COLD WAR IN GUINEA: THE RASSEMBLEMENT DÉMOCRATIQUE AFRICAIN AND THE STRUGGLE OVER COMMUNISM, 1950–1958

2007 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 95-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH SCHMIDT
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Equatorial Africa ◽  
Political Left ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The Cold War

When the Cold War broke out in Western Europe at the end of the Second World War, France was a key battleground. Its Cold War choices played out in the empire as well as in the métropole. After communist party ministers were ousted from the tripartite government in 1947, repression against communists and their associates intensified – both in the Republic and overseas. In French sub-Saharan Africa, the primary victims of this repression were members of the Rassemblement Démocratique Africain (RDA), an interterritorial alliance of political parties with affiliates in most of the 14 territories of French West and Equatorial Africa, and in the United Nations trusts of Togo and Cameroon. When, under duress, RDA parliamentarians severed their ties with the Parti Communiste Français (PCF) in 1950, grassroots activists in Guinea opposed the break. Their voices muted throughout most of the decade, Leftist militants regained preeminence in 1958, when trade unionists, students, the party's women's and youth wings, and other grassroots actors pushed the Guinean RDA to reject a constitution that would have relegated the country to junior partnership in the French Community, and to proclaim Guinea's independence instead. Guinea's vote for independence, and its break with the interterritorial RDA in this regard, were the culmination of a decade-long struggle between grassroots activists on the political Left and the party's territorial and interterritorial leadership for control of the political agenda.

scholarly journals The Ogaden War: Somali women’s roles

Afrika Focus ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Remco Van Hauwermeiren
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Key Words ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
The Political ◽  
Front Line ◽  
Care Givers ◽  
Somali Women ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Ethiopian Region ◽  
The Cold War

In 1977 Somalia invaded Ethiopia hoping to seize the Ogaden, an Ethiopian region predominantly inhabited by ethnic Somali. Histories of this event are rare and focus exclusively on the political and military aspects of the conflict. This is not surprising given the Cold War backdrop of the conflict. This article, however, shifts the focus away from the political towards the personal. Focus here is on the different roles Ogadeni women took up in the Somali-Ethiopian war, also known as the Ogaden war. Through interviews with former actors in the conflict it became clear that women occupied a range of roles in the war, varying from victims or care-givers to active participants in militias and front-line combat. In conflicts today, Somali women still retain many of these roles. Originally some Somalis did oppose this state of affairs, today most seem to have accepted the phenomenon of female actors in the Ogaden war, even though that approval can be linked with a political agenda. Both Ogadeeni and Somali women were active in the war, transcending Somali clan lines along the way. Accounts of the women interviewed illustrate the effects of their choice to participate in the Ogaden war. Key words: Ogaden, Somalia, Ethiopia, gender, women’s history 

Response to Slater review ofCompetitive Authoritarianism: Hybrid Regimes after the Cold War

2011 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 388-389
Author(s):  
Steven Levitsky ◽  
Lucan A. Way
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Historical Time ◽  
Hybrid Regimes ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
International Environment ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Cold War

Dan Slater offers thoughtful and incisive comments. We respond here to three of his points. The first is that by limiting our study to the post–Cold War period, we convert it into a “period piece,” akin to studies of fascist and communist regimes. Although this may be true, a historically bounded analysis is essential because of the changing character of the international environment. World historical time powerfully shapes regime outcomes. The prospects for democracy and authoritarianism during the Cold War, which was marked by global superpower rivalry, differed dramatically from those during periods of Western liberal hegemony. During the Cold War, for example, nearly all military coups ushered in authoritarian rule; after 1989, nearly 70 percent of coups led to multiparty elections In 1989, single-party rule predominated in Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa; five years later, it had disappeared.

African Junta and Defence Spending: A Capture Effect or Self-preservation?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oasis Kodila-Tedika ◽  
Sherif Khalifa
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Military Spending ◽  
Military Expenditure ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Capture Effect ◽  
Defence Spending ◽  
Negative Effect ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Cold War

Abstract This paper examines the effect of the presence of a military ruler on military expenditure using a panel of sub-Saharan Africa countries. The paper also explores whether the relationship reflects a capture effect, is an outcome of the confrontational climate of the cold war or is a self-preservation effort by military rulers. The panel data estimations show that the presence of a military ruler has a statistically significant negative effect on military spending as a percentage of GDP. The coefficients are also not significantly different before or after the end of the cold war era. This implies that the negative relationship is driven by an effort by military rulers to preempt the ability of their peers to overthrow them from power. We also attempt to deal with potential endogeneity and consider the possibility of persistence in military spending. The paper uses the Arellano and Bond (1991) estimation technique that shows a negative but insignificant effect of the presence of a military ruler on military expenditure, while military spending shows a high degree of persistence.

