Post-colonial Governments Research Articles

Sons and Daughters of the Soil: Politics and Protest of Kenyan Resettlement to Tanzania, 1961–1968

Abstract This article focuses on contestations over an international resettlement programme to move landless Kenyans of Gikuyu ethnicity to Tanzania during the early 1960s. It centres on three interconnected issues of decolonization: migration, statecraft and humanitarianism. Forced migration was integral to post-colonial statecraft, as both colonial and independent actors used displacement to construct their imagined nation state. In this case, the spatial ordering of politics, which focused on securing the profitable interior, departs from conventional narratives about refugees and nation-building. The colonial authorities in Kenya attempted to move Gikuyu not because of their ethnic or religious identity, but because they were poor and made populist claims to land. The withdrawing colonial power partnered with the post-colonial Tanzanian government and with humanitarian agencies. Through their involvement in this programme, aid agencies continued a long tradition of engaging in forced resettlement, and the relief they offered diminished the effectiveness of migrants’ claims to return to Kenya. Despite the power of the institutions involved, landless Gikuyu made compelling claims in the language of human rights, and local politicians encouraged dissent, while at the national level, Kenyan officials, by then part of an interim state, refused to support the programme publicly, illustrating the complexities of shared governance and bureaucracy at the end of empire.

CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT APPROACHES FOR CHIEFS AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITIES IN GHANA: THE CASE OF THE ROYAL ACADAMY

Chiefs and local government authorities are instrumental in community development. However, the branding of chieftaincy by the post-colonial government as anachronistic and undemocratic and the removal of chieffs from local government structures to curtail their powers affected their chances to be abreast with the dynamics of modern development concepts and approaches. Though currently the chieftaincy institution boasts of educated elites, some are not conversant with laws and policies on local government. Language barrier is a challenge in some cases for collaboration between the two actors as some Assembly officials speak languages that are different from the local languages of communities in which they work. Additionally, local government authorities have been criticised for their low capacity level and their contributions to development is questioned. The study adopted qualitative approaches to examine capacity development approaches within chieftaincy and local government systems. Nineteen participants including chiefs, members of District Assemblies, key informants and local government officials were sampled through purposive and convienent sampling techniques. The study unearthed that majority of the participants were unaware about the Royal Acadamy, a capacity development facility for chiefs. Challenges affecting capacity development included lack of funds, change in government, traditional practices and customs, and elitism in chieftaincy. The paper concludes that capacity development can facilitate community development, and minimise conflict between chiefs and local government authorities. The paper recommends that the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs take steps to operationalise the commencement of activities of the Royal Acadamy.

The Ghost of Gulamo Nabi: The 1983 Case that Fractured the Façade of Multiracial Unity in Mozambican Socialism

ABSTRACT This article argues that the landmark legal case of Gulamo (also spelled Goolam or Gulam) Nabi, a Mozambican resident of Indian-origin (Indo-Mozambican) caught smuggling shrimp into Swaziland, signalled a critical fracture in the façade of Mozambican socialism. Nabi was sentenced to death by firing squad for fish smuggling and price gouging. Like a ghost, Nabi’s legacy haunted my ethnographic fieldwork on Indo-Mozambican identity and belonging in the twentieth century. This article explores the depth and breadth of contemporary domestic narratives around perceived social and economic infractions by Indo-Mozambicans over the long durée. It argues that the post-colonial government used Nabi’s punishment as a show of force both domestically and internationally, particularly with capitalist South Africa and its territories. The case served as an ethnographic entry point to better engage the trials and errors in Mozambique’s process of nation building, national identity formation, and the creation of a multiracial, socialist state in Africa.

Urban Struggles over Water Scarcity in Harare

Abstract This essay counters the growing tendency in current scholarship to attribute nearly all the enduring water scarcity problems to climate change. Focusing on Harare, Zimbabwe's capital city, this essay contends that recurrent water crises can only really be understood within the contentious, long, and complex history of water politics in the capital city from the colonial to the postcolonial period. Although the colonial and postcolonial states in Zimbabwe had very different ideological and racial policies, for various reasons, neither was willing nor able to provide adequate supplies of water to the urban poor even as water was abundant in the city's reservoirs. It posits that while the colonial government racialized access to water by restricting its use by urban Africans, the postcolonial government failed to change the colonial patterns of urban water distribution and did little to increase water supplies to keep pace with a swiftly growing urban population and a geographically expanding city.

