African American

Introduction

The development of political geography has largely been conditioned by events in Europe and the First World (Glassner 1996; Taylor 1993). Furthermore, much of the political geographic literature pertaining to the state has reflected American democratic and anti-colonial ideas and ideals (Alexander 1957; De Blij 1967; Pounds 1963). The complex overlapping group identities and dependent inter-state relation- ships, which characterised much of the world prior to the spread of nationalism associated with the American and French revolutions, still dominated the world political map in 1900, but found little favour in the dominant American political and academic culture (Smith 1994). In consequence, a century later multiple identities have often been suppressed in favour of a dominant nationalism and inter-state relationships are dominated by a single form: that between sovereign independent states. Parallel with this development, ethnic nationalism was widely replaced by state driven nationalism as the basis of the nation-state, which has been universally accepted as the basic building block of the state system. The application of American derived ideas and ideals to Africa in the present century has been of prime importance to the development of the continent.

The development of the state system in Africa in

the course of the twentieth century has tended to obscure many of the problems which have bedeviled the people of the continent. The imposition of European colonial rule beyond the coastal enclaves was relatively late, and effectively destroyed many of the structures of the pre-colonial states and soci- eties. As a result, the state pattern that emerged at the end of the colonial period was largely the creation of the colonial powers and underwritten by the inter- national community, but it often bore little relation- ship to African ethnic and political realities (Griffiths 1995). However, the inherited pattern of colonial boundaries was upheld by the Organisation of African Unity and the international community in an effort to contain the destructive power of ethnic conflict so prevalent in other continents, notably in Europe. This political settlement has survived until the present, although it is now under increasing pressure as the revolutionary concepts of democracy and self-determination are reevaluated (Darkoh 1996; Young 1991). In this period of transformation concepts such as ‘nation-state’, ‘quasi-state’ and ‘col- lapsed state’, have been applied to African states (Davidson 1992, Jackson 1990, Zartman 1995). All three terms offer some understanding of the present state system. It is a suitable time assess whether the state pattern of Africa is liable to further substantial modification with the rise of ethnic nationalisms, or

GeoJournal 43: 91–97.  1997 (September)

Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

‘Nation-states’, ‘quasi-states’, and ‘collapsed- states’ in contemporary Africa

Christopher, A. J., University of Port Elizabeth, Department of Geography, P.O. Box 1600, Port Elizabeth 6000, South Africa

Received 17 December 1996; accepted 7 May 1997

Abstract: The revival of ethnic identities and the search for historical roots have been significant factors in re-shaping the map of the world in the late twentieth century. Multi- ethnic states have come under increasing strain throughout the century and undermining the concept of the ‘nation-state’. However, the successor states to the colonial empires in Africa exhibit the same strains as the often highly fragile successors to the European continental empires earlier in the century. The survival of these ‘quasi-states’ has been dependent upon the support of the international community for over thirty years as a reaction to the era of colonialism. Anti-colonialism offers little practical support for states in a post-colonial, post- Cold War era. In some cases the result has been disintegration and the emergence of the ‘collapsed state’. The revived political movements aimed at democratisation and self-deter- mination have unleashed forces which may be incompatible with the survival of the current state system.

whether a stability similar to that of the Americas has been achieved. Immediately after the major period of independence on the continent, Saadia Touval (1963: v) wrote: ‘Africa is a continent rich in nationalisms but poor in nations’. The same is true today.

Colonisation and independence

Many of contemporary Africa’s problems are rooted in the colonial era when the continent was conquered and apportioned among the European powers. In a few cases the duration of colonial rule was measured in centuries, in most in decades and in the case of Ethiopia less than a decade. However, the European governments effectively destroyed most of the pre- colonial political structures and created new states for their administrative convenience. In this process the colonial boundaries divided pre-colonial societies and polities, resulting in multi-ethnic administrative units. Shifts in pattern of colonies were frequent as political and financial priorities changed, a pattern which was to be frozen in place at independence. Thus Gerteiny (1967: 11) described the creation of Mauritania in 1903 as ‘one more administrative solution created by France during her colonial venture in West Africa’. This implied no recognition of ethnicity in the definition of its boundaries, let alone a shared concept of national identity, which was the underpinning of the European concept of the ‘nation’ within the ‘nation-state’ (Smith 1995). The result was a highly legalistic application of the definition of the nation as the population which happened to live within the boundary fence of the ex-colonial state at independence, with the inevitable tensions which this imposed.

