African Studies

Utafiti: Journal of African Perspectives

 

Call for Papers: Utafiti is inviting you to submit your manuscript – any topic in the humanities - for consideration in the next issues.

 

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New at Brill: Afrika Focus

This journal promotes critical and worldly debates with Africa at the centre. 

New Series: Africa Futures / Afrique Futurs

Published in association with the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA), Africa Futures features cutting-edge research that critically reflects on some of the big questions relevant to imagining Africa’s future as a place.

Listen to our podcast on Africa and Climate Change

Robin Attfield talks about how Africa finds itself vulnerable to drought but also the flooding of its coastline, among other untoward environmental effects of climate change and civil war.

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Compared with the previous two years, 2017 was a transition year for the cndd-fdd government. The violence triggered by President Nkurunziza’s pursuit of a third presidential term in 2015 had significantly scaled down. As Nkurunziza had both contained internal party dissidence and suppressed or side-lined various pockets of civic, political and armed opposition, the government and ruling cndd-fdd elite started looking ahead again. Preparations for the long announced constitutional reform and the 2020 elections were the most notable indications of this shift. This is not to say that the crisis was over. The political landscape remained marked by severe tensions between the cndd-fdd and the various opposition outfits. Political violence, while less intensive, continued to occur. The government had to introduce controversial measures to mitigate the effects of alarming economic conditions. And relations with Rwanda, Belgium, the eu and the un remained fraught with tension.

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In his first full year in office since being re-elected president, Colonel Azali Assoumani drew on his political experience to consolidate his rule at home and renew relationships with bilateral partners and international organisations. A former coup leader, he had previously served as president of the Committee of State between 1999 and 2002, and then as president of the Union of Comoros between 2002 and 2006. Beyond short-term policies to drive down the high cost of living, the new government determined that Comoros should aim to become an ‘emerging economy’. This goal influenced both domestic and foreign policy. Assoumani indicated that his government would be willing to consider revising the constitutional mechanism of the rotating presidency that he had introduced in 2002. In terms of foreign relations, Assoumani prioritised cooperation with France, whilst cementing relations with Saudi Arabia as Comoros’s principal partner in the Islamic world.

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The political situation in Djibouti remained stable, and President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh and his ‘Union pour la Majorité Presidentielle’ (ump) coalition dominated the political realm with little space for opposition or civil society activities. However, it seemed that Guelleh’s son-in-law, Djama Elmi Okieh (dubbed ‘Djama Speed’), was no longer a candidate to succeed him. The Afar-inhabited North, where the ‘Front pour la Restoration de l’Unité et de la Démocratie’ (frud) had been active in previous years, was relatively calm due to an Ethiopian military presence but, in October, a demonstration in Tajourah was violently dispersed by security forces. In August, China inaugurated its first naval base on African soil near the town of Obock, with a capacity to station up to 10,000 troops. The start of the new Djiboutian-Ethiopian Railway’s regular commercial operation connecting Djibouti’s port with Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, was delayed, and some other large infrastructure projects progressed more slowly than expected. The country was affected by prolonged drought conditions, and the humanitarian situation remained dire, with 200,000 people dependent on food aid.

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Eastern Africa remained a turbulent area, marked by political volatility and unrest, but it was nevertheless the region in Africa with the highest average economic growth rates. At the same time, socio-economic inequities and regional strife continued, and major development ventures such as dams, large-scale energy projects and commercial mega-plantation schemes remained contested. Resentment about long-ruling presidents and dominant parties increased, notably among the restive youth, who felt blocked from employment and advancement. Income growth and opportunities were largely reserved for a minority of well-educated and connected urban young people. Some countries, such as Burundi, Somalia and South Sudan, struggled with (post-) conflict economic crises. Environmental and demographic developments did not help to mitigate the picture, despite state initiatives to tackle the problems of rapid population growth, drought, food insecurity and ecological constraints. Green energy initiatives were discussed and implemented here and there. International players such as the un and the eu kept up their commitments with various countries in the region to development and security cooperation, poverty reduction and control of outmigration, the last being seen as having a major impact on population movement and conflict instability.

