A BRIEF HISTORY OF CONFLICT IN AFRICA

INTRODUCTION

Violent conflict escalated in Africa in 2014, with five sub-Saharan states – the Central African Republic (CAR), Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan – accounting for an estimated 75% of all conflict-related deaths on the continent. This unit aims to introduce learners to the state of conflict in Africa through history up to the present, following certain discernable phases. It will focus particularly on the present stage of conflict in Africa, starting with the end of the Cold War. It will assist learners to gain and deep understanding of the nature and causes of modern conflict in Africa. Some brief case studies of major conflicts in Africa are also provided as reference points.

 PRE-COLONIAL HISTORY

The history of Africa as a continent is replete with conflict. (Alabi, 2006:41). One may even assert that the major current that runs through Africa: from North to South, East to West and Central is conflict and wars. Since the 1960’s, series of civil wars had taken place in Africa. Examples include: Sudan (1995-1990), Chad (1965-85), Angola since 1974, Liberia (1980- 2003), Nigeria (1967-70), Somalia (1999-93) and Burundi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone (1991-2001).

The continent of Africa has been highly susceptible to intra and inter- state wars and conflicts. This has prompted the insinuation that Africa is the home of wars and instability. Most pathetic about these conflagrations is that they have defied any meaningful solution and their negative impacts have retarded growth and development in Africa while an end to them seems obscure.

The military history of Northern Africa was closely intertwined with that of its neighbours bordering on the Mediterranean Sea. Egypt was one of The four^. major sites of the rise of civilizations in its own right, dominating the region arid maintaining its own standing army. Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia) battled for centuries with the Greeks, and Alexander the Great went on to conquer Egypt. Rome, however, began to emerge as the dominant power in the Mediterranean, conquering North Africa in 146 BC. Following the decline of the Roman Empire Arab armies began conquering much of Northern Africa, which eventually came under the nominal control of the Ottoman Empire, although powerful independent states, such as Morocco, did emerge.

Sub-Saharan Africa, on the other hand, was largely isolated from the northern ancient civilisations by the Sahara Desert. Settlers began spreading down the Rift Valley from Ethiopia and the introduction of the camel from Asia around 100 BC allowed the expansion of trade routes across the Sahara. These developments saw the movement of iron tools and weapons into sub-Saharan Africa. This was one of the triggers for the colonization and development of much of southern Africa by Bantu-speaking peoples from Nigeria over the first millennium AD.

Powerful Bantu states began to emerge in the second millennium AD, such as the Great Zimbabwe, the Congo, and the Lunda. Ethiopia also emerged as a powerful independent Christian state, despite being largely surrounded by the influence of Islam. Arab traders and colonists also established their presence in East Africa following Indian Ocean trade routes.

Conflict at this point was largely related to the expansion of dominant states and small-scale conflicts between pastoralists and agriculturalists over access to resources. The emergence of the slave trade first by the Arabs, and later by the Europeans (first the Portuguese, but later the Dutch, English and the French) brought about major changes to the nature of conflict in Africa.

African communities did practice slavery prior to the arrival of foreign slave traders, but the slaves were mainly prisoners from intertribal conflict, and many were eventually integrated. The external slave trade, however, saw the acquisition of slaves for sale as a cause of conflict, with dominant states and tribes attacking their neighbours for the purpose of capturing as many slaves as possible which would be sold to the Arab and European slave traders based in coastal forts.

The Colonial Era

The 1800s saw the first major move by foreign powers to enter and dominate the African interior, spurred largely by the demand for resources and markets created by the industrialisation process in Europe. European powers began pushing further inland, beginning with the Dutch settlers in Cape Colony and the French in Algeria. This process intensified in the late 1800s, with the British invading parts of western (primarily Nigeria), northern (Egypt and the Sudan), eastern (Kenya and Uganda) and southern (from Cape Colony through to
 Rhodesia) Africa, the French colonised large parts of northern and Western Africa, and the Portuguese took over Mozambique and Angola.

Other European countries joined in what became known as the ‘Scramble for Africa’, including Italy (Libya, Somaliland and Eritrea), Belgium (Congo), Germany (East Africa, Southwest Africa and Cameroon.

Violence associated with the process of colonisation and the numerous organised resistance movements that broke out in response to colonisation dominated conflict in Africa from the late 1800s onwards, in many areas until their independence. King Leopold’s (Belgium) colonisation of the Congo was particularly brutal, and is thought to have resulted in as many as 10 million deaths between 1880 and 1920 — half of the entire population.

Only Liberia (which had already in effect been colonised by freed American slaves and by the American Firestone Company). and Ethiopia maintained some form of independence. The First World War had some impact on Africa, with soldiers brought to Europe to fight on behalf of their colonial masters, and African colonies becoming staging grounds for proxy clashes. The defeat of Germany saw its colonies transferred to the control of neighbouring colonial powers.

Independence and the Cold War

The Second World War showed that colonialism was no longer tenable. French military defeat to Germany and British defeats to a non-white enemy (Japan) made it difficult for the colonial powers to reassert control and return to ‘business as usual’ after the war. Independence in most cases was a somewhat rushed affair, and preparations for self-rule by the colonial powers were hopelessly inadequate. Infrastructure was poor, and indigenous Africans had been almost entirely denied tertiary education and positions of responsibility in the colonial government.

The fact that borders had originally been drawn without any regard for ethnic or linguistic identities also contributed to a crisis of legitimacy for the newly installed governments in many newly independent states. Furthermore, just as the European colonists had exploited the colonies, many of the new indigenous rulers continued the practice, following patronage politics and blurring the line between public and personal benefit. Repressive dictatorships continued to dominate African politics for the following decades, and it was not until 1991 that an incumbent president was defeated at the polls (first in Benin).

 All of these were contributing factors in the violence in Africa in the decades following independence. Breakaway attempts by southern Sudan (Sudan), Biafra (Nigeria), Katanga (Congo) and Eritrea (Ethiopia) resulted in major civil wars. On top of these internal factors, the Cold War cast a large shadow over the continent, as the USA and USSR battled for influence in Africa. In this sense, the term ‘Cold War’ is somewhat misleading, for although direct conflict between the two superpowers did not occur, numerous ‘hot’ proxy wars did occur in Africa and elsewhere. Each found (or installed) allies in power and supported them with weapons, loans and other support regardless of how corrupt or repressive they were.

 US support for Mobutu Sese-Seko in Zaire, and Soviet support for Mengistu Haile Mariam in Ethiopia are key examples. Where a government perceived to be hostile was in power, the superpower would often militarily and financially support rebel groups, perpetuating civil war. In Angola, for example, the USA supported the rebel group UNITA against the Soviet-backed government.

Cold War politics also overlapped with the apartheid politics of the regional power, South Africa, which affected the conflicts in Mozambique, Angola, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The end of the Cold War at the end of the 1980s was to change all this. The Soviet Union collapsed together with the intense superpower rivalry that had gripped the world for more than 40 years. The political importance that the USA and the former Soviet Union had attached to Africa began to disappear. Governments and rebel movements alike found themselves of being unable to access resources and support from their former patron super- powers. This led to changes in the nature of conflict that continue to this day.

1.      What feature of the transition to independence let to conflict in Africa?

What impact did the cold war have on conflict in Africa?