Histories of violence, 3: Political violence in Niger. The influence of colonial heritage and revolutionary ideology

Dr Klaas van Walraven, researcher at the African Studies Centre, is a political scientist who has an interest in various topics in African politics. Besides publications on African international relations and interventions in conflicts, he has published on resistance in African history. Recent publications include a chapter on the Sawaba revolt in Niger and the introductory chapter to the volume Rethinking Resistance: Revolt and Violence in African History, of which he was co-editor.

This seminar focuses on the Sawaba rebellion in Niger – a revolt in the 1960s on which no scholarly research was ever undertaken. In outlining its history, the paper focuses particularly on the influence of the system of political repression as constructed by the French colonial power, and of Marxist-inspired ideologies of revolutionary liberation on the outbreak, pattern and outcome of the Sawaba revolt.