Page 41 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 9

MY AFRIKA

The nature of violent conflicts in Africa has changed since
before independence when they were mostly ideologi-
cally-driven guerilla warfare. Many of the current con- much hope to the new political
flicts are driven by prospects of political power or financial dispensation, but more than 30
gain, with armed groups fighting to acquire valuable min- years on, democracy in Africa is still
eral resources, assert their ideology or address grievances. cresting the wave. Gone are the days
when in some African countries’
voters were offered the choice of
Bridges Initiative (BBI) a political Another example is the unraveling picking a presidential or a parlia-
agreement between President Uhuru situation in Muhammadu Buhari’s mentary candidate on a ballot paper
Kenyatta and leader of Opposition Nigeria, where young Nigerians that carried just ruling-party candi-
Raila Odinga aimed at redressing have taken to the streets protesting dates, or even worse, one candidate
nine major issues identified as for reforms to the way the country pitted against a symbol. Gone are
contentious that have often led to is run and calling for the disband- the days of inexplicable political
conflict since the country got its ment of the revered SARS(special terms and ideologies such as “Nyayo
independence from Britain in 1963. anti-robbery squads) police unit, Democracy”.
which had been accused of illegal
The viability of such an elite-led ini- detentions, assaults and shootings. Fast-forward to 2020, and African
tiative remains to be seen especially democracy is slowly emerging out
if it fails to address what Norwegian Facing mounting pressure across of the woodworks. The key question
sociologist John Galtung termed as the world, Muhammadu Buhari for all of us is What can African
‘structural violence’. finally bowed and disbanded SARS leaders, led by the African Union,
on 11th October 2020. In spite do to enhance this trend – More
In his seminal article ‘Violence, of the disbandment, the demon- so because the answer to their loud
Peace, and Peace Research,’ Galtung strations have persisted and have proclamation of silencing the guns
described structural violence as an come to represent more than simply may lie therein.
injury that is ‘built into the structure’ opposition to police violence, but a
and manifests itself as inequality of deep frustration with the status quo
power, resources, and life opportu- and the political class defending it.
nities. Galtung argues that the failure
to prevent injury, pain and suffering The protests in Nigeria and across
is as relevant to social and political the world reflect the disillusion-
analysis as is their perpetration. Ac- ment of young Africans across the
cording to this notion of structural world who see the post-Cold War
violence, everything that hinders political-economic settlement as
individuals from developing their ca- delivering nothing but inequality,
pabilities, dispositions, or possibili- joblessness, climate catastrophe and
ties counts as violence. This includes downright misery.
not only specific forms of targeted
discrimination but also more diffuse On a positive note, it is not that
forms of inequality. long since Africa was engulfed in the
Relevant in the present discourse so-called “fledgling democracies’ era
of ‘silencing the guns’, the virtue in – the 1990s, when most of Africa
structural violence is that it opens ushered in multi-party politics, re-
up the category of violence so as to placing post-independence military
include poverty, hunger, subordina- rule or one-party political systems.
tion, and social exclusion. It makes
it possible to conceive differential Thanks to a wave of pro-democracy
access to power and resources as a pressure by Africans themselves,
form of violence, shifting the cate- coupled with the end of the Cold
gory of violence away from surface War, plural democracy as Africans
phenomena toward a broad set of know and see it in many parts of the
social relations. continent today, was established.

Nigeria’s ‘EndSARS’ protests Africa’s doomsayers did not give

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