{"title":"The Free Movement of People in SADC","authors":"C. H. Vhumbunu, T. Adetiba, Charity Mawire","doi":"10.36615/2j0fs582","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/2j0fs582","url":null,"abstract":"The Southern African Development Community (SADC) member states committed under Article 5(2) (d) of the SADC Treaty to develop policies aimed at the progressive elimination of the obstacles to the free movement of capital, labour, goods and services. The 2005 SADC Protocol on the Movement of People was celebrated as a giant step towards the realization of the regional integration objective of building SADC into a regional community that is fully integrated where citizens enjoy the freedom of movement across regional borders. Whilst substantial efforts have been invested in developing various legal and policy frameworks to open up borders for the free movement of people within SADC, thirty (30) years since the formation of SADC in April 1980 as the Southern African Development Coordination Conference (SADCC); the region is facing serious challenges relating to the free movement of people, migration and labour movement. In reality, SADC member states’ governments have been confronted with serious feasibility challenges, complexities, risks and dilemmas as they attempt to implement commitments made towards the free movement of people in the region, with political, security, economic, strategic, and technical factors often cited as obstacles. This paper sought to critically reflect on the feasibility aspects, policy dilemmas at member state level as well as strategic considerations that stand on the way of free movement of people in SADC. The focus was on examining possibilities, capacities and prospects of SADC member states (in their collectivity and individuality) in addressing the underlying, structural and operational obstacles that are impeding the free movement of people in the region. Secondary data sources are used for analysis, and the three concepts of free movement of people, migration and regional integration provide conceptual lenses for analysis. Findings are key in providing perspectives on how SADC member states may need to collectively address the fundamental questions and issues that facilitate the free movement of people in the region.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":" 46","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139790386","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Predicament of Ethnic Federal System","authors":"Yohannes W. Getahun","doi":"10.36615/81y7a333","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/81y7a333","url":null,"abstract":"The paper inquiries into ethnic federalism in lights of ethnic conflict and federal constitutional viability. It raises the basic question why some ethnic federations are successful in regulating ethnic relations while others are not. The history of federations has ample evidences that ethnic conflict, encompassing ethnic tensions and direct violence conflicts, causes and be caused by the failure of ethnic federalism. How a given ethnic federal system designed to adjust ethnic relations could self-contradictory induce far-reaching communal ethnic conflicts and ethnic based anti-regime activities is an interesting question. Answering that, the paper has given due consideration to the practices of defunct, fragile and mature ethnic federations and to the relevant conceptual and theoretical-back standings. The differences in the viabilities of these federations have shown the complicacy of ethnic federalism in meeting with the convulsive interplay between ethnic conflicts and federal system stability. In that regard, the paper finds seven factors: the democratic representativeness of federal structures, political parties, inclusive and overarching identities crossing ethnic lines, ethnic demographic shares, number of ethnic federal units and their ethnic composition, ethnic federal unit symmetry and geo-political setting. The concussion goes that ethnic federal design is not always an antidote for ethnic based claims and counter-claims. It rather could exacerbate the condition of ethnic politics, if it lacks those political, institutional and social ingredients inferred from the indicated factors.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139848399","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Global Covid-19 Pandemic","authors":"Chidochashe Nyere","doi":"10.36615/dpmf0h28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/dpmf0h28","url":null,"abstract":"The politics of science, or better still, the political science of global politics is what the world is battling, concerning the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, today. Whereas scientific disciplines such as virology and epidemiology would usually take centre stage when an outbreak such as Covid-19 strikes, and now owing to the vacuum that has been created by conflicting and contradictory information from health experts on Covid-19, global health is opened up to, or left up to, political giants. Health matters of virology and epidemiology surrounding Covid-19 have, thus, been reduced to issues of politicking. The World Health Organisation's voice (WHO), despite its sustained campaign and provision of information on Covid-19, is drowned and almost silenced by the number of health authorities and experts that have come out to refute mainstream information and strategies on combating and managing Covid-19. As such, the politicization of Covid-19 and the coloniality of knowledge and information surrounding Covid-19 may very well be the main issue of contention than the Covid-19 itself. This paper, therefore, seeks to unmask the political dimensions that are camouflaged by the Covid-19 pandemic and expose the real issues that Covid-19 has allowed to thrive and are, as a result, sustained by the Covid-19 crisis. Using the qualitative research methodology, I set out to discuss and analyse the debates on Covid-19 as have been proffered in the public domain. Thus, the method of research is a desktop analysis of academic articles, newspaper articles, social media pieces and mainstream television pieces, among others. I offer a decolonial account on Covid-19.