Postcolonial African States Research Articles

‘The most extensive reform ever made in the private law of Ghana’: a political history of the 1985 Intestate Succession Law

ABSTRACT Ghana's 1985 Intestate Succession Law (PNDC Law 111) is a notable example of attempts by postcolonial African states to introduce new forms of protection for widows and children in cases of death ‘intestate' (that is, when the deceased person had not made a valid will). Whilst some legal scholars depicted Law 111 as a radical departure from customary laws pertaining to marriage and property, feminist scholars have been more sceptical, pointing to deficiencies in both the letter and implementation of the law, and advocating for further reform. This article is driven by a historical question: given that several previous governments had considered the issue of intestate succession but had not actually reformed the law, why did the military regime of Flight Lieutenant Jerry Rawlings decide upon Law 111 in 1985? The national archives for this period are fragmentary, but we draw from newspapers, ‘grey literature', and oral history interviews to trace the prolonged struggle over intestate succession, suggest what motivated the Rawlings' regime in 1985, and identify the compromises that were made. By locating Law 111 in Ghana's postcolonial political history, we nuance established typologies of women’s organisation, activism, and advocacy.

Neocolonialism and Imperial Dominance of the Post-Colonial African States

The study examines the impact of imperial dominance on the socio-economic development of the Post-colonial African States. There is a core search to the argument that globalizing the world with developing countries, has grossly embedded a horizontal gap among the nation states. The consequences of these interactions and impacts, have incredibly premised such dominant structures on the continent as they are examined to be colonial legacies. These apparently, control a state of international dependency and a culture of corruption within the new states. Imperialism and neocolonialism, created a structurally weak nations in Africa and beyond. Having incessantly exploited the indigenous populations. The political aspects of the menace, have deeply asphyxiating as these weak political structures which were created by the western imperialist nations, received political and socio-economic functions at Independence, which they are not developed enough to handle. Subsequently, after Europe was through by under-developing the continent of Africa, it simply left. No measures were taken to help Africans migrated to self-governance or to be better organized. This of course, was argued that Africa was not prepared for a modern economy that would benefit from industrialization and it consequently plunged the Post-colonial African States into a primarily subsistence farming economy. Hence, the state of economy and socio-cultural values of African States as at the time were not properly structured to govern as this resulted the continent into poverty and civil war. At the end of the Second World War, Europe’s two major and remaining colonial powers (French and British) found that they could no longer rule their African colonies as before. For reasons mostly economic but also geopolitical and nationalistic, they were not willing to give them up entirely. Thus, sought mechanisms to maintain control of Africa as the second wave of colonial rule. Therefore, came in form of ‘’neocolonialism and imperialism” as these imply the external control and dominance of economic, political, technological, educational and military strength of the continent with respect to a globalizing paradigm. Keywords: Globalization, Imperialism. Neocolonialism, Post-colonial African States, International Dependency

A Predatory West, Africa’s Postcolonial States, International Trade Relations and Underdevelopment in Africa: A Survey of Centre/Core-Periphery Issues

This paper examines a predatory West and Africa’s postcolonial states international trade relations and underdevelopment in Africa to divulge how centre-periphery issues evoke underdevelopment in postcolonial African states. It argues that, historically, be it a core or peripheral, in whatever mode of production, the state is the dominant laboratory for all human activities, as it plays ever-dominant roles in domestic and international politico-economic and socio-cultural affairs, being the primary vector for development or underdevelopment is society. However, international trade relations have conditioned these roles and capacities of the state, in terms of strengths or weaknesses in service delivery to its citizens. Having been incorporated and monetised into the West’s capitalism, the postcolonial Africa’s state, has despite these roles, subjectively occupied a debilitating peripheral capitalist position in global wealth production. Today, like yesterday, the postcolonial African state, exhibits excruciating and traumatising underdevelopment, incarnated by uncivilised political, social, economic infrastructures, which incubate citizens’ apathy to governance, while enhancing insecurity, poverty, conflicts and fragmentation of nationalities. Using Raul Prebisch’s (1949) dependency theory, I argue that, the weaknesses and fragilisation of the postcolonial African state accrue from the despondent peripheral capitalist position it occupies in the international capitalist division of labour. Via Wallenstein’s (1930-2019) Modern World System theory, (MWS), I seek reawakening the gratuitous Africans’ slumbering consciousness towards overcoming underdevelopment; impelled by a predatory West’s instigated peripheral capitalism.

