African Journal of Political Science

The Predicament of Ethnic Federal System

Yohannes Getahun — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The paper inquiries into ethnic federalism in lights of ethnic conflict and federal constitutional viability. It raises the basic question why some ethnic federations are successful in regulating ethnic relations while others are not. The history of federations has ample evidences that ethnic conflict, encompassing ethnic tensions and direct violence conflicts, causes and be caused by the failure of ethnic federalism. How a given ethnic federal system designed to adjust ethnic relations could self-contradictory induce far-reaching communal ethnic conflicts and ethnic based anti-regime activities is an interesting question. Answering that, the paper has given due consideration to the practices of defunct, fragile and mature ethnic federations and to the relevant conceptual and theoretical-back standings. The differences in the viabilities of these federations have shown the complicacy of ethnic federalism in meeting with the convulsive interplay between ethnic conflicts and federal system stability. In that regard, the paper finds seven factors: the democratic representativeness of federal structures, political parties, inclusive and overarching identities crossing ethnic lines, ethnic demographic shares, number of ethnic federal units and their ethnic composition, ethnic federal unit symmetry and geo-political setting. The concussion goes that ethnic federal design is not always an antidote for ethnic based claims and counter-claims. It rather could exacerbate the condition of ethnic politics, if it lacks those political, institutional and social ingredients inferred from the indicated factors.

The Free Movement of People in SADC

Clayton Hazvinei Vhumbunu, Toyin Cotties Adetiba, Charity Mawire — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states committed under Article 5(2) (d) of the SADC Treaty to develop policies aimed at the progressive elimination of the obstacles to the free movement of capital, labour, goods and services. The 2005 SADC Protocol on the Movement of People was celebrated as a giant step towards the realization of the regional integration objective of building SADC into a regional community that is fully integrated where citizens enjoy the freedom of movement across regional borders. Whilst substantial efforts have been invested in developing various legal and policy frameworks to open up borders for the free movement of people within SADC, thirty (30) years since the formation of SADC in April 1980 as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC); the region is facing serious challenges relating to the free movement of people, migration and labour movement. In reality, SADC member states’ governments have been confronted with serious feasibility challenges, complexities, risks and dilemmas as they attempt to implement commitments made towards the free movement of people in the region, with political, security, economic, strategic, and technical factors often cited as obstacles. This paper sought to critically reflect on the feasibility aspects, policy dilemmas at member state level as well as strategic considerations that stand on the way of free movement of people in SADC. The focus was on examining possibilities, capacities and prospects of SADC member states (in their collectivity and individuality) in addressing the underlying, structural and operational obstacles that are impeding the free movement of people in the region. Secondary data sources are used for analysis, and the three concepts of free movement of people, migration and regional integration provide conceptual lenses for analysis. Findings are key in providing perspectives on how SADC member states may need to collectively address the fundamental questions and issues that facilitate the free movement of people in the region.

The Global Covid-19 Pandemic

Chidochashe Nyere — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The politics of science, or better still, the political science of global politics is what the world is battling, concerning the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, today. Whereas scientific disciplines such as virology and epidemiology would usually take centre stage when an outbreak such as Covid-19 strikes, and now owing to the vacuum that has been created by conflicting and contradictory information from health experts on Covid-19, global health is opened up to, or left up to, political giants. Health matters of virology and epidemiology surrounding Covid-19 have, thus, been reduced to issues of politicking. The World Health Organisation's voice (WHO), despite its sustained campaign and provision of information on Covid-19, is drowned and almost silenced by the number of health authorities and experts that have come out to refute mainstream information and strategies on combating and managing Covid-19. As such, the politicization of Covid-19 and the coloniality of knowledge and information surrounding Covid-19 may very well be the main issue of contention than the Covid-19 itself. This paper, therefore, seeks to unmask the political dimensions that are camouflaged by the Covid-19 pandemic and expose the real issues that Covid-19 has allowed to thrive and are, as a result, sustained by the Covid-19 crisis. Using the qualitative research methodology, I set out to discuss and analyse the debates on Covid-19 as have been proffered in the public domain. Thus, the method of research is a desktop analysis of academic articles, newspaper articles, social media pieces and mainstream television pieces, among others. I offer a decolonial account on Covid-19.

