Showing papers in "African Affairs in 1997"

Winning coalitions and ethno-regional politics: the failure of the opposition in the 1990 and 1995 elections in côte d'ivoire

Abstract: Why is that former dominant or single party regimes, especially those in Africa, have generally survived and even emerged strengthened after the introduction of multi-party competitive elections? In Cote d'Ivoire since 1990 the ruling party has been able to win elections by using incumbency to present itself as the organization most likely to be capable of putting together a winning coalition. In a society segmented by a multiplicity of cultural and religious divisions and where political power is a zero-sum game, the logic of democratic representation means that no group can afford to be excluded. Yet in the 1990 and 1995 Ivorian elections the opposition attacked the ethnic character of the government and deliberately mobilized ethnic minorities, regional and religious (Islamic) sentiments. They therefore failed to escape, in electoral terms, from their extremely localized strongholds. Their attempt to mobilize around an anti-foreigner platform in 1990 rebounded in 1995 when the government itself took over their 'ultra-nationalist' stance by excluding non-Ivorians from the elections. The consequent exclusion of the opposition's favoured Presidential candidate and the failure of the opposition alliance to agree on a non-northern, non-Islamic alternative candidate led to a violent boycott and the eventual collapse of the opposition alliance. Competitive elections, party systems and the African state BETWEEN OCTOBER 1995 AND February 1996 Cote d Ivoire held its second set of multi-party competitive elections, following on the 1990 elections which had brought to an end thirty years of stable single party rule. Like many other similar states, however, such elections have had only a limited impact on the continuing dominance of the former single party; the expectations of Inany external advocates of liberal democracy that liberalization would release pent-up popular pressures for radical change or the replacement of too-comfortably entrenched political elites have, on the whole, not been met. Cote d'Ivoire therefore provides an excellent case for studying the effect of the introduction of competitive Richard Crook teaches in the Department of Politics, University of Glasgow. He is grateful to the Nuffield Foundation and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland for their generous financial support, without which the field work upon which this research is based would not have been possible. All opinions expressed are his own. An earlier version of this article was presented to the Annual Conference of the Political Studies Association of the UK Glasgow, April 1996.

'One Chief, One Vote': The Revival of Traditional Authorities in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract: This article examines the position of traditional leaders in postapartheid South Africa. It first surveys changing perspectives of chieftaincy within the ANC and its allied movements. During the apartheid era, chiefs were maligned as puppets of bantustan rule. In ANC-related circles, it was widely assumed that chieftaincy would not survive in the postapartheid era. However, towards the end of the 1980s, chiefs were reorienting themselves towards the ANC, rightly perceived as the new ruling party-in-waiting. The ANC, for its part, had an interest in wooing chiefs to its side in order to prevent the emergence of a conservative alliance where traditional leaders could join forces with the bantustan elites. Secondly, the article describes the position of traditional authorities during the present transition period (1994-1999), and the main themes of discussion in the constitutional negotiations. It looks in some detail at the situation in the Northern Province, formerly the Northern Transvaal, visited by the authors during the local elections in November 1995. The authors show that numerous chiefs have become adept in combining the resource of tradition with appeals to Western models and the discourse of liberation politics. They conclude that the position of traditional leaders in South Africa remains thoroughly ambivalent.

'Fishing farmers' or 'farming fishermen'? The quest for household income and nutritional security on the Kenyan shores of Lake Victoria

Abstract: The paper considers the relationships between fishing and farming in providing household income and nutritional security among Luo communities on the shores of the Kenyan sector of Lake Victoria. In recent years the resources of Lake Victoria have come under severe pressure due to a variety of economic and ecological factors associated with over-fishing and a significant decline in fish species. Farming has increased in importance as households attempt to meet subsistence needs, but plot fragmentation, drought and low investment have led to poor crop yields. Future development strategies need to enhance the sustainability of the resources of both lake and land, and possibly build upon traditional management methods and institutions. THIS STUDY AIMS TO SHED LIGHT upon two key issues relating to change and development in traditional African food production systems. Firstly, remarkably little has been written on the socio-economic aspects of artisanal fishing systems in Africa, in spite of the fact that fish provides a rich source of protein in a continent where there is a widespread and often chronic shortage of animal products.1 Secondly, in the face of popular media images of a continent constantly plagued by human and environmental problems, recent research has demonstrated that many traditional African food production systems are, in fact surprisingly resilient. This resilience is frequently based upon a wide range of indigenous 'coping mechanisms', the essence of which is the detailed appreciation and utilization of the filll spatial and ecological diversity of the resource base, to

The Politics of Linguistic Homogenization in Ethiopia and the Conflict Over the Status of Afaan Oromoo

Abstract: The politics of linguistic homogenization in Ethiopia and the conflict over the status of Afaan Oromoo

Forced migration, land-use change and political economy in the forest region of guinea

Abstract: This paper examines the impact of forced migration on land use change in Yomou prefecture in the forest region of Guinea from a broadly 'political economy' perspective. Focusing on the period since 1989, when over 500,000 refugees from Liberia and Sierra Leone have been present in the region, it considers the extent and mechanisms through which refugees have gained access to land in three study villages, and seeks explanations for the pattern of land use change that has occurred. This is seen as reflecting both the evolution of the agricultural economy of the region, and socio-political change in local communities. Implications for both environmental change, and the livelihoods of refugees and local communities are considered.

South african land reform: case-studies in ‘demand’ and ‘participation’ in the free state

Abstract: This article offers an ethnographic cross-section in one province of South Africa's new land reform programme. 'Demand' and 'participation' are the rhetorical keywords of the programme. Demand for land redistribution, however, cannot be understood in abstraction from the political and economic conditions of its supply. Similarly, 'participation' is a managed process involving many institutional intermediaries. A series of illustrative case-studies is presented, relating to the allocation of stateowned land; state-facilitated 'market' access to privately-owned land; the reconstruction and partial privatization of a para-statal development agency, which have brought into question the viability of a 'community conservation' project and also exposed the agency to political cross-fire; and, finally, some intricacies of the possibility of land restitution to people dispossessed under apartheid, which raises the question of whether the concept of indirect racial discrimination may be applied in the South African context. Several contradictions of the process of land redistribution are analysed: for example, the massive financial costs, direct and indirect, of bringing projects to fruition in the short term, without resolution of the need for long-term support; the divergence between nominal and actual beneficiaries; political and institutional conflicts, both inside and outside the state; and routine incompatibility between the diverse aspirations of beneficiaries and the 'business plans' required by bureaucrats and suppliers of credit. THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT is committed to a strategy of land reform that is 'demand-led' and places an emphasis on the active 'participation' of individuals and communities in decision-making. There are three principal elements of the emerging programme: the restitution of land to those who were dispossessed under apartheid laws; the redistribution of land to those who need it; and tenure reform, intended to achieve security of tenure for people holding land under diverse forms of tenure.1 The literature on the topic, both from official and unofficial sources, is already large.2 In a recent review of the politics of land reform, Richard Levin and Dan Weiner distinguished between an 'elite-pacted' process of transition, Colin Murray is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Manchester. 1. Department of Land Affairs (DLA), Green Paper on South African Land Policy (Pretoria, 1996); C. Murray, 'Land reform in the eastern Free State: Policy dilemmas and political conflicts', 3fournal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 January/April 1996), pp. 209-244. 2. For references see H. Bernstein (ed.), The Agrarian Question in South Africa, special issue of 3tournal of Peasant Studies, 23, 2/3 January/April 1996).