Guinea's Political Prisoners: Colonial Models, Postcolonial Innovation

2012 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
pp. 890-913 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mairi S. MacDonald
Keyword(s):  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Political Prisoners ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial Legacy ◽  
Administration Of Justice ◽  
Communications Theory ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Sub Saharan

AbstractMuch postcolonial theory assumes a continuity of both behavior and representation between colonial rule and what has succeeded it across sub-Saharan Africa. The maltreatment of political prisoners in Guinea in the wake of its brief invasion by Portuguese troops in November 1970 provides a challenging but ultimately fruitful empirical record against which to test this theory. I use an analytical approach informed by history, law, anthropology, and communications theory to explore continuities between the legal practices of French colonial and contemporary revolutionary regimes, on one hand, and Guinea's pursuit of supposed traitors, on the other. Though there is more discontinuity than direct inheritance in the administration of justice, the article argues that the representation of Guinea's colonial heritage was a central part of how President Sékou Touré legitimized his state and his own rule. I suggest that the colonial legacy operated more as a benchmark of what behavior might be acceptable in a postcolonial revolutionary state such as Guinea than as a linear precedent from French colonial rule to the Guinean revolution. The regime's representation of its colonial legacy also helps to explain the form, medium, and content of the political prisoners' broadcast confessions.

Francophone Africa at fifty

2013 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Colonial Period ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Comparative Perspective ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Francophone Africa ◽  
French West Africa ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Sub Saharan

2010 marked the 50th anniversary of the ‘Year of Africa’. All France’s colonies in sub-Saharan Africa gained their independence in that year. This book brings together leading scholars from across the globe to review ‘Francophone Africa at Fifty’. It examines continuities from the colonial to the post-colonial period and analyses the diverse and multi-faceted legacy of French colonial rule in sub-Saharan Africa. It also reviews the decolonization of French West Africa in comparative perspective and observes how independence is remembered and commemorated fifty years on.

Deinstitutionalization of the State and Violence in Sub-Saharan Africa: A Contribution to the Critique of the Neoinstitutionalist Analysis of Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 418-437
Author(s):  
Fernando Lopez-Castellano ◽  
Roser Manzanera-Ruiz ◽  
Carmen Lizárraga
Keyword(s):  
State Formation ◽  
Postcolonial Theory ◽  
Jel Classification ◽  
The State ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Environment ◽  
Historical Process ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Africa Rising

In recent years, a euphoric shift has taken place, typified by the narrative of “Africa rising,” which attempts to promote the idea of an economically emerging continent. In the Afro-optimist discourse, the idea is implicit that the neoliberal narrative has triumphed. However, critical voices argue that the discourse ignores the political environment under which African growth has been produced. This article critically reflects on the explanations of the neoinstitutionalist approach to development, the historical process of state formation and colonization in Africa. Following the proposal of postcolonial theory, sovereignty, tax, and violence are analyzed. Finally, the contradictory policies of the neoliberal experiment are demonstrated, which are leading to the deinstitutionalization of the State and to violence.JEL Classification: F54, F63, E02, N17

Political communication strategies of sub-Saharan Africa nationalist movements in the era of (de)colonization: The case of the UPC in Cameroon (1948‐56)

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 123-136 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Tatchou Nounkeu
Keyword(s):  
Political Communication ◽  
Communication Strategies ◽  
Communication Strategy ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Messages ◽  
Media System ◽  
French Colonial ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Masses

This article is about the political communication strategies of the Union des Populations du Cameroun (UPC), a political party in Cameroon which fought for the independence of the country. We particularly focus on the communication channels used by the UPC to transmit political messages, in a context marked by severe administrative repression and restrictions of freedom of press and expression. Theoretically, our article relies on the concept of media system. Methodologically, we use text analysis to map the choices of the UPC. The period of analysis ranges from 1948 when the UPC was created to 1956 when the party was banned by the colonial authorities. The results show that the political communication strategy of the UPC mainly gave preference to letter writing to mobilize the masses. In addition, the UPC owned several newspapers to cover its activities and criticize the French colonial administration in Cameroon.

