.nd I will use that term
instead of nation-state, because it is broader-—is, that
over the past millennium, successful states in Europe
were those that were able to accumulate capital-—that
is to say, economic power—-and to amass the power of
coersion to defend themselves, conquer others, and
maintain law and order.
The sad part of what has happened in Africa is that the
imposition of this European national-state has come
at a time when the technology for coercing is at the
greatest it has ever been in history—both in terms of
weapons and of the electronic media. As such, the
ability of states to get from their people what they
want has never been so high. ‘The biggest difference
between the bullies of Europe in earlier times and the
bullies of Africa now is that those in Africa have a lot
more power in terms of weapons and communication
controls.
Another factor that is a legacy of the colonial time is
the introduction and spread of Christianity. Christian-
ity mainly came into Sub-Saharan Africa in the 19th
century and spread north at the same time that Islam
was spreading south. Colonial regimes impacted the
current religious map because they often controlled
where the missionaries were able to work. This was
certainly the case in Nigeria.
In Nigeria, about 50 percent of the population is Mus-
lim, about 40 percent is Christian, and 30 percent is
animist, and I do mean those numbers—-they total
120 percent. The indigenous cultures of Nigeria are
still important in post-Cold War Africa. Cold War
influences have also been important; Professor de Blij
touched on some of that. Certainly, many Cold War
battles were fought, and some are still being fought, in
Africa. Angola, certainly, is an example. The impacts
of the Cold War have damaged Afiica tremendously.
The African economies have been very much trans-
formed by the penetration of international capital,
largely with alliances of convenience between the
leaders of the African countries and the transnational
companies that have invested in them. It is no accident
that the wealth of Mobutu is purported to be about
equal to Zaire’s national debt.
The politics of many of the Sub-Saharan African
countries is ethnic. The major prize within those coun-
uies is gaining control of the state, because control of
the state is the source of wealth. A client-patron struc-
ture, which is a modification of traditional structures
adapted to fit the current time, functions in many of
these states. In many ways, the traditional leaders are
stronger than they have ever been because the kinds of
power they have access to are now much greater than
those they formerly held.
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Approved for Release: 2018/06/01 C00123268