Africa and the New World Dis-Order: Rethinking Colonial Borders

Author(s): Francis M. Deng

Source: The Brookings Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (Spring, 1993), pp. 32-35
Published by: The Brookings Institution
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20080384
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 AFRICA
AND THE

New World Dis-Order

Colonial Borders
Rethinking

FRANCIS As the drama of the fall of the Berlin Wall and question
was critical to how those conflicts should be
the breakup of the Soviet Union begins to re addressed and managed. If the causes were internal,
M. DENG cede into memory, overtaken by the Persian then remedies had to be sought internally. If they were
Gulf War, the wars in Yugoslavia, and the landing of related to the superpowers' rivalry, then not had
only
U.S. troops in Somalia, the notion of sovereignty within the solutions to be sought through them, but their sup
national borders becomes an ever more issue. for their allies was a The debate
pressing port given. generally
Francis M. Deng is
The world seems to be of two minds?and mov dichotomized between those who welcomed
positions
a senior in the
fellow ing in contradictory directions?regarding national and even
sought external intervention as necessary and
borders. On the one hand are moves, as in the Euro those who resisted it as an undesirable
Brookings Foreign complication
pean Community, toward overriding national borders and of internal or conflicts.
aggravation regional
Policy Studies
in favor of enlarged unity. On the other hand are Now that the Cold War has ended, from the point
program. He is the moves toward new and of view of strategic and ideological considerations, the
fragmentation, whereby
are erected
author, with Larry
sometimes deadly borders within old states, major powers have largelywithdrawn from thirdworld
as in the former Soviet Union and in the former Yu out fears of Africans that the
concerns?bearing early
Minear, ofThe Chal
These two models would seem end of the bipolar confrontation would result inwhat
goslavia. contradictory
of Famine to suggest that in this new world order, those who is now conceived in Africa as
lenges popularly marginaliza
have been
Relief: oppressed by the concentrated power of the tion. External strategic and ideological considerations
Emergency
centralized system of the nation state are the thus having been removed, African now exist
asserting problems
Operations in the need for self-determination, while those free in regional and national, but not con
already international,
Sudan are to and move toward texts. Causes and effects of conflicts are
(Brookings, choosing modify sovereignty increasingly
larger cooperative frameworks. as internal, a with
and editor, recognized primarily development
1992),
Nowhere is the tension between the opposing both positive and negative implications.
with I. William trends of and or as
unity autonomy independence In the past Africa was tied into global structures and
as it is in Africa, where the colonial borders first by colonial intervention and
Zartman, of Conflict pressing processes, then by
Cold War linkages into a chain of interde
have been as both artificial and sacrosanct.
Resolution in Africa perceived ideological
The signal from the developments at the international Absent those
pendent dependency. ties, self-reliance,
(Brookings, 1991). level is that old about borders and nation both in the resolution or management of conflicts and
assumptions
This article is adapted hood are now under severe to say the least. in is increasingly
scrutiny, development, imperative. However,

a in
Ethiopia, which appears set to
give its ethnic groups having been dislodged, by their colonial past, from the
from chapter the right of self-determination, may well prove to be
indigenous values and institutions that permit building
Global Visions: a test case for the future. The time seems re
ripe for from within, Africans are left hanging between the lo
the colonial borders drawn on the map
Beyond the New visiting by Eu cal and the global systems.
ropean powers one hundred years With the striking of recent
nearly ago. exception develop
World Order, edited
ments in Somalia, conflicts in Africa no
devastating
byJeremy Brecher, The Constraints of the Old Order longer
seem to draw world attention. The decolo

Brown Childs, During the Cold War, the debate on conflicts around nization of Namibia, the dismantling of apartheid in
John
the world, and in Africa, centered on South Africa, and the in all
especially peace process Angola
andJill Cutler (South
whether they
were
internally rooted or
provoked by took place under the watchful eyes of the world at
End Press, 1993). the ideological
rivalry between the superpowers. The large. The United States played a catalytic role in the