Coalitional Presidentialism in Cross-Regional Perspective

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Chaisty ◽  
Nic Cheeseman ◽  
Timothy J. Power
Keyword(s):  
Latin America ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Former Soviet Union ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Landscape ◽  
Case Selection ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Empirical Material ◽  
Regional Perspective

This chapter introduces the three regions—sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and the Former Soviet Union—and the nine countries—Armenia, Benin, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Kenya, Malawi, Russia, and Ukraine—that provide the empirical material for the book. It introduces the two criteria used for case selection: 1) democratic competitiveness; 2) de jure and de facto constitutional provisions that empower presidents to be coalitional formateurs. It also introduces a variable that measures the salience of cross-party cooperation: the Index of Coalitional Necessity. Finally, it sketches the political landscape that has shaped the dynamics of coalitional presidentialism within each region, and it draws attention to important contextual differences between the nine country cases.

Pensée 2: The “African” in Africana/Black/African and African American Studies

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-195 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Somerville
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
African Continent ◽  
Black African ◽  
Academic Fields ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Middle East Studies ◽  
Research And Policy

In Pensée 1, “Africa on My Mind,” Mervat Hatem questions the perceived wisdom of creating the African Studies Association (focused on sub-Saharan Africa) and the Middle East Studies Association a decade later, which “institutionalized the political bifurcation of the African continent into two academic fields.” The cleaving of Africa into separate and distinct parts—a North Africa/Middle East and a sub-Saharan Africa—rendered a great disservice to all Africans: it has fractured dialogue, research, and policy while preventing students and scholars of Africa from articulating a coherent understanding of the continent.

scholarly journals Explaining the Constitutional Integration and Resurgence of Traditional Political Institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 973-995
Author(s):  
Katharina Holzinger ◽  
Florian G Kern ◽  
Daniela Kromrey
Keyword(s):  
Political Institutions ◽  
Settlement Patterns ◽  
Original Data ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Traditional Leaders ◽  
Constitutional Level ◽  
Traditional Institutions ◽  
Sub Saharan

Social scientists have recently observed a ‘resurgence’ of traditional political institutions on the constitutional level in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, the scope and causes of the resurgence remain unclear. We base our analysis on original data on the degree of constitutional integration of traditional institutions and on their constitutional resurgence since 1990 in 45 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa. We test six theoretical explanations for constitutionalization: former colonial rule, democratization, state capacity, economic development, foreign aid and settlement patterns. First, we verify the broad resurgence of traditional political institutions on a constitutional level. Second, our analysis suggests that, particularly in former British colonies, traditional leaders were able to translate the arrangements of British colonial rule as well as the advantages of a country’s deconcentrated settlement pattern into greater constitutional status. Third, settlement patterns proved important for traditional leaders to gain or increase constitutional status – leading to a constitutional resurgence of traditional institutions.

Sixty Coups in Thirty Years – Further Evidence Regarding African Military Coups d'État

1986 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 539-546 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pat McGowan ◽  
Thomas H. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Colonial State ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Past ◽  
New States ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Coups D'etat ◽  
White Minority

Decolonisation in sub-Saharan Africa began in January 1956 when the Sudan joined long-independent Ethiopia and Liberia as a new, post-colonial state. Although the process is not yet complete because of the disputed status of Namibia and South Africa's continued rule by a white minority, over the past 30 years as many as 43 new states have achieved independence from colonial rule, the most recent being Zimbabwe in April 1980.

The Making of a Petro-State

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paddy Kinyera
Keyword(s):  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Resource Extraction ◽  
The Political ◽  
Future Production ◽  
Institutional Infrastructure ◽  
Power Matrix ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The University ◽  
Postdoctoral Researcher ◽  
Multiple Cluster

This book illustrates the ways in which Uganda is transforming into an oil producing country, framed here as a ‘petro-state’. In contrast to the term’s traditional usage, here ‘petro-state’ highlights the deliberate attempt to reorient the political economy of Uganda towards its future production of oil. The expectation of ‘petro-dollars’ has compelled the state to structurally change its institutional infrastructure and attempt to reconfigure the socio-economic and spatial orientation of the population. This book presents the power relations and the dynamic struggles entangling the key actors in the process of making oil production possible in Uganda. It takes a Foucauldian approach to the question of government and power to express how the oil-related projects of development in Uganda are meant to multi-dimensionally improve the population. The author is a political geographer and currently a postdoctoral researcher involved in the ‘Africa Multiple’ Cluster of Excellence based at the University of Bayreuth, who has a keen interest in the politics of resource extraction in Sub-Saharan Africa, resource-related mobility struggles and the power matrix that produces contextually specific resource complexes.

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