Those states which did achieve or retain indepen- dence during the colonial period, did so often at the convenience of the colonial powers. Even Ethiopia was not considered to be a fully independent state, when it was admitted to the League of Nations in 1923 under special terms which emphasised its inferior status (Walters 1952). As late as 1941 Great Britain still expected to obtain some form of protec- torate over the country it had newly conquered from the Italians rather than restore its independence (Marcus 1983). In similar vein, Egypt was unilater- ally granted independence in 1922, although the British government retained a large measure of control over the country until after the Second World War (Mansfield 1971).

In the Second World War the influence of the United States became dominant in world affairs. Thus the call to national freedom enunciated in the Anglo- American Atlantic Charter in 1941 was viewed by the American government as applying to colonial peoples as well as to those under German military occupation. The complex dependent relationships between ruler and ruled were to be abolished in

favour of full participatory citizenship for every people. President Franklin D. Roosevelt summed up American policy with regard to colonial areas in these words:

‘I am firmly of the belief that if we are to arrive at a stable peace it must involve the development of backward countries . . . I can’t believe that we can fight a war against fascist slavery, and at the same time not work to free people all over the world from a backward colonial policy’ (Kissinger 1994: 401).

The pressures for the independence of Africa came therefore largely from the international community, led by the United States and the Soviet Union and supported by the various newly independent Asian states. The colonial powers lost legitimacy and any moral justification for imposing their rule upon alien peoples. As a result political independence was achieved relatively rapidly and with comparatively little bloodshed, with the result that the new states lacked the legitimacy achieved through the successful prosecution of a defining national struggle. The War of Independence in Algeria stands out as a notable exception to this statement (Horne 1977). The experience of long anti-colonial struggles in the ex-Portuguese colonies and Zimbabwe can be viewed in similar vein. The majority of the newly indepen- dent African states thus inherited all the trappings of national sovereignty in international legitimacy, but with few of the support structures to sustain them, the ‘quasi-states’. The international community antic- ipated that through the provision of diplomatic and financial aid, a series of integrated nation-states could be created. As Robert Jackson (1990: 26) claimed:

‘at a more fundamental level quasi-states reveal the same egalitarian and democratic values as other twentieth-century enfranchisement and lib- eration movements concerning disadvantaged class, racial and ethnic minorities. A close parallel in time is the civil rights movement in the United States which has virtually identical moral imper- atives and some comparable institutional features. Quasi-states are therefore part of a more general process of self-determination which has affected domestic as well as international politics in the latter half of the twentieth century.’

In the ensuing thirty years, the efforts of the indigenous governing elites were directed towards maintaining the state structures and constructing nation-states through the inculcation of a sense of nationhood in the populaces. This was often under- taken by highly coercive means under one-party and military dictatorships, which ultimately destroyed the complex networks of patronage which underpinned the system (Bayart 1993). Indeed, the African quest to emulate the European concept of the ‘nation-state’ has been termed a curse placed upon the continent

92 A. J. Christopher

(Davidson 1992). The Organisation of African Unity was established in 1963 with a strong mandate to prevent potentially destructive challenges to the state system and it was able to diffuse the majority of the conflict situations which followed with the support of the international community (Cervenka 1977). However, ethnic tensions were considered inevitable and balkanisation the most likely result but for this support. In consequence, attempts to create ethnic separatist states were ruthlessly suppressed, whether in Biafra in 1967 or Katanga in 1960. In the latter case military intervention by the interna- tional community in the form of the United Nations was required to reimpose the unity of the country. Current secessionist movements, including those in Cabinda and the Southern Sudan, have similarly not elicited international support and generally have incurred outright condemnation. Furthermore, the detailed configuration of the colonial boundaries was maintained with the result that many ethnic groups remained divided after independence. This allowed for the Somali irredentist movements to be defeated in the neighbouring states with Somali populations.

If fragmentation was resisted, there was little attempt to create wider unions or federations. Those that were created were generally formed at the time of independence. A few crossed the former imperial boundary lines and so had to overcome the separate linguistic and legal legacies of the colonial era. Thus the British and Italian sectors of Somaliland were united at the behest of the pan-Somali movement, which had gained control of both pre-independence governments prior to July 1960. The union’s subse- quent effective dissolution has not been so readily recognised by the international community, despite the cooperative administration of the (ex-British) Republic of Somaliland. In similar vein the southern section of the British Cameroons united with the ex-French Cameroun in a federal structure, later converted to a union. In contrast the northern sector of the British Cameroons voted for incorporation into Nigeria, with which it had administratively been merged since the First World War. Similarly, after a limited consultation process, Eritrea was federated with Ethiopia in 1952, but annexed ten years later, with disastrous results.