3 2 THE BROOKINGS REVIEW

 transition
^?
inEthiopia fol-
^M
lowing the downfall ^B
in ^
ofMengistu Haue Miriam's government
May 1991. In contrast, Liberia, Mozambique, and
the Sudan endure their crises, set in motion as central

governments lost control of the countryside, in vir

tual isolation, although recent proposals at the United
Nations for support of the peace process inMozam
bique are encouraging if implemented.
The only areas in which the world still manifests
interest in Africa are South Africa and the drought
stricken and war-ravaged countries in desperate need
of humanitarian assistance. And of course the Interna
tionalMonetary Fund and theWorld Bank adjustment
programs keep the continent tied to the dictates of the
international financial and economic system.
Africans are reacting in a pragmatic way that points
at two seemingly contradictory, but in fact comple
mentary, lines of action. First, they are recognizing that
the world does not care much about them and that
they must take their destinies into their own hands. At
the same time, the imperatives of global interdepen
dence propel them to resist marginalization. Their aim
is to put their house in order and get back to the inter
national scene with a renewed sense of legitimacy.
The moves are not but concurrent. Re
sequential
cent years have witnessed a wave of earnest self-criti ence in 1991, and is now under consideration by the
cism inAfrica among intellectuals and even incumbent OAU. Also envisaged is an African Council of Elders,
political leaders. Promoting democracy and human mostly former heads of state and government who
rights has become a high priority in the African de have retired respectably and can continue to offer
bate. The Organization of African Unity Charter on leadership, primarily inmediating between parties to
Human and Peoples' Rights, the so-called Banjul domestic and regional conflicts.
Charter, was a symbolic step in this process. The Con The OAU Secretary-General has also revived the
ference on Security, Stability, Development, and Co dormant Commission on Mediation, Arbitration,
operation in Africa, Africa's so-called Helsinki process, and Conciliation and has established a conflict reso
was initiated by General Olusegun Obasanjo's African lution unit in the Secretariat. Current OAU involve
Leadership Forum, endorsed by the Kampaila Confer ment in mediating civil conflict in Rwanda suggests

SPRING 1993 3 3

BY ELIZABETH
ILLUSTRATION WOLF
 that the organization may find a more activist role. ized African leaders' search for cultural of
legitimation
If these moves can succeed, Africa will be in a bet their political and economic and strategies.
objectives
ter to resist at the interna Often the slogans were rationalizations for precon
position marginalization
tional level. ceived ideas and practices from pro
adopted foreign
totypes and dressed up in local garbs, but none
they
The Challenges of the New Order theless expressed
a
genuine yearning for building on
African whether in conflict management or the culture of the people.
problems,
development,
must be approached from the perspec With the end of the Cold War, this yearning is
tive of their local, and national contexts. Po Endowed with a sense of
regional, gathering strength. deeper
the as in most matters the real world that mere can no man
litically, starting point, pertain slogans longer
to Africa, has to be the colonial nation state, which age, Africans are now called on to find workable so
ing
brought together diverse groups that it paradoxically lutions to real
problems?and in the framework of the

separate and unintegrated. ethnic groups new world order.

kept Regional
were broken up and affiliated with others within the It is in this context that the revivalist Islamic trend
artificial borders of the new states, with colonial mas in North Africa should be understood. In the Sudan,
ters a of law and order to for the movement up in reaction both
imposing superstructure example, sprang
maintain relative peace and tranquility. to colonialism, which and
promoted Christianity
The movement was a collective Western of secular nationhood, and to the
independence concepts
struggle for self-determination that reinforced the collaboration of traditional Muslim leaders with for
notion of unity within the artificial framework of the eign powers, which reinforced conservatism in a situ
established nation state. ation that called for radical transformation. A twin
newly Initially, independence
came as a collective
gain that did not disaggregate
movement in this direction, indeed the first to be
who was to get what from the legacy of centralized born, was communism. Both were first and foremost

power and wealth. But because colonial institutions reactions to domestic conditions, and both used ideo
had divested the local communities and ethnic logical links to their international dimensions only
as

groups of much of their autonomy and tools of management in an interconnected world.

indigenous
sustainable livelihood and replaced them with a de In the Sudan, with the demise of communism, first
of centralized and dependency on the after the abortive coup of 1971, which was used
gree authority locally
welfare state system, once control of these institu to justify a debilitating blow to the Communist party,
tions passed on to the nationals at the and then with the of the Soviet
independence, internationally collapse
for control became unavoidable. The out Union and Eastern Muslim fundamentalists
struggle Europe,
come was often conflict ?over power, wealth, and remained the only credible alternative to outmoded
for led to gross vi traditional forces. The Muslim Brothers, who
opportunities development?that political
olations of human rights, denial of civil liberties, dis politically transformed themselves into the Islamic
of economic and social life, and consequent Charter Front and the National Islamic Front,
ruption
frustration of development. infiltrated the army and won the support of the offic
As the Cold War however, these conflicts ers who took over on 30, 1989, in the name of
raged, June
were seen not as domestic for power and re the Revolution for National Salvation, with Islamic
struggles
sources, but as extensions of the superpower revivalism as their
ideolog agenda.
ical confrontation. Rather than resolve them Islam in the Sudan has been closely associated with
help
the often worsened them Arabism as a racial, cultural, and
peacefully, superpowers by composite religious
and economic aid to their allies. Seen in the context of pluralism, however, the
providing military identity.
Although the end of the Cold War has removed challenge that faces the Muslim revivalists is how to
this external factor, it has also removed the reconcile their
religious legitimacy and basis of power
aggravating
role of the superpowers, both as third par with and value systems within the
moderating diversity conflicting
ties and as mutually neutralizing allies. As Liberia, So nation state and the still interdependent world.

malia, and Sudan illustrate, the results have been un Western values and institutions, the sep
including
brutalities and devastations. aration of and the state, that have thus far
mitigated religion
It can credibly be argued that the gist of these in dominated the nation-state system have been widely
ternal conflicts is that the ethnic pieces put together by adopted and internalized even by much of the Mus
colonial glue and reinforced by the old world order lim community. In the South of the Sudan, national
are now
pulling apart and
reasserting their autonomy. identity has evolved along indigenous African, Chris
Old identities, undermined and rendered dormant tian Western, and secular lines that contrast with the
the structures and values of the nation-state system, Arab-Islamic model of the North. Indeed, the two
by
are and the standards of partic to thrive on their mutual and
reemerging redefining appear antagonism
ipation, distribution, and legitimacy. In fact, itmay be struggle for survival.
even more accurate to say that the
process has been These complexities, however, do not invalidate the
on in a variety of ways and within the context quest for cultural and the need to under
going legitimation
of the constraints imposed by the nation-state system. take nationbuilding and development from within the
From the dawn of African such slo cultural context. The search for workable formulas
independence,
gans as Nkrumah's Conscien must consider the demands for autonomy
Senghor's N?gritude, conflicting
cism, Uhuru, Ujamaa, Mobutu's and equitable unity being made by various groups
Kenyatta's Nyerere's
Authenticit?, and Kaunda's Humanism have within the nation-state system. The operative princi
symbol

