Reflections on Political Conflict, Rebellion, and Revolution in Africa

Abstract

The great upheavals that Africa has witnessed since the turn of the century have stimulated a flourishing variety of historical writings on revolution, rebellion, guerrilla warfare, conflict, and various other forms of collective political action. It would, therefore, be both useless and presumptuous for me to attempt to rewrite the history of these great turmoils in the light of a number of new studies, some of which are excellent. However, it is in order to recall that this ‘tearing and battering’ happened while the new states were fast transforming themselves from a ‘traditional’ to a ‘modern’ political life, when commercial expansion began to draw Africans into national and international markets, and when communal groupings gradually began to give way to broader associations.