Nationalism, Globalization, and Africa

Nationalism, Globalization, and Africa

Also by Michael Amoah Reconstructing the Nation in Africa: the Politics of Nationalism in Ghana (2007)

Nationalism, Globalization, and Africa Michael Amoah

nationalism, globalization, and africa Copyright Michael Amoah, 2011. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2011 978-0-230-10284-2 All rights reserved. First published in 2011 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the World, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-28731-4 DOI 10.1057/9781137002167 ISBN 978-1-137-00216-7 (ebook) Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Amoah, Michael. Nationalism, globalization, and Africa / Michael Amoah. p. cm. 1. Africa Politics and government. 2. Nationalism Africa. 3. Globalization Africa. 4. Africa Foreign relations. I. Title. JQ1875.A76 2011 320.54096 dc23 2011031574 A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Integra Software Services First edition: December 2011

Contents List of Maps Preface Acknowledgements 1 Theorizing on Nationalism 1 2 Supranationalisms and Globalization: The Contours and Subcontours of Power and Trade Alliances 17 3 Global Governance and the Politics of Handling Conflict: Sudan, Kosovo, and South Ossetia 27 4 Africa and China 41 5 Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, and Cote d Ivoire 47 6 South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, and Kenya 97 7 Guinea, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, and Egypt 133 8 Tanzania, Botswana, and Ghana 175 9 Union Government of Africa 201 10 International Politics of Africa 209 Notes 219 Bibliography 245 Index 257 vii ix xiii

List of Maps Map of Sudan 49 Map of Somalia 65 Map of Uganda 72 Map of South Africa 98 Map of Angola 107 Map of Cameroon 151 Map of Egypt 167 Map of Tanzania 177 Map of Ghana 190 Political Map of Africa 2010 202

Preface This book presents an overview of global politics and discussions on international political economy vis-à-vis Africa. The content includes an indepth discussion of Africa s identity-related conflicts of supranational import, and their handling by the institutions of global governance such as the United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court, amidst the competing interests of supranational entities across the globe. Nationalism is always at play in the ensuing national and international politics, and supranationalism has demonstrated itself to be the most potent force against global governance and globalization. Supranational expressions, as well as hegemonic nationalistic expressions, and their competing interests, counteract the aims of global governance in politics, economics and trade. Hence, this book has devoted Chapter 1 to the Theories of Nationalism. In addition to setting the scene, the chapter debates to what extent the Theories of Nationalism are applicable to the realities of national and international politics, globalization, and Africa. The chapter discusses why and how the theorizing has assumed, and among other things examines the work of Hans Kohn, who sparked off the controversial ethnic versus civic dichotomy of nationalism that has bogged debates on nationalism to date, including what constitutes a nation, and when nationalism began. Subsequently, Chapter 2 identifies the supranationalisms within the mesh of globalization, their contours and subcontours of power and trade alliances in global politics. Consequently, Chapter 3 deals with global governance, the United Nations system, and what happens when the rubber hits the road, using the handling of the Sudanese conflict as a case study. The chapter includes discussions on the unilateral declarations of independence by Kosovo and South Ossetia in 2008 to reflect on some supranational polarizations in global governance. Almost tangentially, but relevantly, Chapter 4 handles the development of the relationship between Africa and China, and discusses this new relationship,which is in competition with the existing postcolonial partnership with the West.