Traditional authority, democracy and protected areas: a quandary for African states

This article examines the role of traditional authorities around protected areas in Africa, engaging with debates regarding the efficacy of traditional authorities in contemporary governance in Africa. Some scholars have supported such authority as epitomising African customs and practices, and thereby offering continuity and relevance. Others have questioned the usefulness and relevance of such authority in democratic spaces given their hereditary nature. The article considers these debates in relation to the challenges that arise due to protected areas being spaces of bifurcated governance, in contrast to other rural areas, utilising two case studies: Gwayi Forest in Zimbabwe and Dwesa-Cwebe Nature Reserve in South Africa. Protected areas pose challenges for post-colonial African states regarding how they should be governed. The article argues that it is time for states to bring finality over the governance of such areas. State institutions should be restricted to an advisory role in protected areas. Local populations should be able to choose their own leadership and governance over these spaces.

A Political Economy of Public Policymaking and Underdevelopment in Postcolonial African States: A Marxian Perspective

Debates over who makes public policy in postcolonial African states are lengthy, spanning from 1960s until now, even as such debates prompt pernicious human underdevelopment in this region. Driven by these unfinished debates’ impervious outcomes - the impoverishment of postcolonial Africans, this paper uses the Marxian political economy perspective to determine the mischievous insights arising from these debates, which prod irrational policymaking. It argues that, although policymaking is par excellence the impeccable and inescapable normal government activity and an important political instrument for exerting exhilarating or doldrums societies, it is fraught with inequitably precarious, intricate and dispute-prone processes for mobilising, distributing and allocating resources in societies. Consequently, the paper examines this activity’s shortcomings, not only through the cognitive capacities or incapacities of government officials, but through subjective irrational groups’ interests. Using the rational-comprehensive theory of policymaking, it concludes that, even as policymaking is estranged by malicious contestations through soft or hard power from competing forces with undemocratic claims over rights and resources, the Marxian political economy perspective and rational-comprehensive model can dependably ensure the region’s equitable development rather than underdevelopment.

A DECONSTRUCTION OF FRUSTRATION-AGGRESSION THEORY OF POLITICAL VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA

The work set out to deconstruct and reconstruct Ted Roberts Gurr’s (1970) theory of relative deprivation, frustration-aggression as contained in his work ‘Why Men Rebel’ (1970). The study used descriptive research design and evaluated the capacity of the theory, which was created to explain political violence in Africa and Asia in the colonial era, to also explicate why intense relative deprivation, frustration and aggression arising from the avalanche of poor governance in postcolonial African states such as Nigeria and many others, have not culminated into political violence and rebellion. The study presented numerous data obtained through observation and analysis of events in Nigeria, Africa and case-studies of American, French, English and Russian rebellions and distilled qualitative data which indicated lack of association between the variables. The application of the study design revealed first the state as the source of relative deprivation, frustration and aggressions of the citizenry when they are denied access to public values, which they feel entitled to. Secondly, it further discovered that there are no direct correlations between relative deprivation, frustration and aggression as initially conveyed by the theory since 1970. Furthermore, it exposed that there is an intervening variables identified as ‘Social Movements’ or ‘Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), which harness relative deprivation, intense frustration and aggressions from the sufferers and convert them to other set-of-action, which may not be political violence and rebellions but could be advocacy towards the expansion of the mechanism for supply of public good or values and to make it accessible to many as a means of addressing relative deprivation. The study concluded in the light of its findings, that the initial theory requires deconstruction and reconstruction to include ‘Social Movement’ as a principal component. It is only then that it could be applied in the analysis of issues in postcolonial African and Asian states

African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces by Emizet F. Kisangani and Jeffrey Pickering