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"43 11","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139849413","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Boko Haram’s Terrorist Campaign in Nigeria","authors":"Sven Botha","doi":"10.36615/jfp2wa22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/jfp2wa22","url":null,"abstract":"Boko Haram has fast become one of the world’s most notorious terrorist groups. The longevity of Boko Haram, coupled with its dynamic nature, necessitates that scholars keep abreast with a vast and intersectional array of developments. As a result, much ink has been spilt providing analysis and insight into the group’s motives, activities, internal politics, tactics, and future trajectories. Boko Haram’s ever-green endurance both in Nigeria and the wider West African region paves the way for a scholarly momentum which Oriola, Onuoha and Oyewole’s edited collection aligns with. The book has 12 chapters which are split across five thematic areas, namely: gender, the media, displacement, non-state actors, human rights, and non-state actors. It is beyond the scope of this review to place each chapter under the microscope. Instead, the reviewer will highlight some of the most important contributions the book makes to the academic discourse on Boko Haram. Chapter three (by Oyewole and Onuoha) provides the reader with a comprehensive account of the Dapachi Kidnapping of 2018; this contribution is significant as much scholarship as focused on the Chibok Kidnappings of 2014. Oyewole and Onuoha unpack why the Dapachi Kidnappings took place, placing an emphasis on the need for Boko Haram to portray itself as a resilient origination so as to appear appealing to prospective members, to raise funds (by means of hostage negotiations), and rewarding hardworking foot solders with ‘wives’ and sex slaves. Furthermore, context is given to Dapachi’s geographical and political vulnerability vis-à-vis Boko Haram’s terrorist campaign. ","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":" 80","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139788214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Regard socio-historique sur les contradictions positionnelles et présentielles des Burkinabè et des Sénégalaises dans la politique.","authors":"Ndeye Astou Ndiaye","doi":"10.36615/r8gaca03","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/r8gaca03","url":null,"abstract":"Political science has been dealing with the object \"woman\" since the mid-1950s, along with the variable \"sex\" in political behavior, and this article claims to be part of the field of political sociology, but also of feminist studies in Africa. Its objective is to come back, from a historical point of view, on the possibility of a considerable presence and position of women in Burkina Faso and Senegal while emphasizing the existing controversies which divert them in a first time, from the political scenes and to have, in a second time, a situation answering the legality. This reflection wonders therefore about the existing contradictions of the presence and the political position of the Burkinabe and Senegalese women?\u0000Certainly, the observation made in these two countries for which we have an intuitive discernment, points out the historical dynamism of women in the fight for the acquisition of their rights, notably political. Only internally, it is also perceptible that clear efforts remain to be made both in terms of the presence of women on the political scene and in terms of positions or places occupied within parties or in nominative and elective functions.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":" 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139789527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The New Apartheid","authors":"Masilo Lepuru","doi":"10.36615/kwxvxy40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/kwxvxy40","url":null,"abstract":"The fundamental distinction between a Civil Rights movement such as the African National Congress and a liberation movement like Poqo lies in the status of white settlers and Apartheid. The mythologisation of Apartheid by promoting it to the main problem in liberation politics and history in conqueror South Africa is the persistent intellectual obsession of the Congress Tradition. A trenchant contestation and rejection of Apartheid as the fundamental antagonism in the history of the struggle for national liberation is the defining trait of a liberation movement and liberation intellectual production.Having written a book entitled Democracy & Delusion: 10 Myths (2019), in which he debunks what he considers to be myths about the so-called post-Apartheid South Africa, Sizwe is back again only this time he is reinventing two myths.In the book under review, entitled The New Apartheid (2021), Sizwe promotes the delusion and first myth of Apartheid as the problem and the second myth of the ANC as a liberation movement. This review is about these two myths.