{"title":"The Russians Are Here","authors":"William Shoki, S. Jacobs","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4167","url":null,"abstract":"Russia’s war on Ukraine inaugurated the new Cold War most feared, and some wanted. It demanded that countries pick sides. African countries and their elites have been reluctant to do so, not least because for some their food or energy supplies will be affected, while for others Putin’s authoritarian governance model is seductive. Other countries and movements are reluctant to weigh in for fear of being swept up in an elite-serving great power conflict using Ukraine as its proxy and that the invasion exposes hypocrisies. More than anything, peace and a more humane future - another kind of world, underlined not by great power competition, but solidarity binding ordinary people across borders - is even more elusive.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"15 12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"79615417","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":"Youth and Women Participation in Extractive Industries: A Cooperatives Approach to Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM)","authors":"M. Shangase","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.3764","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.3764","url":null,"abstract":"Small scale mining largely remains an informal and unexplored economic sector. Mining is generally dominated by big players in the form of multinational corporations (MNCs) who are characterised by large scale for profit production at the expense of smaller players. In particular, the participation of youth and women in extractive industries is usually restricted to either illegal or small-scale mining. Whilst artisanal and smallscale mining (ASM) is promising and has a potential in terms of employment creation and enterprise development, this sector remains at the periphery of options and is deemed the sector of last resort for most youth and women. The sector is marked by lack of government regulation and neglect with regards to issues of safety, health and environmental protection. Observations from across the African continent and the rest of the developing world indicate that ASM is a formidable source of employment and economic development for poor communities. It could therefore be argued that for youth and women on the continent ASM proffers opportunities and thus needs to be formalised and promoted as a viable option for economic participation especially within poor communities. Using secondary data sources, this paper foregrounds the cooperatives approach, as championed across sectors in South Africa, as a tried and tested model that could be replicated across the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region to complement existing policy instruments such as the SADC mining protocol and the African Union (AU) Mining Vision. This paper contends that cooperatives offer a low entrance barrier type of formalisation of ASM initiatives for youth and women whereby legal entities within the extractive industries could be established.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"11 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82321670","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":"Entering the Dragon’s Den: Contemporary Risks and Opportunities of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa","authors":"Jana de Kluiver, T. Neethling","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4090","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4090","url":null,"abstract":"This article attempts to identify the opportunities and risks associated with China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in Africa. Given the global scope and depth of the BRI, it is of considerable importance to understand how this initiative applies to developing economies in the African context. The article provides a brief historical context of the BRI, followed by a short theoretical framework, specifically in the scholarly field of International Relations. The article then expounds on the opportunities the BRI could create for Africa, such as improving infrastructure, assisting in African industrialisation and economic advancement, as well as introducing beneficial diplomatic initiatives. The article also examines the strategic risks associated with the BRI, such as unsustainable debt concerns, concerns regarding the effect of an increasing trade deficit on domestic markets, as well as risks pertaining to large-scale infrastructure development.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87505460","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 Untamed Impact of a Faraway Shock: Africa and the War in Ukraine","authors":"Carlos Lopes","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4073","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4073","url":null,"abstract":"The combinations of multiple disruptors in the world economy have now been reinforced by the return — through the front door — of the warmongering behaviour of the great powers. This is arguably to defend geostrategic interests. The consequences for Africa are brutal. After a decade and a half of considerable progress in its macroeconomic management and social indicators, halted first by the 2008–2009 global financial crisis and now by the impact of the pandemic, the continent was at the limit of its capacity when, in February, Russian troops entered Ukraine. A finer analysis allows us to discern that Africa is simultaneously experiencing a moment of great convergence and one of divergence. The convergence is verifiable at the level of opinions and the construction of defensive positions in relation to global actors, while the divergences are related to the end of a certain notion of globalisation that is likely to deeply affect the continent. Africans’ choices in the international arena have become more limited, although that may eventually create the opportunity for a more courageous attitude.