It is difficult to overstate the significance of understanding interstate military interventions in Africa, given interventions’ prevalence and the continent's demographic, economic, geopolitical, and security importance. In their theoretically and empirically rich African Interventions: State Militaries, Foreign Powers, and Rebel Forces, Kisangani and Pickering present an ambitious and groundbreaking work focusing on the distinct nature of military interventions in Africa. In African Interventions, the authors conceptualize interstate military interventions as moving national troops or forces into another country to achieve various objectives. Other types of state support extended to a government or rebel group, such as providing funding or equipment and covert support, are excluded from this conceptualization. The concentration on interstate military interventions also excludes actions taken by intergovernmental organizations, although the authors occasionally side note some intergovernmental organization actions by the African Union, the European Union, and the United Nations within the broader narrative. Theoretically, the authors uniquely combine classic approaches to international relations with more recent civil war and intervention literature. The Westphalian understanding of sovereignty and border fixity damaged postcolonial African states in many ways. Starting from this historical reality, the authors lay out three theories that shape the causes of intervention in Africa. First, they apply classic diversionary theories of war to military intervention. They argue that superpowers, European colonial states, and African states are equally predisposed to using military intervention when they suffer from economic and political unrest. Border fixity renders military interventions a low-cost distraction for the domestic audience because it almost removes the existential threat a state may pose to another state.

Ras Kimono: A Prototype of Old Testament Prophets in Nigeria

Ras Kimono, one of Nigeria’s finest reggae musicians, is regarded as an evergreen musical voice and Prophet. His music has been earmarked by social commentators and fans alike as a weapon of social change, because it speaks truth to power and institutions at all times and at levels on socio-political ills that affect the masses in the society. This study, therefore, alludes that Ras Kimono is a mirror of Old Testament Prophets, who were active and spontaneous at critical times of national perils; who doubled as reformers and national advisors, alongside being seers. The purpose of this study is to highlight and attempt to re-awaken the nationalist consciousness among other themes of his arts which is lacking in post-colonial African States like Nigeria. The concern and significance of this research work bothers on the question of whether the Nigerian government and citizenry had and has ever taken his message into serious consideration in the light everyday realities which reflect some of the fears expressed by Ras Kimono in his music. Study engages in a critical assessment of the songs of Ras Kimono towards identifying in them national policies on politics, governance, religious pluralism and national cohesion as embedded in his works. The study adopts the performance and the Wallesteinian theories of nationalism as theoretical frameworks.

JUDICIAL CORRUPTION, INSTITUTIONAL REFORM AND THE ELECTORAL PROCESS IN NIGERIA

Shortly after the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the demise of several African one-party regimes, leaders of a number of African countries began the process of reconstructing the postcolonial African state by embarking on policy and political reforms. This decision was informed by the fact that, since independence, many African countries have been wracked by political and economic crises that have prevented the state from pursuing the rapid growth and economic development needed to fight poverty and material deprivation on the continent. This study argues that while corruption has contributed largely to the development crises in post-independence Nigeria, the problem of judicial corruption is a major impediment to the attainment of sustainable electoral reform in Nigeria. The study substantiates this hypothesis by citing instances of corruption in the Election Petition Tribunals of the 2003 and 2007 general elections in Nigeria. It is submitted that corruption in the judiciary helps to undermine electoral reform by ensuring that the decisions of the Election Petition Tribunals are compromised and the mandate of the people is subverted. Suggestions are offered to reform of the Nigerian electoral process with a view to fighting corruption in the judiciary.

Contextualizing Global Sustainability Governance: Duality of the Postcolonial African State System

Contextualizing Global Sustainability Governance: Duality of the Postcolonial African State System

Suggestible Consequences of Militarizing Self-Determination Movements in Nigeria: A Case Study of Yoruba Separatist Movement

Nigeria, as one of the ethnically heterogeneous African states, has been historically confronted with ethnic conflicts and movements for self-determination, which are often followed by the state’s deployment of military armed forces to suppress them. This article uses a deductive thematic analysis of qualitative data obtained from a created Google form, a free online survey link with self-constructed questions to find out the prospect of the Nigerian government deploying military armed forces to suppress the ongoing Yoruba separatist movements as well as suggestible consequences of such militarization. The result unveils a higher prospect of the government militarizing the movement with the outbreak of mass violence as a suggestible outcome. With the theoretical review of the Remedial Theory of self-determination and the exploration of cases of self-determination in post-colonial African states, the article concludes that the possible eruption of mass violence leading to human rights violations and international interventions might result in the dissolution of Nigeria.