Co-opting the cooperative movement? Development, decolonization, and the power of expertise at the Co-operative College, 1920s–1960s

AbstractCooperative departments and organizations were a ubiquitous but rarely studied aspect of British colonial governance in the twentieth century. The Co-operative College in Britain provided specialized training in colonial cooperation to students from across the British Empire. The cooperative movement was a key part of the emergence of regimes of development in the decades between the 1920s and 1960s, reflecting their emphasis on modular solutions deployed by experts in an increasingly homogenizing ‘developing world’. However, the colonial and post-colonial students at the Co-operative College were also critical of colonialism and capitalism, participating in the anti-colonial internationalist effort to create a more just post-imperial world. As post-colonial governments retained cooperative structures, the former students of the Co-operative College used the movement as a counter-balance to the larger forces of nationalism and neo-colonialism.

Asserting Land, Estranging Kin: On Competing Relations of Dependence in Vanuatu

ABSTRACTThis paper examines how the new material value of land in postcolonial Vanuatu intensifies people's shaping and re‐shaping of claims to autonomy and dependence. Ahamb, like many other villages in Melanesia, originated as a mission community with people moving in from various original homelands. The mix of people from different places facilitated new kinship bonds and senses of community. However, it has also sparked disputes over land rights and leadership, fuelled by the postcolonial government's incentives for converting customary land into registered titles and leases for wealthy investors. The possibility of leasing out land, and preventing others from leasing out land, creates a dynamic where groups increasingly define themselves in terms of landowner clans that exclude outsiders rather than the wider kin networks that include them. Redefinitions of social boundaries generate secondary disputes over dependence and autonomy where care of kin, Christian commitment and future aspirations sometimes prove to be incompatible and in need of negotiation.

Film Censorship and Identity in Kenya

The postcolonial government in Kenya has embarked on a sustained war against identity by banning locally and internationally produced motion pictures that depict LGBTQ themes in the ongoing national discourse on gender identity. In 2014 and 2018, the government effectively banned two films by local directors (The Stories of Our Lives and Rafiki) for including the LGBTQ community in this discourse. Within the same period, officials banned The Wolf of Wall Street and Fifty Shades of Grey, both by international directors, for their explicit sexual content. The bans attracted public attention and triggered a debate over the country’s censorship laws in particular and gender identity in general. However, while paying specific attention to postcolonial censorship laws that aimed to retain the status quo, the debaters failed to ground their arguments in their proper historical context. To better understand censorship in Kenya, we must first understand its history during the colonial period (1895-1963), a period that saw the colonizer attempt to construct for the colonized a morally acceptable identity. This construction saw the British colonial government shield African cinema audiences from films that they thought would teach them undesirable behaviors. To achieve this goal, censorship officials censored films with “questionable” scenes. This study connects the present and the past, broadens present censorship and gender debates by deepening our collective imagination of real and imagined laws, and incentivizes the debaters to think broadly about continuity without change in Kenya. It vacates rigid chronologies and does not purport to provide a definitive history of censorship and identity during the two historical periods, even if such a history were possible to produce. Broadly, the study situates censorship within a long history of framing and re-framing identities and, consequently, contributes to a more complex understanding of the chaotic interplay among power, art, and identity.