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"60 3","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139849945","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Evolution of Kenya’s Foreign Policy During the Cold War","authors":"D. Mabeya","doi":"10.36615/7y5qaz38","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/7y5qaz38","url":null,"abstract":"This study critically outlines Kenya’s Foreign Policy as it evolved during the cold war under Moi’s era toward the Middle East. The study exemplifies the underlying strategies, sources, national and personal interests, objectives, priorities, and implementation of Kenya's foreign policy. The study is premised on the need to elucidate if Kenya’s belief in regional peace and security was the cornerstone under which Kenya’s foreign was formulated and implemented. It was believed that any inconsistencies in Kenya’s foreign policy were based on rational and emerging trends in international affairs such as security threats to regional and global peace and stability. The study aims to ascertain how, Kenya’s recognition policy, was formulated, articulated, and exercised during Moi’s era toward the Middle East (1978-1990). The central question of this study is this: What influenced Kenya’s recognition policy towards Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel, and Palestine during the Cold War under Moi’s administration (1978-1990)?","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":" 41","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139789471","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The New Apartheid","authors":"Masilo Lepuru","doi":"10.36615/kwxvxy40","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/kwxvxy40","url":null,"abstract":"The fundamental distinction between a Civil Rights movement such as the African National Congress and a liberation movement like Poqo lies in the status of white settlers and Apartheid. The mythologisation of Apartheid by promoting it to the main problem in liberation politics and history in conqueror South Africa is the persistent intellectual obsession of the Congress Tradition. A trenchant contestation and rejection of Apartheid as the fundamental antagonism in the history of the struggle for national liberation is the defining trait of a liberation movement and liberation intellectual production.Having written a book entitled Democracy & Delusion: 10 Myths (2019), in which he debunks what he considers to be myths about the so-called post-Apartheid South Africa, Sizwe is back again only this time he is reinventing two myths.In the book under review, entitled The New Apartheid (2021), Sizwe promotes the delusion and first myth of Apartheid as the problem and the second myth of the ANC as a liberation movement. This review is about these two myths.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":" 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139790177","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Global Covid-19 Pandemic","authors":"Chidochashe Nyere","doi":"10.36615/dpmf0h28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/dpmf0h28","url":null,"abstract":"The politics of science, or better still, the political science of global politics is what the world is battling, concerning the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, today. Whereas scientific disciplines such as virology and epidemiology would usually take centre stage when an outbreak such as Covid-19 strikes, and now owing to the vacuum that has been created by conflicting and contradictory information from health experts on Covid-19, global health is opened up to, or left up to, political giants. Health matters of virology and epidemiology surrounding Covid-19 have, thus, been reduced to issues of politicking. The World Health Organisation's voice (WHO), despite its sustained campaign and provision of information on Covid-19, is drowned and almost silenced by the number of health authorities and experts that have come out to refute mainstream information and strategies on combating and managing Covid-19. As such, the politicization of Covid-19 and the coloniality of knowledge and information surrounding Covid-19 may very well be the main issue of contention than the Covid-19 itself. This paper, therefore, seeks to unmask the political dimensions that are camouflaged by the Covid-19 pandemic and expose the real issues that Covid-19 has allowed to thrive and are, as a result, sustained by the Covid-19 crisis. Using the qualitative research methodology, I set out to discuss and analyse the debates on Covid-19 as have been proffered in the public domain. Thus, the method of research is a desktop analysis of academic articles, newspaper articles, social media pieces and mainstream television pieces, among others. I offer a decolonial account on Covid-19.","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":" 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139789684","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Africa in the Year of Geopolitics","authors":"Siphamandla Zondi","doi":"10.36615/db0bv648","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.36615/db0bv648","url":null,"abstract":"The year 2023 ended with the world on the precipice. The war in Gaza, a disproportionate Israeli military response to Hamas attack on a festival in Israel, is among the deadliest in decades. More than 20 000 people, mostly civilians including women and children had been killed in the Israeli bombing campaign to avenge the Hamas killing of 120 in October. Thousands have been displaced and injured","PeriodicalId":158528,"journal":{"name":"African Journal of Political Science","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2024-02-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139849568","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}