Traditional Institutions and Conflict Resolution in Contemporary Africa

The failure of post-colonial African states in providing solutions to the incessant crises confronting them has been traced to their detachment from their institutional and cultural values. The argument is that modern techniques at resolving internecine conflicts in the continent have not yielded optimal results over the years. Whereas, in traditional African societies, the mechanism put in place to address conflicts prevented the atrophying of the communities and occasioned activities that promoted peace among members of the societies. Traditional Africa’s approaches to conflict resolution are believed to be largely guided by unique norms, values, as well as cultural and traditional settings of the community. These promoted their capacity to co-exist peacefully, to commune together, to respect one another, to forgive and to reconcile. In order to see how these can be replicated in contemporary Africa, research efforts have been dedicated to proffering alternative models that are contextually based, and more suitable for African societies. Therefore, in contribution to the volume of research in this area, this paper examines the indigenous institutions of conflict resolution in traditional African societies using the Yoruba societies as reference points. Specifically focussing on Ipetu-ljesa community in Oriade Local Government area of Osun State, Nigeria, the paper x-rays the role of the indigenous institutions of conflict resolution in Africa, the challenges they face in contemporary times as well as possible ways of engaging this model for conflict resolution in African societies.

Sankara Is Not Dead, dir. Lucie Viver

<i>Sankara Is Not Dead,</i> dir. Lucie Viver

Ordering life and law in a besieged African secessionist state

Samuel Fury Childs Daly’s A History of the Republic of Biafra: Law, Crime, and the Nigerian Civil War focuses on the remarkable legal inner workings of the postcolonial African secessionist state of Biafra (1967-70). Drawing from extensive and original archival research, ranging from official archives to previously abandoned local court backrooms, interviews, and private collections, Daly considers the complex and troubled phenomenon of criminality during and after the Nigerian Civil War by tracing how Biafran law itself morphed and expanded under war conditions to incorporate the extraordinary. Law was not practiced as simply an enforcement of abstract rules but rather a mediating force amongst desperate citizens during brutal times; Biafran judges, lawyers, soldiers, and civilians remained consistently committed to the legal system and state-building despite dire and violent war conditions. Daly traces the production of criminality as a legal category, social problem, and public anxiety through the Nigerian Civil War and its aftermath, ultimately situating Nigeria’s contemporary international reputation for fraud and violent crime in the context of being a postwar society.

Comparing maintenance and property rights in marriage under customary law and statutory law in Africa

ABSTRACT Two dominant legal systems operate in a typical post-colonial African state: the indigenous customary law of the African people and the Received Colonial Laws. Despite the elevation of statutory laws above customary law under the modern state structure in Africa, customary law is still pervasive and regulates most aspects of the personal lives of Africans. Most commentators argue that the practice of customary law discriminates against women. This paper discusses the practice of customary law, its impact on statutory marriages, and how human rights have engendered a new trajectory in the development of customary law in Africa. The paper identifies the positive influence of the Received Colonial Laws and human rights law on maintenance and property rights and suggests the adaptation of the positive aspects of statutory law, the amendment of marriage laws, and the enactment of gender-sensitive legislation on marriage rights for women.