x Preface In 2008, I drew up a list of African countries with identical political issues, long-running problems, or increasingly difficult political circumstances, ridden by or driven to conflict, some of which I termed as ticking time bombs, in order to examine their internal political problems plus the interface with the international system, global governance, and globalization. Sudan, Somalia, Uganda, Cote d Ivoire, South Africa, Angola, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Guinea, Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville, Cameroon, and Egypt, which are discussed in Chapters 5, 6, and 7, featured on that list. I subsequently adopted Tanzania, Botswana, and Ghana as three counterbalancing cases, which feature in Chapter 8. The bombs that were ticking in Egypt, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Uganda exploded in the course of authoring: these countries are of course featured in detail, in the same measure as those yet to explode. It became clear that all of the countries with serial political difficulties, including those termed as time bombs ticking, are more or less one-party states. This was such a common phenomenon that even the safest country on the continent, Botswana, which is consistently at the top of the Ibrahim Index on African Governance, is effectively a one-party state. The comparative analyses from the economic, peace, and human development indicators, as well as the ensuing security challenges, demonstrated that the state of governance reeling from these one-party states, which also had long-duration Presidents in some cases, was the root cause of the poor indicators, even if Botswana had escaped this negative aspect. The smooth development of nationalism has been affected in all of the countries with governance problems. It is recognized that forms of nationalism, particularly supranationalism, constitute the bane of globalization. However, in all of the case study countries, the state of the national political economy has been borne by the state of national governance, or that the exact political context has led to the current economic and social state of affairs, even if international politics cannot be taken out of the equation. More often than not, the head of state was too long in power, and had exceeded their terms of office constitutionally or unconstitutionally, but the other trend is that most of such countries in Africa are francophone. Indeed, the political time bombs that were ticking in Guinea, Cote d Ivoire, Niger, and Mauritania have already exploded, even if Mauritania and Niger, where coups occurred in August 2008 and February 2010, respectively, are not discussed in this book. Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville and Camerroon which feature in Chapter 6 are still ticking. We also find that unresolved constitutional crises led to political disasters. Kenya s constitutional debacle was resolved in August 2010, and Kenya can expect clear-cut elections in 2012. The continual lack of resolution to a Zimbabwean constitution, even under a power-sharing government, is the

Preface xi recipe for the imminent trouble at the next elections. The discriminatory concept of ivoirité, which was not fully resolved in Cote d Ivoire s constitutional development, contributed to the decade-long political chaos that culminated in the postelectoral deadlock in December 2010. Even where secular nationalism had kept the lid on religious fundamentalism, the December 2010 popular uprising in Tunisia that ousted President Ben Ali, created a domino effect in Algeria, and particularly Egypt, where President Mubarak had been in power for 30 years, and yet preferred his son to be his replacement. Mubarak was subsequently ousted in February 2011 by popular revolt. The current of International Political Economy runs through the whole book, and for each country case study, the global or international indicators of governance, human development, peace, corruption, and terrorism are discussed using the respective Ibrahim Index on African Governance, the Global Peace Index, the Corruption Perceptions Index, the Human Development Index, and where relevant the Maplecroft Terror Risk Index. The discussions on national political economies, international political economy, and the rankings on global indexes do bring out both the national and international perspectives and implications. The discussions also include the analyses on the security situations facing each country, including the new security challenges in the areas of health, food, energy, climate change, or natural and artificial disasters. The book then swings back to what remains of the global discussions, including the road map toward the United Government of Africa in Chapter 9. Subsequently, Chapter 10 discusses economic partnership agreements, and other politics of trade in the arena of the World Trade Organization, such as the DDA, the development of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) new cartel within world trade, and of course the global market slump that followed the raising of the United States debt ceiling on August 2, 2011.

Acknowledgements I am grateful to Palgrave Macmillan, and I am very pleased to acknowledge the staff for their part in getting this book on to the shelves: particularly Sarah Whalen, for her professionalism to customer service, and the editor, Chris Chappell, for extending the text limit in order to accommodate further discussion on certain countries that were constantly in the news and had assumed such a high profile that excluding their update would have been a disservice to analysis. I am also grateful to Joel Breuklander and the production team who meticulously handled the copy-editing process behind the scenes. I acknowledge the acquisitions, the art and design, and the marketing and sales staff who have worked together to bring the book, and its jacket design, to a perfect finish and as an international sales product. Many thanks to Laurie Harting for overseeing the process of signing the contract at the beginning. Michael Amoah