Violence as politics in eastern Africa, 1940–1990: legacy, agency, contingency

Abstract

Over the 50 years between 1940 and 1990, the countries of eastern Africa were embroiled in a range of debilitating and destructive conflicts, starting with the wars of independence, but then incorporating rebellion, secession and local insurrection as the Cold War replaced colonialism. The articles gathered here illustrate how significant, widespread and dramatic this violence was. In these years, violence was used as a principal instrument in the creation and consolidation of the authority of the state, and it was also regularly and readily utilised by those who wished to challenge state authority through insurrection and secession. Why was it that eastern Africa should have experienced such extensive and intensive violence in the 50 years before 1990? Was this resort to violence a consequence of imperial rule, the legacy of oppressive colonial domination under a coercive and non-representative state system? Did essential contingencies such as the Cold War provoke and promote the use of violence? Or was it a choice made by Africans themselves and their leaders, a product of their own agency? This article focuses on these turbulent decades, exploring the principal conflicts in six key countries – Kenya, Uganda, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia and Tanzania.

Keywords:

• violence
• political violence
• eastern Africa
• Cold War
• colonial legacy
• African agency

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge with gratitude financial support from The Research Council of Norway, under project 214349/F10 ‘The Dynamics of State Failure and Violence’, administered by the Peace Research Institute Oslo. The articles gathered in this collection were first presented at the conference on ‘Struggles over emerging states in Africa’ at the University of Durham, 9–11 May 2013.

Notes

1. For three influential examples: Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy”; Klare, “The New Geography of Conflict”; Kaldor, New and Old Wars.

2. Prunier, From Genocide to Continental War; Reyntjens, Great African War; Clark, African Stakes; Khadiagala, Security Dynamics.

3. For a local discussion that puts this in perspective, see Menkhaus, “State Collapse in Somalia,” 405–22.

4. Ellis, Mask of Anarchy; Keen, Conflict and Collusion.

5. le Billon, “Angola's Political Economy of War,” 55–80.

6. Reno, Warlord Politics, 45–78.

7. For example Kalyvas, “‘New’ and ‘Old’ Civil Wars”; Reno, Warfare in Independent Africa.

8. For just a selection of studies that make this case: Lynch, I Say to You, for Kenya; Kapteijns, Clan Cleansing, 71–130, for Somalia; Johnson, Roots of Civil War, for South Sudan.

9. For a recent discussion, see Schmidt, Foreign Interventions in Africa, 57–78, 143–64.

10. For the Soviet side, see Porter, The USSR in Third World Conflicts, chaps. 2, 6, 7 and 9; Allison, Soviet Union and the Strategy of Non-alignment, 180–213; and Patman, Soviet Union in the Horn, for a case study. For US assistance, see Schmidt, Foreign Intervention; and Lefebvre, Arms for the Horn.

11. This will draw upon recently published work by Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction.”

12. Peterson and Taylor, “Rethinking the State,” 59–60.

13. Rolandsen, “A False Start,” 105–23.

14. Taha, “A Revolution but a Failed Approach.”

15. Hutchinson, Nuer Dilemmas, especially 103–57; and Hutchinson, “War through the Eyes of the Dispossessed,” 166–71.

16. Johnson, Root Causes.

17. Tronvoll, War and the Politics of Identity, 130–74; Markakis, Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers.

18. Young, Peasant Revolution.

19. Feyissa, “Power and its Discontents.”

20. Zewde, “History of the Red Terror.”

21. Tareke, “The Ethiopia-Somalia War,” 635–67; Lewis, “The Ogaden,” 573–79.

22. Markakis, Ethiopia: The Last Two Frontiers.

23. Whittaker, “A Socio-economic History,” 391–408; Branch, “Violence, Decolonisation and the Cold War,” 642–657.

24. TJRC, Report vol 2A, 101–143.

25. Branch, “Violence, Decolonisation and the Cold War,” 642–657; Bruce-Lockhart, “‘Unsound’ Minds and Broken Bodies,” 590–608. For a broader view, see Anderson, Histories of the Hanged.

