Oil as the ‘curse’ of conflict in Africa: peering through the smoke and mirrors

Abstract

This article interrogates the framing of the resource curse as a central causal mechanism in the resource abundance–conflict nexus in Africa. It is argued that explaining such conflicts on the basis of the ways natural resources either act as an incentive/motive for rebel groups, or erode and weaken states, does not adequately capture the complex histories, dimensions and transnational linkages to civil conflict in Africa. The article lays bare the attempts by a hegemonic discourse to obfuscate the reality of the fundamental and transnational underpinnings of the resource–conflict nexus. It is argued that the resource curse perspective cannot fully explain conflict in African oil states, and rather, a case is made for an alternative model based on radical political economy which lays bare the class relations, contradictions and conflicts rooted in the subordination of the continent and its resources to transnational processes and elites embedded in globalised capitalist relations.

Keywords:

• Nigeria
• resource curse
• oil

Acknowledgements

Comments by the three anonymous reviewers on an earlier draft of this article are duly acknowledged and appreciated by the author.

Notes

Africa presently accounts for about 12% of US oil imports and that is expected to increase to 25% by 2025, making some US strategic analysts see the continent as an ‘alternative’ to dependence on an oil-rich, but volatile Middle East.

These Asian countries also consider Africa as being strategic to their global energy security concerns. China, currently the world's second largest oil importer, and India, that relies on an estimated 70% oil imports, are looking on to Africa for more oil to fuel their rapid economic growth. Both countries have framed their quest for Africa's oil within the context of an Asian aid diplomacy that is developmentalist and non-interventionist.

According to the most recent figures, as a result of the insurgency in the Niger Delta that has resulted in damage to oil infrastructure and oil production shut-ins, Nigeria has for the first time been overtaken by Angola as the continent's leading oil exporter.