Delineating the Western Orders of Rights and Reason in Post‑Colonial Africa

Adherence to the fundamental tenets of Human Rights and advocacy of Democracy are the two traditionally entwined Western expressions of rights and reason that any state has to comply with to be treated as an egalitarian state. The degree of democratization in any state is to be gauged by its ability to give its citizens a fairly acceptable form of governance and a slew of natural rights and legal safeguards against human rights abuses, from which the idea of justice is to flow. Many of the African and Asian countries, that became sovereign states through the 1980s and 1990s and consequently came to be hailed as formal democracies, in reality, have only had a very perfunctory degree of democratization. In such circumstances, human rights, without the existence of a real democratic structure to uphold and sustain it, does not effectively translate into a charter of rights but would merely be retained as a set of flexible norms. It is in this context that the proposed paper intends to address the impact of globalization of the principles and values associated with the concepts of democracy and human rights in post-colonial African states. It also aspires to inquire into the need for an element of universality in the dialogues on human rights and democratization, so that they do not get reduced to mere synonyms for Westernization. Further, the reality and ambivalence surrounding the consolidation of democratic virtues along with the observance of human rights are best reflected in the exemplification of how the Sub-Saharan African country of Zimbabwe operated its “democracy”; both under its longest-serving President Robert Mugabe and post his unceremonious ouster following the coup d’etat on 14 November 2017. It would be interesting to study the political economy of transition in a country like Zimbabwe that, during and after its leading figure Mugabe, continues to pledge allegiance to a nationalist, post-colonial and populist anomaly of being principally antithetical to imperialism in all its forms while also being an anathema to the precepts of democracy, justice and human rights in practice.

The Crisis of Belonging and Ethnographies of Peacebuilding in Kaduna State, Nigeria, Benjamin Maiangwa

Reviewed by: The Crisis of Belonging and Ethnographies of Peacebuilding in Kaduna State, Nigeria by Benjamin Maiangwa Dare Leke Idowu BOOK REVIEW of Maiangwa, Benjamin. 2020. The Crisis of Belonging and Ethnographies of Peacebuilding in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. 161 pp. $95.00 (hardcover). The Crisis of Belonging by Benjamin Maiangwa draws from "critical qualitative research and narrative inquiry methods" (13) to interrogate how contested notions of belonging and stereotypical conjectures fuel violent intercommunal conflicts in Kaduna, a Nigerian state. From a decolonial perspective, Maiangwa documents and analyzes the peacebuilding efforts of local voices and their contribution to understanding the local turn in peace and conflict studies—a Euro-American discipline in outlook and methodology. The book consists of a foreword by Dominic Aboi, a preface, a prologue, four chapters, and a conclusion. In the introduction, Maiangwa frames his argument by explaining how British colonization laid the foundation for contested claims of belonging on the basis of identity and territory, and how this foundation supports the feelings of deprivation and grievance that fuel recurrent intercommunal conflicts in Kaduna. The first chapter explores intergroup dynamics, similarities, paradoxes, stereotypical conjectures, and the complex realities that make intercommunal conflict inevitable. It traces the conceptual, historical, and sociopolitical trajectories of the precolonial bifurcation of the Fulani ethnic group and other ethnic minority groups and shows their representations to be binary opposites. Remarkably, it underscores how the notion of binary opposites reinforces the stereotypes that intermingle with ethnoreligious intolerance, contested claims over political ascendency, and socioeconomic deprivation to fuel violent intercommunal conflicts. Apart from the laudable contribution to the geopolitics and political economy of the major intercommunal crisis, a crucial feature of this chapter is the exposure of the deficiencies of terminologies like "ethnic minority communities" and the "farmer-herder" reductionist classification in capturing "the dynamic intricacies embodied in the identity of the various communities in Kaduna" (48). Arguably, this signals the need for creating appropriate concepts to capture the nuances of violent intercommunal relations in postcolonial African states. Titled "The Crisis of Belonging," the second chapter draws from personal stories and questions about the sources of conflicts to contextualize how disparate ethnicities in Kaduna conjure notions of indigeneity and claims of belonging. Maiangwa establishes that crises in southern Kaduna are ingrained in conflicting notions or ideologies of belonging between [End Page 144] ethnic minority groups and the Fulani, who lay no exclusive claim to land because they conceive it as a gift from God to humanity, while the ethnic minority groups claim a right to land by physical birth and autochthonous origin because they visualize their birthplace as their ancestral homeland. Their claim to indigenous and autochthonous belonging is a response to their historical grievances and perceived or real exclusion from the state's polity. They feel a need to defend their homeland against incursion by strangers, who, implementing sociocultural and religious notions of land as a gift, consider themselves rightful landowners. The ethnic minorities, consequent upon their "historical connection to the land as the ancestral people and first comers" (56), consider Fulani claims of belonging and expansionist efforts to upgrade their marginalized positions as a threat to their autonomy, economic development, and survival. In contrast, Fulani political power and the government's lack of response to their perceived violent expansionism have emboldened the Fulani to embark on violent expansionist migratory practices: they deliberately encroach on farmland and repeatedly unleash mayhem on the ethnic minority groups. The third chapter, titled "The Complementarity of Group Relations," argues that despite the intercommunal conflicts caused by conflicting claims of indigeneity and belonging, intergroup relations in Kaduna are not devoid of some level of harmony. The tendency of the disparate ethnicities to allude to what Maiangwa conceptualizes as the golden age of intergroup relations in Kaduna offers hopes for constructive peacebuilding efforts and postconflict reconstruction of solidarity and social cohesion. Despite glaring ethnoreligious differences, this golden age featured a strong bond of oneness, involving symbiotic and complementary socioeconomic relations and intermarriages. The fourth chapter interrogates the ethnographies of the ground-level peacebuilding toolkits of the minority ethnic nationalities and the Fulani amid state apathy and governmental ineptitude in preventing conflicts and promoting sustainable peace. Apart...