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"99 3 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87720270","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":"Uncontaining Mobility: Lessons from COVID-19: 2nd AMMODI (African Migration, Mobility and Displacement) Annual Keynote Lecture, 30 June 2022","authors":"F. Nyamnjoh","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4149","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4149","url":null,"abstract":"This keynote lecture argues that both the perpetrators of policed mobility and its victims can learn tremendous lessons from COVID-19’s nimble-footedness, which humbles racialised technologies of containment and politics of redlining or something akin to it. The talk asserts that using technological gadgets that are very good at making it possible for us to be present in absence and absent in presence, strangers at various borders could borrow a leaf from COVID-19 on how to compress time and space in ways that enable even unwanted wayfarers to see, hear, smell, feel and touch virtually, thereby regaining freedom of movement by crossing borders undetected. The world as a whole could learn from resilient philosophies of kinship and solidarity in Africa to approach mobility in a more humane manner. Priority would be less on containment and more on accommodation of the stranger and freedom of movement.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"23 5","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"72413107","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":"Russia and Africa: the Invasion of Ukraine Leads to the Next Major Crisis","authors":"R. Kappel","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4044","url":null,"abstract":"Everything that was true until recently is no longer valid. Russia’s war against Ukraine has consequences for the entire world. In particular, low-income countries and countries that need to import food and energy have been plunged into crisis. Food, oil and gas exporters, on the other hand, benefit. African countries are experiencing the negative effects even more than other regions of the world. Following the consequences of the pandemic and the climate crisis, Africa is once again being dragged into an externally induced crisis, with hunger and poverty continuing to rise.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"27 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"82231567","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 War in Ukraine: Implications for the Africa-Europe Peace and Security Partnership","authors":"Lidet Tadesse Shiferaw, V. Hauck","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4071","url":null,"abstract":"This paper discusses the war in Ukraine and what the EU’s increasing preoccupation with it means for the EU-Africa peace and security partnership. It does this from the angle of a new EU funding mechanism, the European Peace Facility (EPF), which is a €5.6 billion fund that came into effect in March 2021 to support conflict management and international security during the EU’s seven-year budget period (2021 to 2027). The facility funds a variety of activities globally and—for the first time in the EU’s history— provides a legal basis for the EU to provide not only technical and material support but also lethal weapons to partner countries. As of May 2022, the EU has pledged to provide €2 billion to support Ukraine’s armed forces aside from the unprecedented economic sanctions the EU has imposed on Russia. The creation of the EPF is inspired by the EU’s ambitious Global Strategy of 2016 (EEAS 2016) and the preceding policy discourse between the EU and its member states on making the EU a “global player” and not just a “global payer”. This shift is partly a response to the emerging international geopolitical order in which the EU feels the need to assert itself and defend its interests globally. This marks a radical paradigm shift in EU foreign policy. The paper argues that the EU’s evolving foreign policy and its unforeseen use of EPF funds in Ukraine have at least two implications for Africa. First, the use of the EPF in Ukraine raises questions about the availability of funds for African peace support operations, which the EU has been supporting for some years. It raises also questions about the way Europe and Africa will decide about funding African security priorities. The EPF allows the transferring of funds and equipment to partner countries or regional coalitions directly, without the need to go through established regional organisations like the AU. Second, the EU’s changing security interests and geopolitical ambitions as well as Africa’s aspirations to find its place in the new global order could alter the dynamics of the EU-Africa peace and security partnership. While the EU remains an important economic and security actor in Africa—at the bilateral and continental levels—the EU-Africa partnership struggles to thrive and go beyond money to live up to its full potential. To meet their own aspirations, the paper argues that the AU and its member states will have to work harder to reduce their financial, security and economic dependence on non-African states. The AU and its member states will also have to avoid getting trapped in geopolitical confrontations between “the east” and “the west”. At the same time, they need to summon the political leadership the continent needs to prevent and manage internal political crises and conflicts on the continent while reducing interference from different international partners.