The unresolved status of the Moroccan occupation of the former Spanish Sahara in 1975 has remained one of the most controversial and divisive issues on the continent (Slowe 1990). The attempt to unite the previously separate colonial entities was resisted by many of the inhabitants of the Western Sahara and the status of the territory remains to be determined by an internationally supervised referendum, which is still pending. It might be added that the majority of the members of the Organisation of African Unity rejected Morocco’s claim to the Western Sahara as being contrary to the spirit of the Charter and recog-

nised the government in exile which controls only small portions of the national territory.

After achieving independence few governments were willing to give up their newly won power or territory. Zanzibar united with Tanganyika to form the United Republic of Tanzania, after the violent overthrow of the sultanate on the islands. However, separate administrations have been maintained in the two sections of the country. Indeed in 1995 the Zanzibari secessionist movement was only narrowly defeated at the polls. The Federation of Senegambia, between Senegal and Gambia, lasted seven years (1982–1989), but proved to be unsustainable as the leaders of the smaller state were unwilling to sur- render sovereignty and power. The numerous pan- Arab unions, mostly devised by Libya, and early pan-African unions, mostly devised by Ghana, did not achieve any permanency. Even the existence of a joint ruling political party in the Cape Verde Islands and Guinea-Bissau was inadequate to forge a polit- ical union between the two states once independence had been achieved.

The issues of continued White rule in the South, apartheid and racially defined separatism in South Africa tended to dominate the continental political agenda from the 1960s to the 1990s. The end of White rule in South Africa can not be regarded as decolonisation as the country had been granted formal independence under the Statute of Westminster in 1931. It was portrayed instead as a matter of self-determination for the African majority within a unitary state. In order to prevent this occurrence, the South African government devised a programme of state partition, based on ethnic parti- tion (Christopher 1994). Four ‘independent’ states emerged: Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei. None received international diplomatic recog- nition as fragmentation on ethnic lines was counter to the principles of the Organisation of African Unity. Government plans failed as a result of the resistance of the African population to the programme of political exclusion and international sanctions. Consequently the independence boundary was reestablished in 1994 and the experiment in imposed ethnic partition abandoned and the four ephemeral states reincorporated. The emergence of a democratic South Africa may have unleashed the possibilities for territorial expansion as originally envisaged by suc- cessive White-controlled governments until the 1960s (Hyam 1972). These were thwarted by international resistance to any extension of South African racial segregationism and apartheid. At the present time the prospects for the survival of the enclave state of Lesotho appear particularly problematical as the original reasons for its continuing separate existence have been overcome (Lemon 1996).

‘Nation-states’, ‘quasi-states’, and ‘collapsed-states’ in contemporary Africa 93

Stability and instability

The long period of relative stability of political boundaries may now be ended. The close of the Cold War has dismantled the international balance of power exposed Africa to many of the tensions which exist elsewhere, not least the mobilisation of ethnic power. The end of colonialism and the end of White rule in the southern sector of the continent in the 1990s has focused attention upon the cohesion of many multi-ethnic African states and the aspirations held by minority groups (Mikesell and Murphy 1991). At one extreme secessionism is still rife, with attempts to create separate states. However, the leaders of most minority groups still seek some political accommodation within the existing state system, through local autonomy or power sharing arrangements.

The successful war of secession of Eritrea from Ethiopia raises the question of the continued stability of other states (Gurdon 1994). The independence of Eritrea represented the reestablishment of a colonial boundary and the grant of independence denied to the former Italian colony in 1952 and so was not taken as a challenge to the entire state structure of the continent. Somaliland, Western Sahara and Zanzibar appear as other areas where the resurrection of colonial and pre-colonial structures stress the existing order but could be interpreted within the Organisation of African Unity’s guidelines. Elections or referenda have been proposed as solutions to all these problems, but the issues of voter eligibility, intimi- dation and fraud have raised questions over the validity of the results or projected results.

Question marks hover over the long-term viability of states such as South Africa, Nigeria and Zaire, where ethnic tensions are always capable of being exacerbated by political leaders as a result of deteri- orating economic conditions among certain sections of the population. Some recognition of the force of ethnicity and the relevance of pre-colonial history will be essential to avoid the twentieth century secessionist problems which continue to beset Europe. Indeed, it has been suggested that the security afforded by a constitutional right to secede may be sufficient to hold states together (Buchanan 1991). Protracted secessionist movements have characterised many African states in the post-inde- pendence era and their full development may only be possible once the binding elements of anti-colo- nialism have faded (Mayall and Simpson 1992).