JEJAK BETON DAN MODERNISASI ARSITEKTUR DALAM PEMBANGUNAN PERIODE PASCAKOLONIAL DI INDONESIA

1959 was a turning point for Indonesia to become a country with a new 'identity', where it was the first year of the revival of the 1945 Constitution, including the actions, decisions, and powers of the President to initiate large-scale development. For President Soekarno, concrete was able to become a tool to symbolize modernity and equality for the Indonesian people who experienced long imperialism from the Europeans (colonies). Indonesia's long history triggered Soekarno to make Indonesia an equal country with other countries, so through the Nation and Character Building mission, megaprojects were carried out. While the next era is in the hands of President Soeharto, national stability which refers to the development of basic needs and infrastructure is one of the important plans in the PELITA program series. How was the modernization process in Indonesia in the post-colonial period presented through concrete materials and what factors or events were related to it; become the focus of the problem in this research. The purpose of exploring these problems is to get a new perspective to explore and assess the role of concrete in the Indonesian modernization process in physical development which was influenced by important factors and events in the two postcolonial regimes. The data on domestic cement production and consumption activities in Indonesia serve as glasses to see how the traces of the modernization of the Indonesian nation are in the context of physical development. The results show that there are two peaks of the highest domestic consumption of cement which proves that concrete is an important part of the development process in the post-colonial period: (1) In 1961 it was 788,000 tons in the era of the construction of the Istiqlal Mosque, an increase of 73.6% from the previous year; (2) In 1970, it reached 1,214,603 tons in the PELITA I era, with an increase of 27% from the previous year.

In Pursuit of Fitness: Bodywork, Temporality and Self-Improvement in Mozambique

Sub-Saharan Africa is no longer an outlier in the global ‘fitness revolution’. In cities across the continent, a growing number of people are adopting a more active lifestyle. In Mozambique – where only a few years ago, gyms and joggers were few and far between, and not many people would have considered working out at all, let alone in public – exercising is now remarkably popular. Based on ethnographic research carried out in various fitness sites in Maputo, this article examines the new urban rhythms and temporal orientations fostered by the growing popularity of fitness in the region and extends genealogies of the self-improving subject by situating the pursuit of fitness in relation to successive colonial and post-colonial regimes that promoted various forms of body-work as part of broader ethical projects of the self. I argue that, while it might be tempting to dismiss the growing popularity of fitness as the mere encroachment of neoliberal ideals of the self-improving subject, doing so would not only gloss over significant historical continuities but risk overshadowing the ways in which the pursuit of fitness is enhancing the quality of life of many. In recognising the ethical value that these projects have for those who pursue them, the article sheds light on the appeal of fitness in a specific space–time, while moving away from what are often contemptuous assessments of this global trend. I show how, as an aspirational pursuit that operates at the intersections of health and beauty, fitness creates a particular orientation towards the future that borrows from socialist registers of discipline and struggle while, in turn, highlighting the continued relevance of such registers within contemporary imaginaries. At a time when global health priorities are shifting, ethnographic accounts like the one presented here are needed to help to complicate understandings of the articulation between health and moral imaginaries of self-improvement.

A Diáspora como Base da Identidade Cabo-Verdiana em Ilhéu dos Pássaros, de Orlanda Amarílis, e Chiquinho, de Baltasar Lopes

The harsh environmental conditions of the Cape Verde islands introduce the theme of emigration as a justifiable escape from a miserable life of hard work, threatened by starvation. Cape-Verdean identity is built upon the experience of that reality, without being confined to the geographical borders of the archipelago. According to Bradley Smith’s definition, being Cape-Verdean means assuming a foundationally diasporic identity, characterized by hybrid miscegenation and by a feeling of double consciousness in reverse (subverting Paul Gilroy’s thesis). Baltasar Lopes, in Chiquinho, and Orlanda Amarílis, in Ilhéu dos Pássaros, skillfully use the motto of emigration in a broad sense, which encompasses different phases of country development and the mentality changes that follow, thus presenting distinct views of the diasporic possibilities beyond the islands. This article will also highlight the importance of language in the formation of national identity, through competition faced by creole against standard Portuguese (in the context of social mobility in colonial and post-colonial regimes) and other foreign languages, like English or French (useful in the diaspora).