26. Anderson, “Remembering Wagalla,” 658–676; Branch, Kenya, 170–1.

27. Yihun, “Ethiopian Foreign Policy,” 677–691.

28. Kapteijns, Clan Cleansing, 75.

29. Kasozi, Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 88–104.

30. Amnesty International, Human Rights in Uganda, 13.

31. Gould, “Violence and Sovereignty in Amin's Uganda,” 4.

32. Kasozi, Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 4, for a discussion.

33. For what remains a highly informative study of these events, see Hansen and Twaddle, Uganda Now, especially the chapters by Kanyeihamba, “Power that Rode Naked,” 70–82; and Edmonds, ‘Crisis Management,” 95–110. On Amin, see also: Peterson and Taylor, “Rethinking the State,” 58–82; and Decker, “Sometimes You May Leave Your Husband,” 125–42.

34. Kasozi, Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 4–5.

35. Lofchie, Zanzibar; Speller, “An African Cuba?”; Glassman, War of Words, War of Stones.

36. Jennings, Surrogates of the State; Jennings, “Almost an Oxfam in Itself.”

37. Roberts, “The Uganda-Tanzania War,” 692–709.

38. Stiff, The Silent War, 47–50.

39. Kalyvas, “The Ontology of Political Violence,” 475–94.

40. Cunningham and Lemke, “Combining Civil and Interstate Wars,” 609–27.

41. Reid, Frontiers of Violence.

42. Apter, Political Kingdom.

43. Donham, Marxist Modern.

44. Scott, Seeing Like a State, seems sharply relevant to eastern Africa's experience since the 1960s, perhaps especially in regard to Ethiopia.

45. Burton and Jennings, “The Emperor's New Clothes?” 1–25; Branch, Cheeseman, and Gardner, Our Turn to Eat, Introduction; and Schneider, “Colonial Legacies and Postcolonial Authoritarianism in Tanzania.”

46. Whittaker, “A Socio-economic History,” 391–408; Anderson, “Remembering Wagalla,” 658–676; Hagmann, “Punishing the Periphery,” 725–739; and Peterson, “Violence and Political Advocacy.”

47. This exemplified for the region in the work of Hyden, Beyond Ujamaa.

48. Wiebel, “Let the Red Terror Intensify,” for a study that discusses this explicitly.

49. Anderson, “Remembering Wagalla,” 658–676.

50. Roberts, “The Uganda-Tanzania War,” 692–709.

51. Yihun, “Ethiopian Foreign Policy,” 677–691; and Aalen, “Ethiopian State Support,” 626–641.

52. Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction,” 2. And see Kalyvas, Logic of Violence, especially the introduction.

53. Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction,” 3–4.

54. Burton and Jennings, “The Emperor's New Clothes?” 8.

55. TJRC, Report vol 2A; and Gould, “Violence and Sovereignty in Amin's Uganda,” for examples.

56. World Bank, Development Report 2011, xi. This definition is also used by Menkhaus, “Calm before the Storms?” 558–572.

57. Menkhaus, “Calm before the Storms?” 558–572.

58. Burton and Jennings, “The Emperor's New Clothes?” 4–9.

59. Rolandsen and Leonardi, “Discourses of Violence,” 609–625.

60. Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction,” 6.

61. This paraphrases and enlarges upon the case made in Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction,” 3.

62. Mazrui, Soldiers and Kinsmen.

63. For an excellent synthesis of this literature, see Nugent, Africa since Independence, 204–59.

64. Anderson and Killingray, Policing and Decolonisation, 1–21.

65. Parsons, The 1964 Army Mutinies, 169–75.

66. On Amin, Leopold, Inside West Nile, 49–67; on Barre, Laitin and Samatar, Somalia, 79–80.

67. Anderson, “Exit from Empire.”

68. Westad, Global Cold War, 250–87.

69. Yordanov, “Soviet Policy in the Horn of Africa.”

70. Huggins, Haritos-Fatouros, and Zimbardo, Violence Workers. For an eastern African application, see Anderson “British Abuse and Torture,” 700–719.

71. Kasozi, Social Origins of Violence in Uganda, 112–116; Compagnon, “Resources Politiques.”

72. Blocq, “The Grassroots Nature,” 710–724.

73. Kuol, “Political Violence,” 573–589.

74. Johnson, Root Causes.

75. Rolandsen, Guerrilla Government.

76. Young, Peasant Revolution; Reid, Frontiers of Violence.

77. Leonardi, Dealing with Government; Heald, Controlling Anger; Rolandsen and Leonardi, “Discourses of Violence,” 609–625.

78. Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction,” 7–9.

79. Jackson and Dexter, “Social Construction,”, 7.