Social Movements and Political Culture

Sub programme 2
Liberalization and the remaking of the socio-political order

New social movements and actors are emerging in the context of political and economic liberalization, which has accelerated since about 1990 and marks contemporary globalization. Liberalization processes are having an impact in Africa which is still not fully understood. Liberalization refers to the demise of state-led economies, all-encompassing ideologies and monolithic state regimes – current in the 1970s-1980s – and their dissolution into ideologies and models of market-oriented and pluralist systems of governance, usually fuelled by globalization processes and international institutions and corporations. There is a large body of literature attesting to the crisis of the state in Africa. While this is a paradigm that can easily lead to defeatism and analytical paralysis, and to some may seem to reflect undue Afro-pessimism, some obvious facts of state crisis or government deficit are hard to ignore. Most ordinary Africans have no confidence or trust in their state or the ruling elites. While the state cannot be expected to offer full public service provisions, it is not performing well in the basics of security maintenance or legal accountability, and often hinders and sabotages rather than supports and stimulates people to survive and fulfill their aspirations. The recent political record of African states shows a return to autocratic governance and is feeding despair among many citizens.
There is a continued need to understand not only the great economic and political realignments but also the social and cultural ones going on in Africa¹, especially in local-level societies, in the fast-growing urban centres and in neglected, marginalized sectors such as pastoral groups outside the core centres of power. Western impact on the global discourse of liberalization is still paramount (notably in the political sphere) but no one knows for how long and how this will transform. Especially in the economic sphere, others are taking over. The growing role of China as a trade, development and political partner of many African countries is conspicuous² – not least due to its ultra-neoliberal approach of laissez faire, laissez passer in the classical sense – and poses challenges. China’s unscrupulous role in Sudan’s oil production and the adverse consequences of its economic involvement for local populations are one example.³ Liberalization is not the prerogative of the West but a general trend of which the social and cultural implications are yet not fully appreciated. In African societies, liberalization and democracy⁴ have often come to be associated with chaos, a free-for-all and disarray. This has effects in the world of African politics and power, but also in media and communications. The term liberalization thus invites wider conceptual reflections, as it is nowadays usually adopted or rejected on primarily ideological grounds.

1. Cf. J. Ferguson, Global Shadows: Africa in the Neoliberal World Order (Durham: Duke University Press, 2006).
2. See the official document ‘China’s Africa Policy’ at: http://www.fmprc.gov.cn/eng/zxxx/t230615.htm.
3. See: R. Dixon, ‘Africans Lash Out at Chinese Employers’, Los Angeles Times, 6 October 2006. Other aspects are discussed in: J. Giles, ‘Tide of Censure for African Dams’, Nature, 22 March 2006.
4. See for African contributions to the debate: T. Lumumba-Kasongo (ed.), Liberal Democracy and its Critics in Africa (Dakar: CODESRIA Books & London-New York: Zed Books. 2005).

Research Projects:

a. Africa and China
Piet Konings

The Republic of China's renewed interest in Africa in the era of neo-liberal globalization is one of the most significant developments in the region. This project tries to examine two major questions. First, what factors are behind Beijing's renewed interest in Africa and what is their social, economic and political impact on the continent? Second, what is the response of the African political elite and other social groups to the growing Chinese presence on the continent. What makes a study of Sino-African relations particularly interesting is that, for the African political elite, China appears to offer an alternative development strategy to Africa: non-interference in state sovereignty, freedom from western hegemony and an absence of economic and political conditions to aid-giving. In sharp contrast to the African elite, the responses of ordinary Africans to the growing Chinese presence appears to be less positive. Chinese market practices and labour relations in particular are giving rise to new expressions of social movements of protest and rivalry.

b. Mainline Christian Churches and Neo-Liberal Globalization in Africa
Piet Konings

The project examines the role of mainline Christian Churches in Africa during economic and political liberalization. This role appears to be quite varied. While some of these mainline churches have been more or less inclined to support the ruling regimes, the majority of them appear to have made a major contribution to the re-making of the socio-economic and political order. Interestingly, in some African states they seem to have taken over the socio-economic and political roles of the more classic civil-society organizations and to have given birth to wider social movements of protest and contestation.

c. Industrialisation and Social Change: Arlit, Niger and the New History
Klaas van Walraven

The sudden appearance of mining-induced mineral wealth fundamentally affected the economic and social relations of Niger's pre-industrial society. This research addresses how these relations became affected by processes of sudden urbanisation (the rise of the town of Arlit), the emergence of a proletariat, and changes in socioeconomic and political power as a result of uranium-acquired prosperity. While permanently shifting the country's economic focus from south to north, and from a cash-crop based economy to mining-induced wealth, it did not fundamentally end the problems of poverty and dependence. With the collapse of uranium prices in the 1990, the problem of debt served to underline the external vulnerability of an economy grounded in the exploitation of mineral resources, theryby providing a longer-term historical persepctive to contemporary neo-liberal agendas of reform.

d. The Black Dutchmen: African soldiers in the Dutch East Indies
Ineke van Kessel

This project has documented the history of 3,000 Africans who during the 19th century were recruited in West Africa, mainly present-day Ghana, to serve in the Netherlands East Indies army (KNIL). The vast majority of recruits were ex-slaves who purchased their freedom with an advance on their army pay. In the East Indies, they counted as part of the European formation of the army and were entitled to equal treatment with European soldiers. After their contracts expired, a number returned to Elmina in Ghana, but many settled with their families on Java. In the following generations, most men continued to serve in the army. After Indonesian independence, most Indo-Africans were repatriated to the Netherlands. The Africans and their descendants went through a sequence of vastly different identities: slaves in Africa, 'Europeans' in the East Indies, and black immigrants in the 1950s in the Netherlands.

e. Oil and social development in Africa. The case of Chad
Han van Dijk

The issue of oil and social development has wide relevance in Africa. One example to be studied in the new theme group is Chad, a poor country but one that is a new player in the global oil market. The riches of oil wealth can often produce harrowing economic and political problems that reproduce poverty and these problems, in turn, generate economic and social shocks that threaten global stability. The World Bank has devised a petroleum development strategy for Chad that it believes may avoid or mitigate such problems. Previous studies of oil's negative impact come from a number of disciplines, especially economics and political science. This research proposes four explanations - the 'Dutch disease' (distorted growth in the oil-related sector and stagnation or decline in parts of the agricultural and industrial sectors), neo-patrimonialism, rent capture, and deconstructive cultural representation - that may account for why Chad, or any other developing country, can be transformed into a country plagued by the curse of oil. The impact of oil exploitation on Chadian society will be investigated and an examination of social movements (the NGO sector, political parties, and civil society) will be part of this project.