This study examines the reasons why northern Burkina has been engulfed by endemic violence since the mid-2010s, in an effort to understand future evolutions and recommend coping and preventive... Show moreThis study examines the reasons why northern Burkina has been engulfed by endemic violence since the mid-2010s, in an effort to understand future evolutions and recommend coping and preventive action. The causes of the violence, the study asserts, are external to Burkina and are found in the contest between militant Salafism and the Western “War on Terror,” but the reasons why the conflicts have become entrenched are related to structural issues in Burkina’s internal geopolitics, political economy, and state formation.To demonstrate these claims, the study describes a “Conflict Zone” that emerged in northern Mali following the fall of the regime of Col. Kaddafi of Libya, and that extended into northern Burkina a few years later; it analyzes the internal geopolitics of the country and the peculiar position of the north and the east in relation to the center and the west – described as the twin pillars of the state; it contrasts the impacts of policies of national development under Sankarism in the 1980s and of the neoliberal orientations followed under Blaise Compaoré; it shows how these structures and histories played into tensions and conflicts in northern and eastern Burkina; and how, in turn, these issues made of the region a propitious ground for the extension of the Conflict Zone.The study ends with technical and political recommendations regarding, on the one hand, the revitalization of the regalian state (justice, security, administration), and, on the other hand, the framing of a new blueprint for society. These recommendations also take into account the fact that the Burkina conflicts are part of a Conflict Zone that has a transnational and international life of its own. Show less
Conflicts are multi causal and remain an inevitable part of human existence, and Africa like other parts of the world has had to grapple with the phenomenon. The Northern Region of Ghana has over... Show moreConflicts are multi causal and remain an inevitable part of human existence, and Africa like other parts of the world has had to grapple with the phenomenon. The Northern Region of Ghana has over the years been a hotbed of conflicts as several communities have gained notoriety for frequent violent disturbances. Though the “North” is not the only place of simmering tensions and conflicts since colonial times, the violent nature and intractability of some conflicts which often make the headlines for obviously “bad” reasons leaves much to be desired This paper examines Northern Ghana’s intractable conflicts many of which have partisan and political undertones, and have served as fodder to exacerbate; chieftaincy succession conflicts, land and boundary disputes, and others that may arise from competing group interests. More importantly, some of these disputes may directly be as a result of struggle for political power or domination. Whilst relying on textual or content analysis of conflicts in Ghana and Africa the author also makes use of, interviews, personal observation and experiences gained from the area under discussion. Resource persons and researchers, some from these conflict areas offered great insight for this write-up. Show less
In november 2014 was er opschudding over een bericht dat de Hogeschool van Amsterdam haar studenten niet naar Afrika liet reizen vanwege ebola en toenemende onveiligheid. Door het Afrika... Show moreIn november 2014 was er opschudding over een bericht dat de Hogeschool van Amsterdam haar studenten niet naar Afrika liet reizen vanwege ebola en toenemende onveiligheid. Door het Afrika-Studiecentrum en in sociale media werd daar fel op gereageerd: het stigmatiseert Afrika. Er werd gedaan alsof het alleen in Afrika onveilig zou zijn en heel Afrika werd over één kam geschoren. De HvA nuanceerde haar uitingen; veel hogescholen en universiteiten evalueerden hun eigen reisbeleid. De reisadviezen van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken blijken daarbij leidend: www.rijksoverheid.nl/onderwerpen/reisadviezen. Eind november was dit de situatie in de wereld: code rood gold voor delen van het Midden-Oosten, Afrika en Azië, naast delen van Oekraïne, de Kaukasus en Colombia, Paraguay en de Filipijnen. Binnen Afrika liep er een 'rode gordel' door de Sahara, verder de Centraal Afrikaanse Republiek en de Hoorn in. Ook Guinee, Liberia en Sierra Leone (door ebola getroffen) en delen van het Grote Merengebied waren rood. Van de 54 Afrikaanse landen waren er 24 geheel of deels rood. Maar tal van landen en gebieden zijn geel en de Seychellen en het grootste deel van Marokko zijn groen. Show less
The people of Guéra known as Hadjaraye (from Arabic: the mountain dwellers) have experienced all the atrocities of war and the sufferings of drought that caused them to emigrate. In the early 1970,... Show moreThe people of Guéra known as Hadjaraye (from Arabic: the mountain dwellers) have experienced all the atrocities of war and the sufferings of drought that caused them to emigrate. In the early 1970, the ecological conditions worsened and changed for ever, giving way to cyclic droughts which resulted in chronic famine in the years 1973-1974 and 1984-1985. During the same decade the civil war gained a foothold in this area and ravaged it. Even though the Hadjaraye used to practice traditional migration during peaceful times, another form of migration has been imposed upon them by the new circumstances. A massive outflow of population ensued. Waves of Hadjaraye started moving from one place to another within the Gu‚ra region itself, as well as outside the region and the country. - This constant mobility will definitely yield social as well as cultural and linguistic effects. The study investigates language attitude among the Hadjaraye migrants of the Gu‚ra region in the two neighboring regions of Chari-Baguirmi and Salamat in Chad. - Results suggest that while social integration is successful due to the common lingua franca the host and migrant communities share, the future of the mother tongues of the immigrants is at stake, because they will be spoken in a reduced circle, namely at home only. So, even though at an initial stage they are spoken, in the end they will be gradually abandoned, not in favor of the host regions languages, but in favor of the Chadian Arabic which is also the lingua franca in Chad. Linguistic borrowing, bilingualism, code mixing, code switching are the results stemming from these language contacts. However this depends largely on the attitude of the migrant community. This actually seems to indicate that the immigrants are not likely to pass on their languages to the next generations in the distant future. The ultimate outcome will be the loss of language which will inevitably lead to the loss of identity of the migrants. Show less
