Ethnic Groups in Conflict

Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the legacy of late colonialism

Focusing on the examples of Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Zaire, this text demonstrates how African rulers hold on to power while severed from foreign aid and subjected to collapsing economies and disappearing bureaucracies.

Warlord Politics and African States

1. Twilight Institutions - An Introduction: Christian Lund (International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 2. Twilight Institutions. Public Authority And Local Politics In Africa: Christian Lund (International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 3. The Politics Of Vigilance In South-Eastern Nigeria: David Pratten (Oxford University). 4. Reordering Society. Vigilantism And Sovereign Expressions In Port Elizabeth's Townships: Lars Buur (Danish Institute for International Studies and Research Associate, Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research, Johannesburg South Africa). 5. Negotiating Authority - Between Unhcr And 'The People': Simon Turner (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen). 6. "It Was Satan That Took The People": The Making Of Public Authority In Burkina Faso: Sten Hagberg (Uppsala University). 7. Dealing With The Local State. The Informal Privatization Of Street-Level Bureaucracies In Senegal: Giorgio Blundo (Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Marseille). 8. Decentralization, Local Taxation And Citizenship In Senegal: Kristine Juul (Institute of Geography and International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 9. Contested Sources Of Authority. Re-Claiming State Sovereignty By Formalizing Traditional Authority In Mozambique: Lars Buur (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen) and Helene Maria Kyed (Danish Institute for International Studies, Copenhagen and International Development Studies, Roskilde University). 10. Statemaking And The Politics Of The Frontier In Central Benin: Pierre-Yves Le Meur (Groupe de recherche et d'echanges technologiques, Paris and IRD, Montpellier). 11. Decentralization, the state and conflicts over local boundaries in North-Western Ghana: Carola Lentz (Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz). 12. Strong Bar, Weak State? Lawyers, Liberalism And State Formation In Zambia: Jeremy Gould (University of Helsinki).

Twilight Institutions: Public Authority and Local Politics in Africa

How do a few Third World political movements become global causes celebres, while most remain isolated? This book rejects dominant views that needy groups readily gain help from selfless nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). Instead, they face a Darwinian struggle for scarce resources where support goes to the savviest, not the neediest. Examining Mexico's Zapatista rebels and Nigeria's Ogoni ethnic group, the book draws critical conclusions about social movements, NGOs, and 'global civil society'.

The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism

Economies of war underpinned by greed and opportunities have been posited to underlie causality, dynamics and the sustenance of conflicts and particularly Africa’s resource wars. The study examines the economy of conflict in the resource conflicts in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It was found that a conflict economy comprising an intensive and violent struggle for resource opportunities, inter and intra communal/ethnic conflicts over resources and the theft and trading in refined and crude oil has blossomed since the 1990s. The paper examines the interfaces between the Nigerian state, multi-national oil companies, the international community and youth militias with the economy. It was found that though the economy did not cause the conflict, it has become a part of the resistance and a resource for sustaining it. The economy underpins an extensive proliferation of arms and the institutions of violence and the pervasiveness of crime, violence and communal/ethnic conflicts.

/pdf/the-economy-of-conflict-in-the-oil-rich-niger-delta-region-2i8kxi7cx2.pdf

The Economy of Conflict in the Oil Rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Economies of war underpinned by greed and opportunities have been posited to underlie causality, dynamics and the sustenance of conflicts and particularly Africa’s resource wars. The study examines the economy of conflict in the resource conflicts in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It was found that a conflict economy comprising an intensive and violent struggle for resource opportunities, inter and intra communal/ethnic conflicts over resources and the theft and trading in refined and crude oil has blossomed since the 1990s. The paper examines the interfaces between the Nigerian state, multi-national oil companies, the international community and youth militias with the economy.
It was found that though the economy did not cause the conflict, it has become a part of the resistance and a resource for sustaining it. The economy underpins an extensive proliferation of arms and the institutions of violence and the pervasiveness of crime, violence and communal/ethnic conflicts.

Civil society has been associated with challenges and popular struggles for state and democratic reforms. Though these may relate to the articulation of substantive ethnic, regional and communal demands, few studies have addressed the dynamics and ramifications of their engagement in struggles other than democratisation. This study focuses on the ramifications of the entrance of civil society into a regional resource agitation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The study finds that civil society has flowered, taken over and escalated the struggle and constructed itself into a solid formation of regional resistance. Civil groups have reconstructed the agitation into a broad, participatory, highly mobilised and coordinated struggle and redirected it into a struggle for self-determination, equity and civil and environmental rights. The study denotes the roles that civil society can play in the sociopolitical process and reveals the dynamics of their encounters with the state and multinational corporations.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022278X01003676

Civil society, oil and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria: ramifications of civil society for a regional resource struggle

Civil society has been a central force in political and economic reforms. The activities and even proliferation of civil groups have been seen by several authors as vital to the democratisation project and its sustenance. Only a few scholars have pointed to the roles that civil groups may play in undermining democracy and national stability. In Nigeria, civil society was in the vanguard of the democratic struggle, but recent events are pointing to the negative roles played by some civil groups in the construction of platforms for ethnic militancy and violent confrontation with other groups and the state. Based on evidence from three cases of civil groups, the paper identifies goals, methods, strategies and tendencies that indicate intense primordialism, militancy and violence. The study finds that in plural societies, civil society may become so parochial, divisive, divergent and disarticulative that it actually undermines democracy.

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0022278X0100355X

The perverse manifestation of civil society: evidence from Nigeria

The resource agitations and conflicts in the oil rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria that were originally civil and communal have since been transformed into armed struggles conducted by disparate youth militia groups. Crime, violence and insecurity, state militarization, ethnic militia-ization and communal and ethnic wars now pervade the re- gion. The study analyzed the youth militancy and militias in the context of deep economic and resource crises and found that multinational oil company strategies and state repression conduced the emergence and consolidation of the militia phenomenon from the youth who are plagued by unemployment and poverty. The study also found that infiltration of political elites, loss of focus and poor control have combined to turn the militias into perpetrators of crime, violence and insecurity and agents of private interests and greed. The consequences of militancy and militia-ization have been very disruptive and devastative to the economy, gov- ernance, inter-group relations, communal cohesion and security of the Niger Delta region.

/pdf/beyond-the-threshold-of-civil-struggle-youth-militancy-and-3iw8qoc12c.pdf

Augustine Ikelegbe

Papers

The Economy of Conflict in the Oil Rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

The Economy of Conflict in the Oil Rich Niger Delta Region of Nigeria

Civil society, oil and conflict in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria: ramifications of civil society for a regional resource struggle

The perverse manifestation of civil society: evidence from Nigeria

Beyond the Threshold of Civil Struggle: Youth Militancy and the Militia-Ization of the Resource Conflicts in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria