Berlin Conference Research Articles

International and legal regulation of the application of satisfaction as a form of political responsibility of states

The paper attempts to determine the principles of international legal regulation of the application of satisfaction as a form of political responsibility in international law. Theoretical provisions regarding the international legal regulation of the application of satisfaction as one of the forms of political responsibility according to international law are analyzed. Four forms of satisfaction were analyzed, which were derived by the famous researcher Patrick Dumberry from the University of Ottawa: The first - the responsible state simply apologized or officially expressed regret for committing an illegal act; The second - the state punished the representative or person responsible for the act; The third is when a judicial body makes a statement about the illegality of an action taken by the state. The fourth is monetary satisfaction. Satisfaction may be accompanied by symbolic material compensation for moral damage. The draft articles on the responsibility of states for internationally wrongful acts developed by the UN International Law Commission (adopted by UN General Assembly resolution A/RES/56/83) were analysed. Thus, it is determined that the forms of compensation (reparation) are restitution, compensation and satisfaction: both separately and in combination (Article 34). Article 37 of the Articles on the Responsibility of States for Internationally Wrongful Acts of 2001 deals with satisfaction as a form of compensation for damages, which refers to the first type of satisfaction mentioned above. The practice of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations regarding ordinary satisfaction was considered - the case "Bosnia and Herzegovina v. Serbia and Montenegro" (2007), the case "Rainbow Warrior", the case "Corfu Channel", the case "Armed activities on the territory of the Congo (Democratic Republic of Congo v. Uganda)" . An example of the implementation of extraordinary satisfaction in international law is considered - the Declaration on the Defeat of Germany and the Decision of the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference. Based on the presented material, it was concluded that the application of satisfaction is confirmed by international judicial practice, in particular, by examples of declarative statements. The decisions of the International Court of Justice of the United Nations on the award of satisfaction are widely accepted, to some extent because the condemnation of an internationally wrongful act by an authoritative third party aims to achieve a balance between the interests of the parties in a particular case, on the one hand, and the fundamental interests of the international community, on the other.

The “Open Sore of America”: Race and the American Congo Reform Movement, 1885–1908

From the beginning of King Leopold II's endeavours to secure the Congo Free State (CFS) as his personal domain, through to the legitimization of his rule at the Berlin Conference in 1884–85, the United States has played an important role in the tragic history of the CFS. This article seeks to explore the complex relationship between humanitarianism and race in the story of the American connection with the CFS and subsequent Congo reform movement. It will unpack the role of key individuals involved and their relationship with American humanitarians in the reform movement, arguing that while pursuing reform in the CFS, American humanitarians established close relationships and collaborated with notable racists who shared their beliefs on race and colonialism. By examining these alliances, it becomes evident that their efforts for reform were entangled with individuals who contradicted the supposed humanitarian goals. This article will also examine the reception of this activism in the African American press, showing that the response to the reform campaign was ambivalent at best, with questions raised as to why key African American activists involved in the movement focussed their efforts abroad in the era of Jim Crow in the US.

A Constitution without Constitutionalism: A Gambian Paradox

Constitutionalism and democratization are the current governance trends in Africa, and these are complemented with new constitutions. The Gambia is not an exception as it transcends from dictatorship. However, the country faces a paradoxical menace of a constitution without constitutionalism as it faces deficit of constitutionalism in praxis despite its theoretical deliberation in the State’s 1997 Constitution. This research uses doctrinal or normative legal research with focus on provisions of laws, books, journal articles and other secondary materials that speak to the facts in issue. This Africa’s smallest mainland country is a victim of the 1884 – 1885 Berlin Conference as it still tries to give much premium to foreign legal systems over customary practices of the people before this Berlin project. While constitutionalism seeks to limit the power of the government, its most critical constituent as regards the concept of constitution without constitutionalism is the rule of law. The rule of law premises on the ground that all state’s constituents must be subject to the law. Therefore, the metaphor of a saviour, savage, and victim as the 1997 Constitution, the State and freedom of expression respectively suggests the totality of the complexity of a constitution without constitutionalism.

Evolving An African Postcolonial Condition: Cultural Property Restitution, Cinematic Independence, Globalized NGO Compassion, and Grappling with an Elite Corruption Complex

The empire-building phase of the European powers in Africa, which spanned several centuries, had its climax at the infamous Berlin Conference of 1884–1885, where the colonizers carved up and allocated the African continent among themselves as their respective colonial projects. They would subsequently invade virtually all of the continent based on this arbitrary partitioning—which, among other things, created Africa’s colonial condition. Mention must be made of the fact that uncountable numbers of artworks and artefacts were looted by the invaders from various parts of Africa during those invasions and the de facto occupations that ensued. These looted treasures were scattered all over Europe and elsewhere in museums and private collections, where they currently remain largely unaccounted for.

Nigeria’s Border Porosity and Implications for National and International Security

The evolution of modern borders can be traced to the partitioning of Africa during the Berlin Conference negotiations from November 15, 1884 to February 26, 1885. The artificial borders so created are accompanied with extreme porosity leading to myriads of transnational and cross-border criminalities which threatens the peace, security and stability of the region as a whole and Nigeria in particular. This study therefore seeks to examine the causes of Nigeria’s border porosity, emerging cross-border related security threats, government and other stake holders efforts at curbing the menace and to interrogate the implications Nigeria’s Border porosity on peacebuilding, national and international security. Talcott Parson’s Theory of Functional Prerequisites served as the framework while the mixed method research design was adopted for the study. A total of eighty (80) respondents were sampled for the study while purposive sampling technique was employed to select participants who could provide valuable insights into the topic. This research has been able to highlight various factors responsible for Nigeria’s porous borders, the emerging cross-border related security threats, various efforts by government and other stakeholders in addressing the menace of border porosity and the various implications for peace, stability and security of the country. While the various efforts of government and other stakeholders are duly acknowledged, it must be stated that a lot more needs to be done to secure Nigeria’s borders. It is evident that addressing Nigeria’s border porosity is crucial for ensuring peace, stability, national and international security and mitigating the various security threats associated with illegal migration, proliferation of fire arms, trafficking (drug and human), transnational crimes, smuggling, banditry and terrorism holistically requires comprehensive strategies that focus on strengthening border control measures, enhance regional cooperation and collaboration, promote information sharing, develop joint strategies to combat transnational crimes, terrorism, cross-border conflicts, addressing root causes of insecurity, promoting development and governance in the region.

An Assessment of the Partition and Scramble of Africa and the Effect of Slave Trade in the Continent

The scramble and Partition of African countries began in earnest with the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, and this was the cause of the most of Africa’s borders today. The conference was called by German Chancellor Bismarck to settle how European countries would claim colonial land in Africa and to avoid a war among European nations over African territory. All the major European States were invited to the conference which includes the Germany, France, Great Britain, Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, and Spain were all considered to have a future role in the imperial partition of Africa. The United States was invited because of its interest in Liberia but did not attend the conference because it had no desire to build a colonial empire in Africa. Also invited were Austria–Hungary, Sweden–Norway, Denmark, Italy, Turkey, and Russia who all were considered minor players in the quest for colonizing Africa, though Italy has claim some colonial possessions in Northeast Africa. Most notably there were no Africans present at that conference, nor were any Europeans present to ensure that native Africans had any say in the proceedings. This paper has adopted secondary source of data in the process of data collection. The findings of the paper have revealed that partition in Africa has led to emergence of colonialism, slave trade and other related contemporary imbalance that led to for present African underdevelopment. The paper recommended that African countries needs to be allowed to run its affairs as an independent sovereign countries to manage both their mineral and human resource to compete with every continent of the world interterms of development dynamism and African countries should develop an approach that will help them to fight social menace of poverty, corruption, insecurity and unemployment.

A Museum of Black Civilizations in the Contemporary World: In conversation with Hamady Bocoum

A Museum of Black Civilizations in the Contemporary World: In conversation with Hamady Bocoum

PERSONALITAS ANGELA MERKEL DALAM UPAYA JERMAN MENGAKHIRI KRISIS LIBYA

Germany was one of the countries that actively pursued peace for Libya. The achievement of peace in Libya by Germany was carried out to overcome the surge in the number of refugees from the Middle East to Europe via the Mediterranean crossing. Angela Merkel's persistence in achieving peace in Libya was demonstrated by the holding of a series of peace processes known as the Berlin Process. This foreign policy cannot be separated from the influence of Angela Merkel as one of the policy-making units of the German government. Angela Merkel's role in ending the Libyan crisis is one of the next steps to rebuilding Libya. Commitments from external stakeholders influencing the conflict in Libya were successfully achieved at the Berlin Conference for Libya, a ceasefire agreement was reached, the Government of National Unity was confirmed, and the second Berlin Conference for Libya was held. Responding to this phenomenon, this study questions the role of Merkel's personality in Libya's peace efforts. In order to answer this question, the author uses a foreign policy analysis framework that identifies the relationship between the personality of the leader and the foreign policy taken. This study finds that Libya's peace efforts are a manifestation of Angela Merkel's dominant personality, namely the conciliator type and the participatory orientation.

“Decolonisation” and “Africanisation” of Knowledge: Politico-Ideological or Educational Concepts?

This paper argues that decolonisation and Africanisation of the curriculum are problematic concepts that appeal more to political sentiments than present an academic discourse. First, the concept of decolonisation is used in a narrow sense relating only to the effects of the post- Berlin Conference of 1884 and similar forms of subjection of indigenous peoples to foreign domination and excludes other forms of colonisation, the subjugation of the other, which manifests in elite, class, gender and other forms of segmental colonisation. Secondly, the simultaneous use of decolonisation and Africanisation as transformation is inappropriate because the two do not lead to the same result. Besides adopting a narrow conception of decolonisation, Africanisation of the curriculum is just as chauvinistic in practice as colonisation itself; and also fails to distinguish between the normative and epistemic dimensions of knowledge production. While not denying the role of the sociology of knowledge in epistemology, the paper maintains that one cannot decolonise or Africanise the curriculum and still retain both the colonial framework and the substantive structure. That would be simply engaging in semantics and not in substance. The paper further maintains that scholarship and knowledge production are universal practices; and Africa has made serious contributions to knowledge and scholarship outside of the discourse of decolonisation and Africanisation. Therefore, while both concepts might appeal to sentiment, practically they are unimaginable. A more appropriate conceptualisation would be “internationalisation and advancing Africa’s contribution to the global movement for change in the academy, and by extension in the curriculum.”

Decolonial thinking and african legacies in museums in Portugal

The article deals with the permanence in most museums in Portugal, of an ideology that expressed the colonial relationship of the past and which, in essence, remains in force in Portuguese society. This ideology in its current form, which was constructed after the Berlin Conference (1895) by a not very large group of academics, military and political elites, who, in particular during the Estado Novo period, saw their visions of the colonial relationship enshrined in the colonial policy of António Salazar and Marcelo Caetano. The examples given on the different approaches to the nature of the colonial relationship in the 20th century clearly show that the thinking of late 19th and 20th century ideologues, including the times of the last liberation war, evolved from unfettered pragmatism to giving gives rise to an ideology that seeks to present a colonial relationship based on mutual respect, affection, human solidarity, in short, on "Christian communion". The dominant ideology continues to justify colonization, war (colonial or liberation), forced labor, the distinction between the principles of a more advanced culture and superior morality. All in the name of an imagined colonial relationship respectful of human rights. The article analyzes some manifestations of this ideology at the Museu da Guerra Colonial in Famalicão that, in a way, can illustrate how, under the cover of an allegedly “neutral” discourse, the values of coloniality are maintained. The article draws attention to the need to take into account recent UNESCO documents or the new definition of Museum approved by ICOM in 2022, which could greatly help museums to act more in accordance with Human Rights Keywords: Museums, coloniality, colonial ideology

The Ecology and Economic Practices of the Isukha and Idakho Communities in Colonial Period 1895-1963

The penetration of colonialism in Isukha and Idakho can best be understood within the general framework of the global imperialism of the nineteenth century, with Europe being the hub of global imperialism where the imperialists were motivated by economic, humanitarian and strategic factors. After the 1886 and 1890 Anglo-German treaties at Berlin's conference, East Africa was divided between the British and the Germans. British East Africa (Kenya and Uganda) was under the control of the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEACo). In 1894, Uganda was declared a protectorate and its sphere included the Baluyia. This same year, protectorate officials were sent to Mumias, which was by then a traders' entry-point on the road to Uganda. This paper analyses the ecology and economic environment of the Bisukha and Bidakho of the Luyia community during the colonial epoch. The paper took a qualitative approach to data collection, engaging participants in oral interviews and focused group discussions on understanding the two community practices. In what is termed an ethnographic approach, the author finds that the natives lost control of resources that were crucial in the proper management of their environments and the practice of various economic activities. This paper, therefore, finds that Land as a natural resource was alienated with forests being gazetted and animals confiscated to feed the soldiers of World Wars I and II.

The Intersectionality of Colonialism and Gǐkũyũ Land Tenure Systems: A Feminist Political Ecology Perspective

The Agĩkũyũ in Kenya revered land as a spiritual gift from God in which communities and nature were inextricably linked to preserve sacred ecosystems and biodiversity. However, the intersectionality with colonialism and the expansion of capitalism propelled by the Berlin Conference in 1884-1885, changed the landscape tragically. In 1893, it was affirmed that the ownership of land was by occupational rights and unoccupied land belonged to the colonial state and white settlers. In 1895, Kenya became part of the British East Africa Protectorate and the Crown Land Ordinance of 1902 made Kenya a British Colony, in which by 1915, the Kenyan land became under the British Empire. Many locations especially in Gǐkũyũ areas experienced devastating displacement, landlessness and human adaptations in new ecological conditions, control and resources use in the agricultural pastoral communities. These problems led to political consciousness and in 1954 under the Swynnerton Plan, the Gǐkũyũ land tenure system became the basis for land reforms until 1970s. This paper extends the literature on colonialism and land ownership mainly centering on Africans reacting to the British imperialism and histories of underdevelopment by addressing the intersectionality of colonialism and the dynamic of gendered responses to colonialism at intra-household level, and as the base of history, political and economic systems influencing women, health, and ecology. The focus is on Gĩkũyũ families within the contexts of colonial and post- colonial policies of land consolidation, adjudication and land registration to private ownership of property. The land confiscated by the Europeans, deeply affected the Gǐkũyũ ethnic group, and it was their grievances over land that eventually became Kenya’s most controversial political project leading to the conflict between British, and the Mau Mau movement, and finally to independence in 1963. I use a feminist political ecology, which is inclusive to indigenous knowledge and spirituality in order to capture the understanding of and the experiences of communities responding to global processes of political, economic and ecological changes.

Zoning Control: Revisiting the Brussels Conference Act of 1890 and Its Legacy into the Twentieth Century

One hundred and thirty years ago, governments convened in Brussels to discuss a new treaty that would address the trades in slaves, firearms and liquors in Africa. This treaty - the Brussels Conference Act (BCA) - came just five years after the Berlin Conference and Act and has largely been overshadowed by its predecessor. In many ways, though, for colonial governments the BCA was both the necessary counterpart and the logical, as well as legal, successor to the Berlin Conference and Act. If Berlin politically carved up the continent of Africa, Brussels provided the legal justification for doing so. The BCA did this through creating a series of zones, within which European states empowered themselves to act in ways that would facilitate, and at times mandate, colonialism in the guise of humanitarian ideals. These zones covered much of sub-Saharan Africa and the waters off its eastern coast. While the BCA itself lasted until the end of the First World War, the idea of these zones had greater longevity, with special zones proposed in discussions on slavery and the arms trade both during the League of Nations era and into the early years of the United Nations. This article explores the ways in which the idea of this zone within the BCA enabled colonialism and how this idea persisted into the middle of the twentieth century. In doing so, it seeks to consider zones of control not only a matter of legal history, but also as a way to better understand and make more visible the structures upon which international law is built today.

Konferans Diplomasisi Perspektifinde Antalya Diplomasi Forumu'nun Uluslararası İlişkilerdeki Rolü

Uluslararası İlişkiler disiplininin ortaya çıkış tarihi hemen hemen I. Dünya Savaşı’nın yaşandığı yıllara dayanmaktadır. Çünkü bu disiplin özelinde üniversitelerde kürsülerin açılması özellikle 1918 sonrası yıllara uzanmaktadır. Dolayısıyla bu disiplinin ülkeler arasındaki münasebetlere sirayet etmesi ve dünya üzerinde gözle görülür hale gelmesi şüphesiz diplomasi çabalarıyla mümkün olmuştur. Bir uluslararası siyaset, ilaveten bir uluslararası hukuk iletişim süreci olarak nitelendirilen diplomasinin özünde ülkelerin birbirleriyle varsa mevcuttaki problemleri hususunda münasebet kurmak ve bu bağlamda kendi ülke menfaatleri doğrultusunda kazanılabilecek maksimum kazancı elde etmek yatar. Dolayısıyla bu kazancın çabaları ise duruma ve ülkeler arası münasebetlerin boyutuna göre değişiklik arz etmektedir. Bugün uluslararası ilişkiler disiplininde sıkça kullanılan diplomasi çabalarını; zirve diplomasisi, ikili diplomasi, çoklu/çok boyutlu diplomasi, kültürel diplomasi, parlamenter diplomasi, konferans diplomasisi yani kamu diplomasisi şeklinde sıralamak mümkündür. Bu bağlamda bu makale bahse konu diplomasi çabalarından biri olan konferans diplomasisinin bir yumuşak güç unsuru olarak kamu diplomasisi boyutunu tartışmaktadır. Bu diplomasi türünü önemli kılan husus iki dünya savaşı arasında sıkça kullanılmasıdır. Dünya savaşları sonrasında her ne kadar bu diplomasi türüne başvurma sıklığı azalsa da günümüzde özellikle problemli coğrafyalarda halen daha etkin bir şekilde kullanıldığı görülmektedir. Öte yandan dünya savaşları sırasında sıkça büyük devletler tarafından başvurulan bir diplomasi türü olan konferans diplomasisinde genellikle büyük devletler çıkarları doğrultusunda kazançlar elde etmiştir.
 Buradan hareketle bu çalışmada ilk olarak kamu diplomasisi çerçevesinde konferans diplomasisinin diplomasideki yeri ve önemine dair bir tartışma yapılmıştır. Daha sonra konferans diplomasisinin uluslararası ilişkiler disiplini çerçevesinde dünyadaki örnekleri irdelenmiştir. Ardından ise Türkiye Cumhuriyeti devletinin bir konferans diplomasisi örneği olarak uluslararası ilişkiler disiplinine kazandırdığı Antalya Diplomasi Forumu’nun bu disiplin özelindeki konumuna dair bir açıklama getirilmiş ve sonuç bölümünde ise bu Forum’un sahip olduğu role dair bir değerlendirme yapılmıştır.

European Small States and the Role of Consuls in the Age of Empire by Aryo Makko

Reviewed by: European Small States and the Role of Consuls in the Age of Empire by Aryo Makko Heather Streets-Salter European Small States and the Role of Consuls in the Age of Empire By Aryo Makko. Leiden and Boston: Brill Nijhoff, 2020. In European Small States and the Role of Consuls in the Age of Empire, Aryo Makko explores the role of the consular service in the foreign policy of Sweden-Norway, and how the institution was critical to understanding the way the state participated in the global system of imperialism between 1875 and 1914. Makko argues that although small European states like Sweden-Norway did not have the military and economic capacity of the great European powers, they nevertheless shared their exploitative worldview and were anxious to benefit from the spoils of empire. According to Makko, small states “employed their own strategies of imperialism and colonialism” by extending their shipping-related commercial interests to the rapidly-growing territories of the European empires (2). In this enterprise, consuls—whose job it was to facilitate and regulate these interests—played a central role. The book is divided into four chapters plus an introduction and conclusion. Its structure is both chronological and geographical: the first chapter begins in about 1815 and the last ends in 1914, while chapters 2–4 each cover what was happening with the consular service in Africa, Eastern and Southern Asia and the West Indies respectively between 1875 and 1914. Chapter one is based mainly on secondary sources and functions to outline the history of the consular service in Sweden-Norway until about 1870. But it is also here where Makko argues that—given the fact that the merchant fleet of Sweden-Norway was the world’s fifth largest in the late nineteenth century—government officials were hopeful that the European expansion of empire would enhance the prestige of the state via the power of economics. As part of this aspiration for prestige, by the end of the century, Sweden-Norway maintained a network of 100 consulates and 800 consular officials worldwide. Chapters two and three provide the meat of the argument and reflect extensive work in the state consular archives. In chapter two, which explores the years 1875–84, Makko argues that state officials in Sweden-Norway were sympathetic to the assumptions and expansionist actions of imperialist states, and sought to adapt to the new reality by expanding both its trade networks and its consular network into newly-colonized regions. These efforts were hampered, however, by the inefficiencies of the consular service: chiefly, that most consuls for Sweden-Norway were neither Swedish nor Norwegian, and that most knew very little about the state or its shipping and business interests. In this Sweden-Norway was not alone: many other European states also suffered from a lack of professionalism in their consular services at this time, and many sought reforms in the last half of the nineteenth century. Officials in Sweden-Norway followed this trend, and set up a committee to reform the consular service in 1875. However, in part because of complications arising from the relationship between the two kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, it took a full decade—until 1885—for the committee to produce new regulations for a reformed consular service. This did not stop the consular service of Sweden-Norway from expanding into new territories as European empires grew, but it did mean that the system did not function very well. Chapter three covers the period between 1884–1905, when Makko argues that the consular service of Sweden-Norway reached “the height of its political and diplomatic function” (188). It also marked the high-water of Sweden-Norway’s involvement with the European imperial system. Indeed, Sweden-Norway ratified the General Act in the Berlin Conference of 1884–85, which divided sub-Saharan Africa between European powers, in the hopes that participation would translate into a more powerful voice in European politics. In the years that followed, consuls representing Sweden-Norway generally supported imperial endeavors. At the same time, the state tried to implement the new consular regulations that had finally been approved in 1885, but professionalization proved elusive when budgetary constraints meant there...

Italy, the second Libyan war, and the Frontex Irini Operation

In 2011, Libya plunged into a civil war after the outbreak of the Arab Spring, a revolutionary movement characterized by massive civil protests which tried to build democratic societies in the Middle East and North Africa and put to an end the old repressive political regimes. After several months of civil war and bombings over Libya, longtime Muamar Ghaddafi’s dictatorial regime fell. Although the U.S. did not directly intervene in Libya, it supported the overthrow of Ghadafi through the intervention of NATO, providing aerial support and airstrikes for the opposition force (it also established a no-fly zone over Libya, authorized by the United Nations). In 2014, contested parliamentary elections led to the formation of two rival political power centers — one in the east, based in Tobruk and backed by military commander Khalifa Haftar, and another in the west of the country, an UN-supported administration in the capital of Tripoli. Each side was supported by a variety of militias and foreign powers, who competed for influence and oil resources, raising fears that oil-rich Libya could become the theater of a regional conflict. In April 2019, Haftar and his forces, backed by Russia (the Russian military contractors of the Wagner Group), Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and the United Arab Emirates launched an offensive to capture the capital. His campaign collapsed after Turkey and Qatar offered their military support to the Tripoli government with hundreds of Turkish troops and thousands of Syrian mercenaries, belonging to the Free Syrian Army. The outbreak of violence in Libya in April 2019 severely affected the institutional reunification and stability of the country. Warning that the situation in Libya could become "a second Syria", with a new large wave of refugees directed towards the EU, Germany offered to call a peace conference for the conflicting sides, held on 19th January 2020 under the auspices of the United Nations. The aim was to stop the military support for the civil war parties and uphold an existing UN arms embargo, re-launching the peace process for a political settlement, after nine months of fighting over the capital. Operation EUNAVFOR MED IRINI was launched by the European Union on 31 March 2020, as part of the European Union's contribution to the Berlin conference. The core task of the Operation is the implementation of the UN arms embargo on Libya through aerial, satellite, and maritime assets, an embargo that had been decided in 2016 by the United Nations Security Council Resolution. This ongoing mission replaced the Sophia Operation, which had been in place for five years, combating the organized crime and trafficking of migrants in the Mediterranean Sea. In June 2016, the European Council decided to extend Sophia’s mandate until July 2017, adding two supporting tasks: training the Libyan coastguards and contributing to the implementation of the UN arms embargo on the high seas off the coast of Libya. This paper attempts to analyze the response of the European Union to the Libyan crisis by launching the Irini operation, a military-naval Joint force, setting out to secure the Berlin Conference’s commitments. Finally, we try to explain if Italy which seems to have preferred to stay on the sidelines, succeeded in reinserting itself into the Libyan equation, a significant diplomatic area for the Chigi Palace.

“The Land of Our Fathers”: Black Internationalist Thought and the Congo Free State

“The Land of Our Fathers”Black Internationalist Thought and the Congo Free State Jeannette Eileen Jones (bio) In January 1886, D. Augustus Straker, an African American lawyer, published an article in the New York Freeman wherein he reflected on the Berlin Conference on Africa that convened during the winter of 1884/1885. The Kongokonferenz, as Kaiser Wilhelm II and German Chancellor von Bismarck called it, assembled primarily to address European concerns about free trade in the Congo Basin—the world’s second largest river basin—which was replete with rubber plants and other natural resources. One year after the conference, Straker questioned the avowed benevolence of the “scramble for Africa.” He framed the article around the query “Why Are the European Powers Grasping African Territory?” He explained, It is a matter of no small concern to the sons and daughters of Africa, wherever assembled upon the face of the globe, to perceive the deep interest which the civilized powers of the earth are taking in the development of the resources of the “Dark Continent.” These men and women would “observe the attention which said powers seem now ready to give to the civilization of its races,” understanding that “it is a matter of right and duty that we, who are identified with the African race, the native land of our forefathers … should discuss this topic.” Straker believed that the African heritage of Blacks in the West, particularly that of African Americans, positioned them as legitimate stakeholders in any international actions regarding Africa. He offered an assessment of African affairs, querying whether “the insatiable lust for dominion and wealth” or a “Christian duty” to civilize Africans motivated Europeans to colonize the continenttaking special “interest in the Congo Region.”1 [End Page 26] Access to the Congo Basin, via free navigation of the Congo River and its tributaries, could facilitate European access to the lucrative ivory trade and provide European merchants with a direct route to traverse the continent from east to west. The General Act of the Berlin Conference, ratified in 1886, established European and Ottoman spheres of influences in Africa, sanctioned the creation of foreign protectorates and colonies, ensured the free navigation of the Congo and Niger rivers, promoted free trade throughout the Congo Basin, and formally recognized the Congo Free State (État indépendant du Congo) as a sovereign polity. The act couched the actions of its signatories as necessary for “civilizing” and modernizing Africa. Straker believed that if European motives “be the uplifting of Africa from a state of mental darkness, intellectual inanition and commercial stagnation, to the position of a civilized and prosperous state” based on Christian principles and Westerns arts and sciences, then their work was noble. He reasoned, “The conquest of a barbarous people by a civilized power is justifiable through its benefits.” Accordingly, European efforts in Africa would “establish an era in the world’s progress unprecedented in the past.” Whatever European intentions, Straker emphasized that Blacks should not ignore or take an impartial stance toward the African Question. They had to participate in discussions about the future and status of Africa during this pivotal time in “world” history.2 Straker’s comments reveal an awareness of the geopolitical ramifications of imperialism in Africa from a broad perspective, during a period when most black internationalist strategies and efforts regarding the continent focused on Liberia and Sierra Leone. African Americans’ seeming fixation with the republic of Liberia and the British colony of Sierra Leone stemmed from perceptions of these locales as familial and cultural gateways to Africa. Emigration and abolitionist politics linked many African Americans to Americo-Liberians and settlers in Sierra Leone. While a visible number of settlers in Liberia were what Sharla Fett calls “recaptured Africans,” Liberia bore the political, cultural, and familial markers of African Americans. Similarly, Sierra Leone’s importance to American blacks derived from its status as a potential site for black migration to Africa. Black internationalists who paid attention to Liberia did not situate their concerns about the republic in the politics of empire. They did not view Liberia— despite its settler colonial origins—as an US imperial possession. In their minds, Liberia was not...

The two last encounters between Broz and Berlinguer - the epilogue of an alliance

Based on unpublished historical sources from the archives of the communist parties of Yugoslavia and Italy (Archives of Yugoslavia, Belgrade; Fondazione Istituto Gramsci, Archivio del Partito comunista Italiano, Rome), this paper analyzes the two last meetings of the leaders of the two parties, Josip Broz Tito and Enrico Berlinguer. The topics are Berlinguer?s two visits to Yugoslavia, in October 1977 and October 1978, which took place at the height of the inter-party alliance, after the Berlin Conference of the Communist Parties of Europe held in June 1976. The aforementioned two visits are viewed in this paper as case studies that testify to the nature of the alliance between the two parties, and illuminate the key similarities and differences between these two political actors.

The Power of Geographical Imaginaries in the European International Order: Colonialism, the 1884–85 Berlin Conference, and Model International Organizations

AbstractThis article examines the emergence of early international organizations and efforts to export European institutional models to the periphery as part of the global expansion of a European international order. In particular, it focuses on the 1884–85 Berlin Conference as a pivotal moment in that expansion and the failed attempt to transplant the Treaty of Vienna model for transboundary river governance to the Congo River. Scholarship on the spread of institutions has highlighted the dangers of applying institutional models from one context to another, but there has been limited attention on why European institutional models are so compelling in the first place. Based on primary historical material, I show that despite some awareness among the diplomats at Berlin that the African context differed from the European one, this knowledge did not disrupt their underlying confidence in the Vienna model. I contend that the reason this model was so compelling was that it was built on two interrelated geographical imaginaries that constituted the diplomats’ understanding of the global and the political possibilities available to them. The first imaginary constituted the periphery as conceptually empty and ready to be remade by European models; the second constituted Europe as the generative site of universal models. Together, these taken-for-granted imaginaries made the diplomats’ practices of adopting the Vienna model seem natural and self-evident. These imaginaries continue to have implications for international politics today as we consider one-size-fits-all technocratic solutions and benchmarks for global progress.

독도주권과 일본의 본원적 권원 주장에 대한 국제법적 검토

It cannot but be noted that the Japanese Territorial Sovereignty Exhibition Hall, which reopened in 2020, has emphasized Japan's legal control over Dokdo and Kore a's illegal occupation since 1905. This is because not only is the history of Japan's continued invasion of Dokdo's sovereignty based on Japanese colonialism, which is the basis of the Japanese imperial ist invasion route, still ongoing, but also disproves that Japan's attempt to invade Dokdo Island is resuming in 1905. In the process of tracing and examining legal problems of the genealogy the researc h on the legal principle of titles of Japanese Society of international law, which is establishing the policy basis for Japan's claim to Dokdo based on Japanese colonialis m, the genealogy of Japan's claim to Dokdo is the 'theory of historical title' by Takeshi Minagawa,'the theory of original title' by Toshio Ueda, 'the theory of subsitutional title' by Kanae Daijudo, and 'the theory of common occupancy' by Gentaro Cerita. After the ‘the theory of effective territorial title’ based on 'the view of history on international law by Yoshio Hirose, which is the peak of the genealogy of the title of Dokdo sovereignty, international legal scholar such as Takashi Tsukamoto and Tetsuya Nakano, who appear as mainstream researchers, are cannot but be notedthat all classified as genealogy of 'the theory of original title on terra nullis' and are in line with the claims of the Territorial Sovereignty Exhibition Hall. In particular, Tsukamoto argues that it is necessary for Japan to reinforce uncertai n primitive title under modern international law through an territorial acquisition process based on effective possession such as occupation of territory with historical title in the 17th century. On that premise, it is analyzed that the issue of Korea's Dokdo name is used as the basis for terra nullis theory when examining Tsukamoto's historical perception related to the Dajokan Directive of State in 1877, Korean Empire Edict No. 41 in 1900, and Dokdo incorporation in 1905. However, Japan is also facing limitation s, such as diluting the problem of calling Ulleungdo Island to Takeshima in the the Dajokan Directive of State into confusion caused by the influx of Western maps due to its opening. On the other hand, unlike Takashi Tsukamoto, Tetsuya Nakano raises the preem ption theory based on the international law relationship after the Treaty of Ganghwa Island in 1876, on the premise of some insulation from the historical title, but since the 1904 Korea-Japan Protocol, it ignores the illegal problems of Japan's claim to Dokdo as a separate concept. His claim is clearly expressed in the issue of notification as a preemption requireme nt, and it is interpreted that there is no international law principle that it is an absolute requirement for the acquisition of a territorial power, while acknowledging the gener al protocol of the Berlin Conference in 1885 and the obligation of the International Law Society in 1888. In other words, Nakano criticized that there is no international case of reaffirming its own territory in order to confirm its territory in the modern international legalsystem based on the principle of sovereignty equality, but it is noteworthy that it violates the principle of sovereignty equality since the 1904 Protocol and claims that Japan's invasion of Dokdo and other invasions are based on legal rights under international law. To sum up, Takashi Tsukamoto has limitations in that it follows the legal problem s inherent in 'the theory of subsitutional title' by Kanae Daijudo and distorts Japan's confusion with the name of Dokdo. While Tetsuya Nakano insisting on the modern international legal system based on the principle of equality of sovereignty, it exposes the limitations of legalizing Japanese colonialism in issues such as the invasion of Dokdo sovereignty and notification issues. In addition, the same terra nullis insisters as Hirose Yoshio, should not be arbitraril y interpreted and used the Clipperton case, the Eastern Greenland case and the Mang kie Ecreo case, as cases which related to uninhabited islands, isolated locations and effective control. Therfore, it should be noted that the genealogy of the study related to the title of the Japanese Society of International Law, which has established the policy basis of Japan's claim over Dokdo, is consistent with Japanese colonialism as the essence of violence and greed proclaimed in the Cairo Declaration. Moreover, Japan's claim to Dokdo, which attempted to separate it on the premise of “legitimate theory of colonial rule” which raised by terra nullis insisters after ‘view of history on international law' by Hirose Yoshio, which is the epitome of the genealo gy of the title related to Dokdo sovereignty, is a legal distortion of international legal title and a serious legal infringement of Korea's Dokdo sovereignty. I would like to urge Japan's international legal responsibility for the 21st century peace community.