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The State of Eritrea remained an autocratic political system with a heavily militarised command economy, and the open-ended national service that drove substantial numbers of the youth to flee the country remained in place. The human rights situation was worrying, and a crackdown on the very few remaining schools that offered religious education as part of their curriculum triggered the first student demonstration in Asmara since 2001. The young people protested against the arrest of a nonagenarian board member of the Islamic Al-Dia school, who had refused to accept government intervention in the school’s curriculum. The diplomatic crisis in the Arabian Peninsula and tensions between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan affected Eritrea’s foreign relations and led to the termination of Qatar’s role as a mediator in the conflict with Djibouti and to a Sudanese troop build-up along its borders with Eritrea at the end of the year. The government tried to control all financial transactions by limiting cash transfers without providing adequate alternative financial instruments to handle payments. In December, it closed down hundreds of businesses as a punitive measure. The bulk of eu funds granted under the 11th edf remained unused due to a lack of feasible development projects.

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The one-party regime of the eprdf (Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front) remained in place but appeared increasingly shaky, with country-wide contestation and political insecurity ongoing. Important ruling-party meetings were held toward the end of the year to deal with the crises. Ethiopia’s economy continued to grow, although foreign investment and tourism did not recover to the level of before the 2016 crisis. Clashes between ethnic groups also continued, with a major new crisis erupting on the Oromo-Somali regional border, leading to hundreds of people being killed and hundreds of thousands displaced.

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Kenya was dominated by news related to the general election. Tension over the polls had built up throughout 2016 and finally came to a boil around the disputed August poll, which saw Uhuru Kenyatta declared the winner in questionable circumstances, immediately triggering protests and violent police reprisals. In the three days after the result was announced, the police killed at least 37 people in opposition strongholds in Nairobi and western Kenya. Tensions also spiralled in places like Laikipia, where the election reignited tensions over land ownership between the local communities and the significant community of European origin. The opposition filed a petition challenging the result, as was widely expected – all Kenyan multi-party elections except in 1962 and 2002 having been subject to legal review. The result of this petition was unprecedented: in a 4–2 vote, the Supreme Court annulled the August result, declaring that the elections had not been conducted in the spirit envisioned by the Constitution, returning Kenyans to the polls in November. Intrigues around the vote edged out equally important stories such as the calamitous two-year drought that sent food prices skyrocketing throughout the country, as well as increasingly alarming incidents of mass corruption, including the plunder of the National Youth Service.

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The presidential elections dominated much of 2017. The ruling rpf consolidated its political power as President Kagame won 98.8 % of the vote. Rwanda’s human rights record continued to be challenged by international human rights organisations and the un. Rwanda was one of the leading troop and police contributing country to peacekeeping operations. Bilateral relations with both Burundi and France remained strained. The drought that hit Eastern Africa continued to plague Rwanda. The government made important progress in infrastructure development by increasing the number of households connected to electricity to over 35% from 22% at the end of 2016. Economic performance remained strong, with a gdp growth of 5.1%.

The Republic of Seychelles, the archipelago to the north-east of Madagascar made up of 115 islands (the main one being Mahé), remained generally stable politically and economically and had the highest per capita gdp per in Africa. The challenges and effects of climate change continued to place its economy at risk, as it relied heavily on high-end tourism and exports of tuna. To deal with this, Seychelles worked with fellow Small Island Developing States to address climate change issues. Regarding the economy, achieving more productivity-based growth remained Seychelles’ key focus. Several development plans were being implemented or refined. Compared with its African and Indian Ocean neighbours, the Seychellois enjoyed domestic stability but faced some problems of unhealthy nutrition, sedentary lifestyles and substance abuse, coupled with educational and skills formation problems.

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Somalia remained a basket case of humanitarian emergency, political instability and violent confrontations, with here and there islands of urban investment, economic development and reconstruction. The Somali Federal Government remained a problematic outfit, not significantly expanding its political-territorial control or governmental authority over the country, marred by corruption, and still largely dependent on donor-funding, remittances, and amisom peace-keeping forces combatting al-Shabaab. This movement committed the worst car bombing in Somali history, with 512 people killed in a public slaughter in Mogadishu. The movement did not change its course or develop any constructive agenda for Somalia’s societal or political future, and rejected any negotiations.