The ODA Charter and changing objectives of Japan's aid policy in Sub-Saharan Africa

1999 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 409-430 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bolade M. Eyinla
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
The United States ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
International Peace ◽  
Post Cold War ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Aid Policy ◽  
East West

The end of the Cold War freed donors' aid policies from the co-ordinate system of East/West competition around the world. As a result, it was no longer necessary for the United States and its allies to continue providing aid on ideological grounds and/or geo-strategic needs. In the post-Cold War era, it became necessary for donor countries to evolve new rationales to convince their sceptical publics of the continued necessity for aid. One such new rationale was the imperative of promoting democracy and good governance as a way of guaranteeing international peace and security. This article examines the Japanese response to this development by identifying the factors that led to the inauguration of the ODA Charter. Thereafter, the content and intent of the Charter is examined and its application in Sub-Saharan Africa is analysed to highlight the changing objectives of Japanese aid policy in the continent.

scholarly journals Democracy and Authoritarianism in Sub-Saharan Africa

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Yates
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Institutions ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
External Support ◽  
Colonial Rule ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
The Cold War

The end of colonial rule in Africa brought into existence new independent states that lacked both effective government institutions and modern national identities. Postcolonial African leaders therefore immediately faced the dual challenges of state-building and nation-building. Most started out by adopting democratic constitutions copied from their European colonizers, but then quickly descended into various forms of authoritarianism. Many reasons account for this, including the legacy of authoritarianism inherent to colonial rule, the ideological battles of the Cold War, the organizational advantages of the military, ethno-political competition, and even traditional patterns of political culture. Authoritarian rule thus became the central tendency of African politics during the Cold War, until the “Third Wave of Democratization” in the 1990s ushered in a new age of constitutionalism, rule of law, multiparty elections, and alternance of power. Today the norm is democracy, albeit flawed, with most African governments coming to power through competitive elections, and most rulers following civilian rather than military careers. But the struggle for democracy has not been entirely successful, with major reversals appearing frequently in every region. First, certain rulers have successfully established family dynasties, or ethnic clan-based systems of neo-patrimonial rule. Next, new military rulers have come to power through coups d’état, or as warlords in failed or collapsed states. Finally, parties and presidents have learned how to survive the advent of multiparty elections. Denying basic freedoms of association, speech, and the press are instruments of such “illiberal” democracies. Others are manipulating registration lists, denying voters’ rights, and engaging in fraudulent counts. Political scientists working on the continent today recognize that many authoritarian rulers have simply learned how to master and manipulate the new environment of democracy. Articles, conference papers, and books about the growing phenomenon of post-election violence, both as an outcome of discontent and as a campaign technique, are becoming something of a new sub-literature bridging the disciplines of conflict resolution and electoral studies, joining other more positive new thinking about democracy that has focused attention on the development of “civil society,” and in its more radical variant, “social movements,” in democracy building. The critique that Western democracy may not be suitable for Africa, as well as responsive scholarship on alternative forms of government based on indigenous cultural experience, raises the possibility that elections may not be the only democratic game in town. Looking at recent elections, more countries in Africa are experiencing democratic decline than democratic gains: part of a current global trend. Yet many of the most important states in Africa are consolidating their democracies, demonstrating that democratic suitability to African conditions depends on the quality of leaders, political institutions, and continued external support.

Ethnic Parties and Their Candidates Matter

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Karleen Jones West
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
The Political ◽  
Review Of The Literature ◽  
Legislative Elections ◽  
Campaign Strategies ◽  
Ethnic Parties ◽  
Niche Parties ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Party Behavior

This chapter argues that ethnic parties are a type of niche party, while highlighting the political relevance of ethnic parties and providing data on ethnic parties that compete in legislative elections around the world (in Asia, Canada and Western Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, and sub-Saharan Africa). The chapter then explains how the extant literature on ethnic parties is limited because it ignores the behavior of individual candidates campaigning in their districts. A review of the literature on party behavior shows how individual campaign strategies connect with those goals. The chapter concludes by discussing the innovative methodologies this book uses to demonstrate how individual candidates matter in elections; the text also provides an overview of how the rest of the book advances the view that niche parties are similar to other parties in their behavior, largely because they are constrained by the strategies that individual candidates adopt.

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