Understanding African Conflicts: Theoretical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives

Abstract

On the eve of the first decade of the twenty-first century?and some fifty years after independence?many states continue to be plagued by ethnoregional conflict, while number of others are barely emerging from decades of devastating civil wars. Peace and security?essential prerequisites for democracy and development?continue to elude far too many countries. Building upon the pioneering work of Christopher Clapham in Guerillas (James Currey, 1998), Morten B0?s, Kevin Dunn, and their nine contributors?including Clapham, author of the concluding chap ter?revisit the analysis of guerilla movements. Rejecting single-fac tor explanations (such as greed, competition over resources, and cultural conflict), the editors argue for a more nuanced, holistic approach that is historically grounded and integrates multiple levels of analysis, from the local and national to the regional and global (3). Further inspired by the groundbreaking research of the anthropologist Paul Richards (No Peace, No War, James Currey, 2005), B0?s and Dunn believe that African insurgen cies are best understood as rational responses to the composition of states and their polities (4); and they approach war as a social drama over