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Sub programme 1
Changes in political culture and the emergence of new social
profiles/movements
Within the contours of African political culture, we consider how new
social movements and actors form in the current African postcolonial
conditions shaped by liberalization and globalization. Who and what are
these new actors and what is their social profile? For instance, what do
activists and political actors of a previous generation – revolutionaries,
reformers, youth activists, guerrilla fighters, criminalized political
elites – do after their ‘projects’ have ended in success or failure, or
after they have been co-opted or neutralized? What is the shape and role of
new collective ideological/religious identities? How do new actors emerge
from situational contexts, shaped by changing social and political factors,
and new global conditions (e.g. post-9/11)? How do they mobilize support or
adherence, coalesce into new social profiles and power bases, and how do
they contribute to reshaping political culture and the socio-political
order?
Examples here are the evolution of the former leaders and membership of
anti-apartheid movements (the UDF and the ANC) and their changing careers, or
the emergence of new ethnic elites/entrepreneurs redefining state and
governance, and perhaps the changing vicissitudes of the former guerrilla or
insurgent movements now in power (as in Uganda, Ethiopia or Eritrea). These
political actors emanated from social movements and have transformed them.
Religious public intellectuals or community leaders in divided countries
with a failing political order (e.g. Nigeria) could be another important
focus of attention, as they might form an alternative route for public
influence and mobilization. Emerging religious identifications can form
alternatives or parallel orders to the political arena. Studies of organized
crime and criminal/illegal entrepreneurs in Africa and their growing
international ramifications would also fall under this heading, although
there is some overlap with the theme mentioned below. While crime and
corruption are not unique to Africa, their direct political impact there is
probably greater than elsewhere, inhibiting institution-building,
development and fair social redistribution.1
This overarching research theme of new social profiles/movements will be by
far the most important focus of the new theme group. Discussed below are
examples of themes that will be elaborated as research projects.
a. A general history of Madagascar
Stephen Ellis This project aims to produce a general history of Madagascar in English, the first (with the exception of a small, privately published book by Mervyn Brown) since the 19th century. It is to be published by Hurst & Co., London. b. Religious identities and local politics in Northeast Africa
G.J. Abbink This project addresses the growing public role of religion in society in the Horn of Africa, a region that has attracted the attention of both militants as well as regional and global concerns about security (War on Terror). Religion has a tenuous relationship with politics and ethnic group relations. Religious reorientation and mobilization in Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia (with the rapid rise of the politically driven Islamic Courts Union), is occurring in the face of enduring political crisis and economic insecurity. We see both grassroots social process of revivalism and articulation against political threats and the loss of livelihood, as well as evolving counter-discourses against perceived hegemonism of governments and powerful non-African actors. With no dramatic improvements in sight regarding livelihoods, political freedoms and democratic rights, many people refer back to religious culture. Access to psychological and social security is enhanced through institutions and networks defined by religious adherence that can also marshal support from other countries. The role of Muslim organizations and new Christian churches, enhanced by conditions of economic and political liberalization, will be the subject of research and studied in their role of taking over or adding to that of more classic civil-society organizations like labour, peasant, student, teacher and ethno-regional organizations. The project will examine whether they have entered into alliances with any of these groups. c. Post-Apartheid South Africa: trajectories of the transition
Ineke van Kessel This research seeks to establish the impact of social and political change in South Africa after 1990 on the lives of individuals and movements that I first researched around 1990-92. How have people interpreted the changes in society and in their lives? What is the current state of social movements?
Around 1990, Marxism was commonly used as the preferred frame of reference to analyse South African society. Contending social forces were locked in an epic class struggle. Apartheid was characterised as racial capitalism. The goal of the struggle was not to deracialize capitalism, but to do away with both apartheid and capitalism. Political activists envisaged a colour-blind, egalitarian, participatory society. Participation rather than pluralism was seen as the defining characteristic of democracy.
However, a decade after the introduction of South Africa's democratic constitution, South Africa remains a highly stratified society: racial stratification is no longer the guiding principle of its social and political institutions, but social stratification remains as stark as before. The buppy-class seems to have conveniently forgotten their previous egalitarian ideals. Political participation is on the decline.
How did the concept of change acquire a different meaning in post-apartheid South Africa: from the ideal of a democratic, non-racial, egalitarian society to a new goal of black empowerment, the fostering of a black middle class, consumerism and African nationalism.
d. A History of Nigerian Organized Crime
S.D.K. Ellis Nigerian crime syndicates, often considered by law enforcement officers internationally as 'organized crime', have gained a certain international notoriety, particularly in the fields of drugs and fraud. This research aims to study the history of such 'organized crime' with a view to discovering how and why it has developed. However, it is clear that the research will also need to grapple with some important conceptual issues, including how legitimate it is to describe Nigerian crime as 'organized', and how crime or criminals may be discerned in a situation where senior state officials themselves routinely commit economic crimes in particular. Initial inquiries suggest that modern organized crime in Nigeria or committed by Nigerians outside the country can hardly be separated from the growth of such global phenomena as money-laundering and business and political corruption, perhaps going back to the post-1945 period. e. Muslim Public Intellectuals in West Africa
B.F. Soares This study focuses on Muslim public intellectuals in West Africa especially in Nigeria. It explores various Muslim public intellectuals' understandings and practices of Islam and the kinds of social and political agendas they seek to advance, as well as their influence on changing ways of being Muslim in contemporary West Africa. Muslim public intellectuals are those persons who communicate about Islam or as Muslims to the public or various publics. This communication can be oral and/or written, and might be face-to-face communication (sermons, teaching) or mass-mediated (via television, radio, audiocassette, video, DVD, or internet). They include traditional Muslim intellectuals ('ulama) and newer Muslim intellectuals, such as secular-educated Islamist newspaper columnists, Muslim media stars, Muslim youth activists, and Muslim women preachers/activists, many of whom have complex transnational ties, affiliations, and aspirations. f. Religion and Modernity in Colonial and Postcolonial Mali
B.F. Soares The project aims to understand the connection between changing modalities of religious expression, different modes of belonging, and emergent social imaginaries in colonial and postcolonial Mali. It focuses on the complexities of changing social and religious identities, communities, and practices in a world characterized by greater mobility, marked increases in urban economic activities, formal education, and new forms of "modern" knowledge and governmentality in 20th century Mali. g. A History of the Sawaba Rebellion in Niger, 1954 - 1974
Klaas van Walraven This project aims at an historical reconstruction of a forgotten episode in the history of West Africa, i.e. the rise and fall of the Sawaba movement of Niger. Based on extensive research of Nigérien, French, British and Ghanaian archives, as well as fieldwork throughout Niger, it analyses the nature and significance of Sawaba, as a social movement and political formation, in the context of Niger's post-World War II history. Its social and political programme culminated in an attempt to recapture power by violent means, after the movement had been evicted in 1958. The research also traces the trajectories of the movement's members after the failure of the Sawaba rebellion.
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