Regard socio-historique sur les contradictions positionnelles et présentielles des Burkinabè et des Sénégalaises dans la politique

Ndeye Astou Ndiaye — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

La Science politique traite de l’objet « femme » depuis le milieu des années 1950 avec la variable « sexe » dans le comportement politique. A cet effet, cet article revendique son inscription dans le champ de la sociologie politique mais aussi dans celui des études féministes en Afrique. Son objectif est de revenir, d’un point de vue socio-historique sur la possibilité d’une présence et d’une position considérables des femmes du Burkina Faso et du Sénégal tout en mettant l’accent sur les controverses existantes et qui les détournent dans un premier temps, des scènes politiques et d’y avoir, dans un second temps, une situation répondant à la légalité. Cette réflexion s’interroge dès lors sur les contradictions existantes de la présence et de la position politique des Burkinabé et des Sénégalaises ?
Assurément, le constat fait dans ces deux pays pour lesquels nous avons un discernement intuitif, fait remarquer le dynamisme historique des femmes dans la lutte pour l’acquisition de leurs droits, notamment politiques. Seulement en interne, il est aussi perceptible que des efforts nets restent à faire tant sur le plan de la présence des femmes sur la scène politique que sur le plan des postes ou places occupées au sein des partis ou encore dans les fonctions nominatives et électives.

Evolution of Kenya’s Foreign Policy During the Cold War

Danvas Mabeya — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This study critically outlines Kenya’s Foreign Policy as it evolved during the cold war under Moi’s era toward the Middle East. The study exemplifies the underlying strategies, sources, national and personal interests, objectives, priorities, and implementation of Kenya's foreign policy. The study is premised on the need to elucidate if Kenya’s belief in regional peace and security was the cornerstone under which Kenya’s foreign was formulated and implemented. It was believed that any inconsistencies in Kenya’s foreign policy were based on rational and emerging trends in international affairs such as security threats to regional and global peace and stability. The study aims to ascertain how, Kenya’s recognition policy, was formulated, articulated, and exercised during Moi’s era toward the Middle East (1978-1990). The central question of this study is this: What influenced Kenya’s recognition policy towards Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Palestine during the Cold War under Moi’s administration (1978-1990)?

Femmes entrepreneures et délaissement gouvernemental face à la Covid-19 : résilience des cadets sociaux par l’innovation commerciale en ligne

Estelle Vérine Salla Bezanga — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

L’une des transformations sociales majeures portées par la Covid-19 au Cameroun avec l’outil internet est le développement des activités commerciales d’e-shop. Au centre de cette mouvance se situent les femmes dont les profils socioéconomiques montrent qu’elles sont en situation de vulnérabilité financière. Les domaines d’intervention commerciales de ces femmes vont de l’industrie de l’habillement à l’industrie agro-alimentaire, en passant par la cosmétique, la restauration ou les produits naturels de santé. Si leurs motivations s’inscrivent dans une dynamique de développement personnel qui est liée à leurs parcours, la plupart de ces femmes font des plateformes numériques des espaces de rentabilité économique pour une sortie de leur état de précarité. S’appuyant sur un réseau de fournisseurs grossistes basé en Chine, en Turquie ou dans les grands centres commerciaux des villes de Yaoundé et de Douala, les vendeuses participent à la dématérialisation des espaces de vente pour leur numérisation. Cela s’explique par des nombreux avantages qu’offre le phénomène : le paiement du loyer qui se substitue en paiement de forfait internet pour les diverses transactions. Cette forme d’accumulation utilitariste du capital numérique renseigne non seulement sur la transformation socio-économique du Cameroun par des cadets sociaux mais aussi sur le sens des rapports entre ces vendeuses en ligne, leur clientèle et leurs fournisseurs et la structure patriarcale du système social.

