Demilitarizing the Mind: African Agendas for Peace and Security. Edited by Alex de Waal
Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2002. 166 pp. $21.95 paper
This brief volume of anonymously written essays by African politicians, civil society leaders, and policy makers is the culmination of a series of meetings in late 2000 sponsored by Justice Africa on regional peace and security in Africa. In seven succinct chapters, the authors cover an array of topics, focusing on the militarization of African societies and suggesting ways to overcome that destructive culture.
Recognizing the centrality of militarism in Africa, the authors wonder whether a security community could emerge in which it is unacceptable to use force to settle disputes. They look at the possibility of whether the African Union, the successor to the Organization of African Unity (OAU), could create the institutions, norms, and procedures to forge a security communityacross the continent. The authors also look at regional and sub-regional groups as possible enforcers of peace, including the EAC in eastern Africa, ECOWAS in west Africa, and SADC in southern Africa. They admit that while the idea of a security community rests on the assumption that inter-state conflicts are primary and internal conflicts secondary, this is not the case for Africa where conflicts are overwhelmingly internal and where inter-state conflicts arise from the internal problems of one or more states. Can inter-state security be built in the absence of peace in member states? According to the authors, conditions are not auspicious for a robust regional framework for security as in Europe or Asia, but that Africa nevertheless must be creative in working through its existing institutions.
How to ensure peace within states is addressed. The well-known trajectory of coups, followed by states of emergency, consolidation of the one-party state, and refusal to relinquish power are described. Lamenting the fact that "achieving peaceful and lawful transfer of power is something that very few African countries have achieved," (58) the authors wonder whether a "good coup" is justified against a ruler who has abused his power by remaining in office indefinitely.
The authors discuss both left-wing and right-wing militarism, pointing out that while left wing revolutionaries seek to right a perceived wrong, leftist military rulers often end up resembling the autocrats they overthrew. Militaristic leaders of all political persuasions have a tendency to use violence as a first rather than a last resort. The possibility of sustaining peace, then, requires the demilitarization of governance. Recognizing that constitutions can be abused or subverted, the authors argue nonetheless that constitutionalism is vital to establishing a national and international order in Africa that can create peace and security. And while women and youth comprise two groups of civil society that may mobilize for peace, the authors note that in the midst of a conflict, the primary identification of any social group will be with one of the parties in conflict because of ethnic, religious, or regional allegiance and the need for physical security.
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Addressing "commercial militarism" (the authors admit that mercenaries may at times be a necessary evil), their deployment unfortunately sustains the belief that "the only way of achieving political change in Africa is through the use of force." (137) The problem in Africa is not the military per se but rather "the military in excess: in excessive numbers and elevated status, and a militaristic mode of conducting political and social affairs." (156)
How can specifically African traditions of non-violent struggle and change be reinvigorated? The authors ask more questions than they answer. But these questions are worth asking because militarism is not a uniquely African problem. Focusing on such important questions about the culture of militarism, and the need for non-violent solutions, this volume deserves a wide readership from Africanists and non-Africanists alike.
Lyn Graybill teaches African politics and international relations at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is the author of Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Miracle or Model? (Lynne Rienner, 2002) and Religion and Resistance Politics in South Africa (Praeger, 1995). Her articles have been published in Human Rights Review, Ethics & International Affairs, Current History, Africa Today, Women's Studies International Forum, and Third World Quarterly.