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78673214","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’s Food Security under the Shadow of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict","authors":"A. A. Hatab","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4083","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4083","url":null,"abstract":"The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has emerged as an exogenous shock to global food supply chains, which foreshadows worrying impacts on Africa’s food security and nutrition, and threaten to derail national and global efforts to end hunger and poverty and to achieve sustainable development goals on the continent. This article provides an early assessment of the implications of the invasion for Africa’s food supply chains and food security. Two particularly aggravating factors, which explain the current and likely future impact of the invasion on Africa’s food security are discussed: the timing of the invasion and the two parties involved in the conflict. The article underlines four major channels by which the invasion disrupts African food supply chains: energy markets and shipping routes, availability and prices of agricultural production inputs, domestic food price inflation, and trade sanctions and other financial measures. In addition, the article considers the risk of social and political unrest that disruption to food supply chains and spikes in domestic food prices may inflame. Finally, the paper briefly discusses options for short- and long-term responses by African governments and their development partners to mitigate the repercussions of the conflict on food supply chains, boost food and nutrition security, and build resilience of Africa’s food systems.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"83521045","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":"Contested histories and entangled memories: the need and value of an alternative story about Cuba and Africa relations","authors":"Edwin Smith","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4004","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v44i1.4004","url":null,"abstract":"The little Caribbean island of Cuba is again making headlines in the world. In South Africa, Cuba has generated controversy due to the South African government “farming in” Cuban doctors and other medical specialists as well as engineers. The South African government’s nomination of the Henry Reeves Emergency Medical Contingent for a Nobel Prize further incensed many in the country. Much of the controversy, this article argues, is a result of Cuba suffering an unresolved duality for South Africans: Cuba supported the ANC in exile during its anti-apartheid struggle and also fought with the then South African Defense Force during the border wars in Angola from 1975 to 1987.\u0000\u0000The publication in 2021 of Cuba and Africa 1959-1994: Writing an alternative Atlantic history, edited by Bonacci, Delmas and Argyriadis presents scholars a remarkable opportunity to place Cuba’s history with Africa and South Africa in a context different from the traditional Cold War dichotomy characterising much of Cuba’s relationship with Africa. The new volume on Cuba/Africa history, which is silent on Cuba/South Africa relations in particular, is not comprehensive nor does it claim to be. Consequently, it provides South Africa and southern Africa with a unique opportunity and model to address Cuba’s unresolved duality for South Africans and contribute to the development of an improved engagement and understanding of a complex relationship of significance to Cuba, South Africa and other African nations.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"67 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87579790","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":"Identity, Repression, and the Collapse of Apartheid","authors":"A. Anisin","doi":"10.35293/srsa.v43i2.3602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.35293/srsa.v43i2.3602","url":null,"abstract":"Scholars emphasize that an influx of resources during the 1980s lowered the costs of collective action and nourished a mass nonviolent anti-apartheid movement that eventually brought down the incumbent regime. Utilising a discourse theoretic approach, this study demonstrates that the 1976 Soweto massacre along with its antecedent organisational campaign waged by the Black Consciousness movement (BCM) were pivotal, yet overlooked historical factors that contributed to the apartheid collapse. While the Soweto massacre led to the detainment of BCM leadership and the death of leader Steve Biko, the event of white police killing black unarmed students in June of 1976 backfired and revealed central antagonisms and contradictions underpinning the apartheid project. Only once political identities were dislocated did the possibility arise for a unified mass opposition movement to form. Alongside weighing economic costs under threat of state repression, this study demonstrates that historical waves of revolutionary mobilisation are also influenced by identity and meanings that get attribute to repressive events by publics.","PeriodicalId":41892,"journal":{"name":"Strategic Review for Southern Africa","volume":"89 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2022-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"76810620","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}