A recent phenomenon in Africa has been the emergence of the ‘collapsed state’, where the central administration and often most of the local adminis- trations have disintegrated and no effective ‘national’ government is functioning (Zartman 1995). Few states collapsed at independence, despite their weak political structures. The former Belgian Congo (Zaire) was a rare exception and was revived as a

result of international cooperation and internal coercion. The recent disintegration of some govern- ments and civil societies have usually followed the removal of the constraints of the ‘strong’ centralised dictatorships which were prevalent on the continent. The networks of power, influence and patronage which provided the means of maintaining a unified society broke down, disintegrating into smaller and more localised networks (Bayart 1993).

In some countries all semblance of a unified gov- ernment has disappeared, as in Somalia, with the rival clan leaders vying for power, even within the confines of the capital, Mogadishu. In others a recog- nised central government is in effective control of only limited parts of the country, as in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia. In the latter case what constitutes the central government is dependent upon the inter- pretation of the regional peace keeping force, which is attempting to mediate between the warring factions. Occasionally the national leader provided the only focus of patronage and influence in other countries such as Zaire, leaving a highly fragmented and often ineffective administration dependent upon the skills of the ruling clique to maintain the facade of national unity. One of the features of such situations has been the re-emergence of pre-colonial patterns of societies which were riven by the imposition of international boundaries, but now are united in their remoteness from governmental control (Raison 1993; Richards 1996). In this respect inter- national boundaries as depicted on the map do not reflect the reality on the ground. Whether such col- lapsed states constitute a stage in the process towards a significant redefinition of state boundaries, or only a temporary phase in a ‘national’ history is as yet unclear. The experience of Uganda after suffering military dictatorship, the collapse of civil society, foreign invasion and civil war appears to suggest that resurrection is possible. This was made possible through the political accommodation of regional ethnic interests within the revived governmental structures (Mamdani 1996).

Seemingly intractable ethnic conflicts, such as those in Rwanda and Burundi, continue to undermine the stability of neighbouring countries as the state system remains remarkably interdependent. In Rwanda and Burundi the conflict between the Tutsi and Hutu ethnic groups, which share the same geo- graphical state space, yet are capable of inflicting severe atrocities, including attempted genocide, upon one another suggests that the ethnic conflicts associated with Europe have an continuing African dimension. However, whereas the conflict in Bosnia- Herzegovina has been labelled as a ‘national’ struggle, yet that in Rwanda has been condemned as ‘tribal’ (Mayers, Klak and Koehl 1996). This suggests a dual standard is applied to secessionism and nation building in Europe and Africa. Indeed endemic civil war still afflicts several states so that

94 A. J. Christopher

the map of Africa does not reflect the situation in reality. The Angolan civil war has been protracted by the deep ethnic rivalries between the Mbundu and Ovimbundu groups. Although the leaders of both seek control of the entire state, the question may be raised as to whether partition or a high degree of autonomy would result in a more peaceful and pros- perous future for both rather than the continued enforced unification (Gurr and Harff 1994).

The application of the concept of national self- determination to Africa will have to be re-examined as the pre-colonial ethnic groupings begin to reassert themselves with continued moves towards greater democratisation (Decalo 1992; Wiseman 1992). Multi-party elections in some cases have been described as little more than the conduct of ‘ethnic censuses’, indicating the continuing fragility of civil society (Horowitz 1985). The prospects for renewed ethnic mobilisation are therefore present within most states experimenting with multi-party democracy. Self-determination in Africa may therefore result in the need to explore parallels with developments in eastern Europe where a large number of former minority ethnic groups have either gained national independence or increased autonomy in the 1990s in the wake of the process of liberalisation and democratisation.