Politics and the legacy of street renaming in postcolonial Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT The announcement by the government of Zimbabwe on 21 November 2019 that a good number of streets were to be renamed motivated this study. We argue that the postcolonial urban landscape in Zimbabwe is increasingly becoming a space of contestation regarding renaming streets. Street renaming in Zimbabwe emphasizes the struggle against coloniality and a search for resilience and purpose among those in power. The leaders seek to use the renaming process to show their contribution to the national struggle and patriotism by honouring some fallen heroes and heroines. However, in a country characterised by hyperinflation, corruption, and fuel and cash shortages, such an emphasis has been deemed (by many ordinary citizens) a cover-up for failure to address glaring challenges. The narrative contributes to the literature on place names as ‘spaces of contestation,’ as street names are used to embody a particular narrative related to the postcolonial government’s history. The renaming provides another ‘soft layer’ of the urban landscape, which is about heritage and less of history.

Relational governance of territorial resources in post-colonial Africa – A new analytic framework

Current political sociology scholarship suggests that limited state autonomy from societal organisations undermines state enforcement capacity throughout the national territory, and therefore does superficial separation of the state from civil society (or formal from informal institutions) in the conceptualisation of what effective state system ought to be. These conceptions contradict realities in post-colonial Africa where societal organisations have evolved to bear ‘state-like’ qualities in resource governance, especially in remote locations where the state has no promising alternative to accommodating inputs from revered institutions or charismatic actors to complement its functions. Colonial experiences in Africa have produced institutional pluralism and a consequential split loyalty to the state in the post-independence era. Apparently, limited state autonomy sometimes refract or obstruct state visions; the resultant co-governance regime does not imply ‘wishy-washy’ state leadership. This is because state formation processes have produced an intermeshed governance of people, places, and resources through a complicated interplay between entities which have become indistinct in terms of functions, and hence cannot be simplistically categorised as either formal or informal, state or non-state. In this sense, the activity of regulating affairs in the post-colonial regime is characterised by relational governance – a form of governance sutured via reciprocal relation(s) between multiple actors across differentspatial scales and milieus. Drawing on an empirical study of biofuel projects in Ghana, we believe a relational governance approach provides an analytic framework to challenge this orthodoxy in governance studies and refresh discussions on the nature of state-society relations required for effective governance of territorial resources in postcolonial regimes characterised by institutional pluralism.

How do borders influence migration? Insights from open and closed border regimes in the three Guianas

The ways border regimes affect migration patterns remain ambiguous. Closed borders may constrain migration but also encourage migrants to pursue alternative migration channels and destinations. While open borders may be associated with higher migration, oftentimes they promote circulation and return. To clarify how different border regimes influence migration patterns, this article examines the impact of open and closed border regimes on migration outcomes in Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana in the 1950s–1980s period, when all three gained independence or non-sovereign status and colonial ties were strong. The article proposes a conceptual schematic model that can accommodate varied post-colonial political and border regime transitions and explains changes in the timing, destination and composition of migration. The analysis finds that, counterintuitively, closed borders can lead to high emigration while open borders can encourage people to stay. The proposed model also illustrates the relevance of three dimensions of time: the historical juncture, the sequence of change and the time span. In sum, rather than preventing migration, border regimes yield important effects that lead to migration diversification.

An entangled history of postcolonial and socialist education: institutional transfer for educational equality and national development

ABSTRACT Searching for development paths and suitable educational policies, postcolonial governments often turned to the experiences of other countries and sought to adapt these to their own contexts. Research on such processes has largely neglected the resulting entanglements between postcolonial and European socialist countries, and between different postcolonial countries. This gap in research is addressed in this article by tracing a world-spanning history of educational transfers that has its origins in the Workers’ Faculties of the early Soviet Union. Workers’ Faculties were established with two goals: quickly channelling members of formerly disadvantaged social groups into higher education by providing university-preparatory education to workers and peasants; and providing suitably educated cadres for the development of a socialist society. After World War 2, institutions drawing on the Soviet experiences and combining these two goals were established in European, Asian, Latin American, and African countries. Tracing the processes of transfers and local interpretations of these institutions gives insights into an entangled history of postcolonial and socialist education, but also into how tensions between education as a means to provide social equality and education as a tool for (socialist) development played out in various national contexts.