3 4 ROOKINGS REVIEW
 in this respect must be and jus there are many more candidates, and the ultimate ob
pies autonomy, equity,
tice. But the observance of these principles a should be a and
requires jective comprehensively peaceful, just,
third as mediator, moderator, and world.
party peacemaker, orderly
While have a role to
lawgiver. regional organizations
play, the most obvious institution called on to
play
a A New Berlin Conference
role is the United Nations. If progress is assumed to be an
pivotal integral part of human de
It must be admitted that once the colonial powers then the new world order must
velopment, emerging
accomplished the brutal task of conquest and pac signify
an
improvement
on the way
things have been.
a system
ification, they established of public order and The central themes of this improvement must be real
that brought peace to interethnic relations that trends, the quest for au
justice izing seemingly contradictory
had been afflicted by chronic violence throughout tonomy and the need for broadening circles of cooper
recorded history. While colonial intervention under ation and internationally. at the
regionally Leadership
standably provoked nationalistic reactions that ulti international level must pursue the ideals of freedom,
mately culminated in the movement, and prosperity for all nations and
independence democracy, justice,
the postulated role for the United Nations?establish worldwide. World leaders cannot discriminate
peoples
ing peace, and a between their own favored nationals and the marginal
justice, stability, prosperity?has
more and A ized nationals of foreign nations, at least not to a
compelling disarming justification. polit degree
ical, economic, social, and cultural system that au of dispossession. Liberating Kuwait must be defended
uses local resources and resourcefulness on universal not in terms of limited na
tonomously only principles,
within the framework of regional and global interac tional strategic objectives, if the role of theUnited States
tion and interdependency
can be
designed
to reconcile as the driving force behind UN action is to be viewed
the lofty ideals of unity with the imperatives of seg as global leadership. The same principle ismore glaring
mentation and As units of participation in the case of protection for
fragmentation.
and social orientation, the family, the clan, and the the Kurds in Iraq. This in
can
tribe
onistic
indeed
to the nation
be complementary
and the global
rather
order.
than antag turn
on theUnited
imposes
an
obligation
States and the
World leaders cannot
United Nations to exercise
The United Nations in the New Order same
Before the Persian Gulf War, theWest saw the United
the
responsibility
situations
in
of
discriminate between
comparable
Nations as a third world club and a forum for bashing need for international action.
the West,
War and
in particular
its aftermath turned
the United
the
States. The Gulf
in the
As the Somali case
situations
indi
of
their own favored
organization, cates, tragic
perception of the third world, into aWestern, that magnitude cannot be
specif
a U.S.,
ically
The United
tool for global
or more
control. left to local actors when
extent of human
the
nationals and the
States, appropriately George suffering
Bush, did not shy away from the role of leadership that and destruction of life and
the new view of the UN on the West, far
the United States.
places
resentment mem
especially property
should be tolerable even by
exceeds what
marginalized nationals
Despite by many
ber states of the of a system that has hith minimum standards of hu
inequalities
erto paid lip service to the principle of equality among man dignity and global re
the real test is the extent to which the If the interna
of foreign nations.
members, sponsibility.
United States lives up to the ideals of political, eco tional does not
community
nomic, and moral whether it operates in extend the of action in Somalia to other areas of
leadership, logic
or international institutions. massive what we are to
dividually through suffering, witnessing may prove
states are assumed to be motivated be a new world disorder. a in
Although usually Nearly century ago,
by national interests, the role of a world leader cer 1884-85, the major met at the Berlin
European powers
tainly carries with it burdens that should transcend conference and carved the African continent into
those interests. There is considerable con of real estate over which extended colonial
obviously pieces they
troversy in the United States about what Bush dominion. the time has come for another
George Perhaps
meant a new world order, what he Berlin at least a with a
by responsibilities conference, metaphorical one,
envisaged for the U.S. in that order, and different venue, and guiding
leadership participants, principles.
what financial baggage that leadership entails. Gener
Rethinking the borders does not necessarily imply
not much has been read into Bush's ones. What is required is a com
ally speaking, dismantling existing
rhetoric, especially its financial When for the prob
implications. prehensive strategy addressing realistically
that controversy is resolved, the United States will lems that threaten those borders from within. if
Only
have to be clearer on what the new order means, it proves impossible to find workable solutions within
whether and how the United States will assume the unity
can the revision of borders be justified. But when

leadership role, what the guiding principles of that that conclusion is reached, borders should no
longer be
leadership will be, and how itwill translate itself in the regarded
as untouchable. Ifwe are to rethink the colo

specific regions of the world where international ac nial borders to give to self-determina
greater meaning
tion is needed to address issues. Somalia tion and the of democracy and human
urgent already principles dig
has imposed itself on the international agenda, and the nity, must to clear the way in
policy analysts begin
former is competing for attention, but what is now a tangled thicket. H
Yugoslavia

S 1) Il IN G 19 9 3 3 5