In a highly significant development, the new (1993) Ethiopian constitution offers a legal mecha- nism for the secession of the ethnically defined provinces (Abbink 1995). Such an eventuality is designed to be exercised as a last resort only if polit- ical compromise is impossible. The original concept follows the principles laid down in the former Soviet Union constitution designed to overcome the negative aspects of nationalism in the construction of a new society. The Ethiopian precedent may be the forerunner of other constitutional measures seeking to accommodate the problems associated with the imposition of the European derived concept of the nation-state upon the African continent. The basic philosophy behind the move is to defuse conflict and emphasise the advantages of voluntary national association as opposed to the enforced incorporation and suppression of ethnic identity under the previous, highly centralised, imperial and republican regimes. Indeed, the drawing of new regional boundaries for local government, which has often accompanied democratisation, has also opened up the possibility of creating sub-national governments capable of demanding higher degrees of self-determination even independence. As at the end of the colonial era, when the presence of functioning administrations offered an organisational basis for the post-colonial state, so the establishment of functioning provinces with a measure of autonomy may offer the basis for future self-determination. This was clearly the case in the secession of Biafra (the former Eastern Province of Nigeria). The repetition of such an eventuality was

subsequently countered by the periodic redrawing of the Nigerian provincial boundaries has been to minimise the possibilities of provinces acting as foci for ethnic secessionism by fragmenting the larger ethnic communities (Williams 1994). In contrast, the new Ethiopian provinces are designed to encourage continued association and the survival of the state. This promises to offer the possibility of the recogni- tion of multiple identities within the one ‘nation’.

In South Africa the new provincial dispensation appears to have followed some aspects of the Ethiopian pattern, with secessionist possibilities in the most populous province inhabited by the Zulu nation and another with a non-African majority (Christopher 1995). However, this approach has been advanced as a means of returning to the recognition that within a ‘nation’, people often have multiple identities, which need not be the source of conflict. The South African Deputy Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology, Brigitte Mabandla (1996: 25) has suggested that:

‘Building this national consciousness and recog- nising ethnic identities are not mutually exclusive activities. Having a Zulu, Afrikaner, Jewish or Malay identity need not undermine our sense of being South African. The role we have set our- selves is to develop a complex, inclusive and non- prescriptive notion of what constitutes the national culture’.

However, the proposed new constitution for the province of KwaZulu-Natal, which provides that residents be required to ‘defend the territory of the province’, has been condemned by the Constitu- tional Court as ‘plainly intended to legitimise seces- sion’ (Rickard, 1996: 4).

Economic integration in Africa is proceeding slowly. Continental or regional political unity remains an ideal rather than a reality (Esedebe 1994). The Economic Community of West African States and the Southern African Development Community are the two most significant and developed entities (Gibb 1995). The former has already assumed a military capability through the intervention in Liberia, while the latter is proving to be increasingly a forum for South African advancement. In this respect parallels with the developments in western Europe are instructive. There are significant impli- cations for the erosion of the nation-state as previ- ously laboriously constructed, both from ‘above’ but also from ‘below’ (Kolinsky 1984). Small national- ities, previously subsumed in larger entities, may be offered an environment where the economic costs of separation are greatly reduced and the whole issue of identity can be reassessed within the security of a multi-state union (Smith 1995).

‘Nation-states’, ‘quasi-states’, and ‘collapsed-states’ in contemporary Africa 95

Comment

In examining the development of states, nations and nationalities in Africa, issues revolving around the differing international moralities applied to political conflict and state formation also need to be addressed. The basic concept of the quasi-state suggests the intervention of the international com- munity in the processes involved in the establishment and the continued maintenance of the African state system. The imposition of one-party and military dictatorships, which this frequently involved, was tolerated as part of the process of nation-building. Furthermore, the imposition of the European based concept of the nation-state upon the continent at independence required a long period of consolida- tion, which was achieved through the continued international understanding not to disturb the terri- torial integrity of the new states.

The period of relative quiescence on the African state map is at an end, as the effects of the events of 1991 and 1992 in Europe and the collapse of the international order which brought the present African state system into being have their impact. A great many issues remain unresolved, which have a direct impact upon the future of the continent. The col- lapsed state is one result where the internal and international support systems become inadequate to support the state structure. The most problematic is the development of the multi-ethnic ‘quasi-state’ undergoing the process of democratisation. Self- determination may result in significant changes in the political map of Africa as sub-national regional governments are elected and act as rivals to the centralised powers of the internationally recognised states. The democratic alternatives may be secession or the recognition of the more complex intra-state relationships and multiple personal identities, which characterised the multi-national empires of a century ago. Both courses present major problems for the peoples involved as few governments are willing to surrender power or allow their territories to be par- titioned. However, as in Europe, where the emer- gence of strong supra-national organisations has enabled sub-national groupings to stake their claim to national recognition, regional economic integra- tion will allow suppressed minorities to raise demands for greater political participation. The full impact of the application of the concept of self- determination in Africa is still to come.

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