LAND TENURE INSECURITY AND LAND CONFLICTS IN THE BAMENDAGRASSFIELDS OF CAMEROON: PUZZLING EVIDENCE FROM BALINYONGA/BAWOCK LAND CONFLICT

This paper examines the challenges of land tenure insecurity and land conflicts in the Bamenda Grassfields of Cameroon. Colonial and later, postcolonial governments of Cameroon introduced different and most often, conflicting land policies. These divergent land policies, later on, replaced collective ownership of land with private ownership. This paper, focuses on the different causes of land tenure insecurity such as inequality, outside encroachment, and common property challenges. It also tackles the measure causes of land conflicts such as multiple land sales, land scarcity, population growth, poor boundary demarcation, land laws and contested records of land conflicts. Despite these challenges, land tenure security was achieved through customary land, state land and individual titling. However, the case study between Bali Nyonga and Bawock demonstrates efforts by different parties to confront, manage and resolve land dispute. Based on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, this paper argues that, land tenure insecurity and land disputes have benefitted the rich, and fostered social inequalities. The study concludes that, despite the lessons and opportunities for intervention advanced, land tenure insecurity and land conflicts in Cameroon could only be overcome, if the present structures and institutions of land management are modernized and restructured by stakeholders to benefit the majority.

Academic Letter on French Indochina War: Metaphors for Strategic Insight

Pandemics and military catastrophes illustrate systems fragility and impel strategic reflection. The French Indochina War (FIW) from 1946-1954 furnishes useful insights with resonance for current infectious, climatic, pollution, economic and security challenges. Five strategic themes structured an analysis of historical literature. The reasons for the French failure in 1954 involved fundamental regime illegitimacy, political equivocation, intelligence shortcomings, strategic and operational failures but also the determination, strength and adaptability of the Việt Minh (VM). In 1945, France had re-occupied Vietnam to re-assert its global credentials. Later, Cold War logic and American aid sustained “La sale guerre”. However, the conflict merely delayed and bloodied an inevitable post-colonial regime shift. To maintain American aid flows yet retain French regional influence, the commander of the Expeditionary Corps, Henri Navarre, adopted an offensive stance. He sought to crush the VM, breathe life into the moribund French Union (L’Union francaise) and block Giap’s feints on Laos. In November 1954, he inserted a fortified camp at remote Dien Bien Phu (DBP). However, Navarre ignored the lessons of Hoa Binh (1950-51), Nghĩa Lộ (1951). He misread Na Sản (1952) and underestimated VM capabilities. Operationally, the distance of DBP from Hanoi stretched the French aero-logistical system to its limits. Navarre also diverted resources to sideshow – Operation Atlante. Giap realised Navarre had taken the bait and sealed off the besieged camp with five divisions, including an artillery one. On 13th March, the VM attacked and conquered the garrison after 56 days on the evening of 7-8th May 1954. Navarre’s gamble had spectacularly backfired. Militarily, the French Expeditionary Corps might have recovered even considering the bloodbath at Mang Yang Pass almost seven weeks later. However, the psychological blow unmasked regime financial and political bankruptcy. Power drained away to the Americans or the communists. Whilst French Indochina perpetuated an iniquitous social structure, tainted by racism, symbolic and physical violence, it arguably it also protected minorities, spurned dictatorship and transferred culture and technology. The most striking finding that emerges from this investigation is the incredible transformation of the geography of Vietnam since 1948. Then, tigers and elephant roamed in jungles, 160km North West of Saigon, near Phan Thiết. Today, suburbia encroaches on depleted coffee plantations and desiccated scrub. Aside from concerns over the long-term ecological trajectories under anthropogenic pressures in ostensibly communist or capitalist inspired systems and, notwithstanding today’s very different context, the detailed investigation into aspects of the War provides strategic metaphors involving fiscal re-calibration, governance hierarchy or incentive regulations, hubristic corrections and ecological transformation.