Nation-building in Post-colonial Sub-Saharan African states: Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda compared

In the form the nation-state is known until now, it formed in Europe and North America in the Early Modern time and flourished in the 19th and 20th centuries, being adequate to realities of the world of industrial capitalism and cultural nationalism. However, other trends, related to super-intensive globalization and post-industrialism, are dominating in the world nowadays. At present, the Western states have to depart from the classical concept of the nation and seek solutions to a completely different problem - of supporting their citizens’ unity at preservation of cultural diversity brought by migrants from all over the world in recent decades. Under the current circumstances, it should not be ruled out that post-colonial states, most of which are multicultural initially due to their unique history of formation, can find themselves in an advantageous position, if they abandon attempts to build nations according to the outdated classical Western pattern. While irreversible globalization is associated with Modernity started in the West half a millennium ago, nation-building in contemporary post-colonial countries shows that globalization is by no means equal to Westernization, and that Modernity as a historically specific type of society and culture, splits into multiple modernities. The theoretical analysis is proved by comparison of the evidence from three post-colonial African states: Tanzania, Zambia, and Uganda. Although today, Tanzania is closer than Zambia and Uganda (as well as most other African countries) to formation of the nation in the classical Western sense, the author admits that the global trend towards multiculturalization of nations may become no less advantageous for countries like Zambia and Uganda. However, it is emphasized in the paper that proper leadership based on an ideology of multicultural nation is a necessary prerequisite for realization of these favorable conditions.

Knowledge, power and school history in post-independence Malawi: A critical analysis of curriculum change (1964-2022)

Emerging educational research in Africa reveals an eventful course of development for school history curricula in post-colonial African states as they grappled with issues of quality and relevance in history education. In exploring the internationally little-known case of Malawi, the article takes a diachronic approach to retracing the process of history curriculum change from the country's independence from Britain in 1964 to the time of writing in 2022. The study proposes a systematic analysis of the content, pedagogy and assessment methods foregrounded by evolving history syllabuses in response to curriculum review processes over the last six decades. It also provides insights into the shifts undergone by Malawi's priorities and aspirations in the context of its legacies of European colonialism, one-party dictatorship and authoritarianism and its transition to democracy in the mid-1990s. Illuminating the entanglements of these processes with power politics and their contribution to the stagnation of the discipline of history, the article concludes that, although successive reviews have promoted curriculum change over time, they have failed to bring about meaningful reform.

South Africa’s Curriculum Transformation: Insights from Post-Independence Africa and Post-Civil Rights Movement in the United States

The #MustFall campaigns, student-led protests that began at the University of Cape Town (UCT) in 2015 and reverberated across South African universities, ignited calls for curriculum transformation, the abolition of Eurocentric epistemologies, and the embrace of indigenous knowledge systems. Given that despite more than two-and-a-half decades of majority rule, South African universities continue to promote hegemonic Western thought, the call for genuine curriculum transformation is understandable. Against this backdrop, this article investigates the challenges associated with curriculum transformation efforts in South Africa. It offers potential solutions by drawing lessons from transformation efforts in the humanities in postcolonial African states and African-American studies in the civil rights movement in the United States (US).