Le présent travail a pour objectif de comprendre au-delà d’un environnement précaire, la capacité des femmes entrepreneures dans le secteur d’économie non structurée, à surmonter les changements induits par la Covid-19. Pour ce faire, la démarche analytique est structuraliste, elle s’appuie à la fois sur un réseau de relations symboliques qui rendrait possible l’analyse politique de, la position des femmes au Cameroun, la situation de crise et leur autonomisation.

Boko Haram’s Terrorist Campaign in Nigeria

Sven Botha — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Boko Haram has fast become one of the world’s most notorious terrorist groups. The longevity of Boko Haram, coupled with its dynamic nature, necessitates that scholars keep abreast with a vast and intersectional array of developments. As a result, much ink has been spilt providing analysis and insight into the group’s motives, activities, internal politics, tactics, and future trajectories. Boko Haram’s ever-green endurance both in Nigeria and the wider West African region paves the way for a scholarly momentum which Oriola, Onuoha and Oyewole’s edited collection aligns with. The book has 12 chapters which are split across five thematic areas, namely: gender, the media, displacement, non-state actors, human rights, and non-state actors. It is beyond the scope of this review to place each chapter under the microscope. Instead, the reviewer will highlight some of the most important contributions the book makes to the academic discourse on Boko Haram. Chapter three (by Oyewole and Onuoha) provides the reader with a comprehensive account of the Dapachi Kidnapping of 2018; this contribution is significant as much scholarship as focused on the Chibok Kidnappings of 2014. Oyewole and Onuoha unpack why the Dapachi Kidnappings took place, placing an emphasis on the need for Boko Haram to portray itself as a resilient origination so as to appear appealing to prospective members, to raise funds (by means of hostage negotiations), and rewarding hardworking foot solders with ‘wives’ and sex slaves. Furthermore, context is given to Dapachi’s geographical and political vulnerability vis-à-vis Boko Haram’s terrorist campaign.

The New Apartheid

Masilo Lepuru — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The fundamental distinction between a Civil Rights movement such as the African National Congress and a liberation movement like Poqo lies in the status of white settlers and Apartheid. The mythologisation of Apartheid by promoting it to the main problem in liberation politics and history in conqueror South Africa is the persistent intellectual obsession of the Congress Tradition. A trenchant contestation and rejection of Apartheid as the fundamental antagonism in the history of the struggle for national liberation is the defining trait of a liberation movement and liberation intellectual production.Having written a book entitled Democracy & Delusion: 10 Myths (2019), in which he debunks what he considers to be myths about the so-called post-Apartheid South Africa, Sizwe is back again only this time he is reinventing two myths.In the book under review, entitled The New Apartheid (2021), Sizwe promotes the delusion and first myth of Apartheid as the problem and the second myth of the ANC as a liberation movement. This review is about these two myths.

Future of the BRICS and the Role of Russia and China

Olerato Manyaapelo — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The rise of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) and the severity of the 2008 global financial crisis have sparked a new round of debate about the long-term viability of transatlantic norms, ideas , and institutions that have dominated global governance since its commencement. Many of the bodies and organizations that contribute towards global governance were formed between 1945 and 1980 , and have been dominated by Western actors and an agenda centered on the West. To support the main argument of the author there are various chapters in the book Future of the BRICS and the Role of Russia and China that focus on The Evolution of Brics and the international system, Russia and BRICS, China and BRICS and Russia and China in BRICS: Convergences and Divergences. The strength of this book is that it is based on empirical evidence and it address pertinent questions on BRICS , contemporary international relations and monetary institutions. Most importantly, the book sheds light on the future of BRICS and the international financial system by providing a clear overview of BRICS and Unipolar and Bipolar world order systems.

Africa in the Year of Geopolitics

Siphamandla Zondi — Fri, 09 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The year 2023 ended with the world on the precipice. The war in Gaza, a disproportionate Israeli military response to Hamas attack on a festival in Israel, is among the deadliest in decades. More than 20 000 people, mostly civilians including women and children had been killed in the Israeli bombing campaign to avenge the Hamas killing of 120 in October. Thousands have been displaced and injured