STATE–BUILDING, CITIZENSHIP AND THE BANYARWANDA QUESTION IN THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO

Since achieving independence in June 1960, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been grappling with the question of the citizenship of Kinyarwanda and Kirundi-speaking populations settled on its territory at different historical periods, herein referred to as the Banyarwanda. While there is evidence of the presence of some Banyarwanda communities on current Congolese territory prior to the advent of Belgian colonisation in the area, the majority of the Banyarwanda currently living in the DRC are descendants of those brought into the country through colonial immigration and labour recruitment processes, political exile and refuge as well as clandestine migration. Using a historical perspective, this article analyses the manner in which the question of the citizenship of the Banyarwanda has been handled in the DRC since the establishment of the Congo Free State in 1885. The article locates the roots of the problem in the poorly designed colonial policies surrounding the relocation of these populations to the Kivu region. However, the article acknowledges that the sole shortcomings on the part of colonial authorities would have never had the current consequences if it was not for the inconsistencies of the different post-colonial governments that have ruled over the DRC. Instead of resolving the citizenship question in an effective and sustainable manner, all these governments have based their respective responses to the issue on short-term political expediencies as dictated by the balance of forces within the country, the Kivu area and the Great Lakes region at a particular juncture.

Journey to the West: Malay(si)an Women's Narratives of Travels in England, 1934-58

This paper examines two texts by Malay(si)an women: Aishah Ghani’s Ibu Melayu Mengelilingi Dunia (1956) and P.G. Lim’s memoirs, Kaleidoscope (2012). It focusses on the narratives of their journeys to and in England between 1934 and 1958. P.G. Lim (1915-2013) and Aishah Ghani (1923-2013) were contemporaries who lived in Malaya under British colonial rule, participated in nationalist movements for Malaya’s independence, and served in the post-colonial government of Malaya and Malaysia in pioneering roles. Their journeys to England took place before the Second World War and after. Their travel narratives provide readers with valuable insight into the rapidly changing roles of Malay(si)an women within a span of twenty-five years. Lim’s and Aishah’s travels to England in the waning days of the British Empire reveal their experiences and observations of the imperial centre, and the significance of these to their notions of women’s freedom of movement and independence from colonial rule. Informed by the work of Inderpal Grewal on Indian female travellers to the West, this paper aims to address the limited research on the history of female mobility, travel, and travel writing in Malay(si)a.

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security

The Origins of the Syrian Conflict: Climate Change and Human Security

Language, Resistance and Multilingualism in Post-Colonial Zimbabwe: The Kalanga and their Struggle for Recognition

The article focuses on language policy in Zimbabwe and argues that both the colonial and post-colonial governments advocated a unitary language policy in which English and the two major indigenous languages – ChiShona and IsiNdebele – were adopted as national languages. For the post-colonial government, this language policy was influenced by prevailing ideas about linguistic unity as a prerequisite for economic development and the construction of a cohesive national identity. This approach led to the marginalisation of minor languages and their associated cultures in education and the wider public sphere. The article shows how one marginalised linguistic community, the Kalanga of south-western Zimbabwe, responded to the government’s exclusionary policies. It traces the resistance to such government policies and the promotion of the TjiKalanga language and culture by two organisations – the Kalanga Cultural Promotion Society, relaunched in 1980, and the Kalanga and Language and Cultural Development Association, founded in 2005. It also engages with the various activities and interventions carried out by the two groups, leading to the introduction of TjiKalanga in schools, among other achievements. Furthermore, the article argues that the rise and development of the two TjiKalanga language and cultural promotion organisations illustrate the pitfalls of centralising and unifying tendencies in both the colonial and post-colonial governments in Zimbabwe. It also demonstrates the agency and resistance of minority groups in relation to these flawed policies. By assessing the performance of the two organisations, the article views their activities as a form of cultural resistance to the hegemonic and exclusionist policies of post-independence Zimbabwean government. Cultural resistance is used as a conceptual approach through which the limits of the impact of hegemonic monolithic language policies on minority groups, such as the Kalanga in the post-colonial Zimbabwean context, are illustrated and illuminated.