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Contemporary Africa Exam Identifications

Terms and definitions from contemporary African history.

Terms

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Laurent Kabila
Emerges as a rebel leader in E. Zaire and joins with Tutsi and Angolans to overthrow Mobutu. He rewrites the constitution, becomes president, and is eventually assassinated. He runs into trouble with the Rwandans after falling out with the Tutsi.
True Whig Party (Liberia)
Founded in 1879 Liberia's only legal political party for over 100 years, from 1878 to the coup d'etat of 1980.
Eva Joly
a controversial Norwegian born French magistrate. Born in Grünerløkka, Oslo, she moved to Paris at 18 to work as au pair.
Charles Taylor
descendant from immigrants to Liberia, speaks only English and French, studied in American colleges. He once escaped from prison in America and fled to Ghana somehow. He led an invasion of Liberia on 12/24/1989 through Nimba county as leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia. He was unable to take Monrovia but benefited with Sani Abacha's coming to power in Nigeria.
addis abba agreement of 1972
Brokered end of the first civil war; The south gets a degree of autonomy from Khartoum, is given a share of civil service jobs; Christianity is a protected religion; Regime integrates 6000 fighters into the army; Creates possibility of a unified Sudan; Pressures after the Addis Accords
SOWETO uprising
a series of clashes in Soweto, South Africa on June 16, 1976 between black youths and the South African authorities. The riots grew out of protests against the policies of the National Party government and its apartheid regime.
"resource curse"
Out of control spending, inflation, unrealistic expectations for revneu, rent seeking and corruption, white elephant projects, unstable prices of oil, gorwing debt, "dutch disease" other exports lose precedence, and war.
Umar al
Bashir-a Sudanese military leader and current president of Sudan.
Apartheid
Means separateness, emerged in SA after the election of the Natinoal Party in 1948. It ruled from then until 1994 and increased segregation.
President Nguema
The current president of Equatorial Guinea who is "not as bad as his uncle" who was somewhat insane
Nelson Mandela
Worked with the Youth League of the ANC opposing pass books. Was jailed for many years but released on the end of Apartheid.
black book
Published in May 2000 as a collection of all the problems that Darfurians have with the government, driving the government berserk.
adding states in nigeria
3 originally, 12 in 1966, 19 under Obansanjo
Al Qaeda bombings in Africa
1998, bombed American embassies in Nairobi Kenya and Dar es Salaam
NIF
National Islamic Front is the political organization founded and led by Dr. Hassan al-Turabi that has influenced the Sudanese government since 1979, and dominated it since 1989. It supports the maintenance of an Islamic state run on sharia and rejects the concept of a secular state. While its legal front is the political party, the National Congress, there is little actual distinction between the two. It is nominally led by President Omar Hassan al-Bashir
Muslim Brothers
Northern Sudanese Muslim clerics and other conservatives. Aren't happy about the 1972 accords. Headed by Turabi.
AFRICOM
Announced in 2/2007 and will be operational in 2008. It's mission is peacekeeping, and unifies the DoD, CIA and international agencies to create a single command center. It is perhaps designed to balance China's new interest.
Thabo Mbeki
he took power after Mandela, poverty was an issue, crime skyrockets, the gaps between rich and poor widened, and despite all the assistance given by government, change has been slow. Her most famous case, however, was that of France's leading oil company - Elf Aquitaine. In the face of death threats, she carried on the case to uncover several cases of fraud.
Nigerian civil war
Divides Africa when states ally with different sides. The Federal government had a huge military advantage. 1 million people die.
"Arabization"
A period of political change in Sudan that included the abandonment of Masalit culture for more Arab, also Sudanese culture. Speaking Arabic, restricted roles for women, no drinking alcohol, using cash.
"Strategic national interest"
"African oil is of strategic national interest to us" -Assistant Secretary of State, Walter Kansteiner, 2002
qualities of oil production
capital intensive, does not necessarily produce development, erquires high skill specialized labor, and the cooperation of the centralized government to coordinate transctions and agreements.
ANC
Founded in 1912 and advocated black rights, revival in the 1940s with a generational shift in leadership from people like Nelson Mandela who opposed Apartheid
"Freedom Charter"
Originated in the 1955 Congess of the People held by the ANC and other parties. The charter is vague and speaks to many different interests but becomes the blueprint for the ANC, its plan for a free SA.
nigerian government at independence
AParliamentary system where the house of representatives that controls money and is elected on the basis of population. A senate is more regional. Three basic parties, along ethnic lines, for teh Yoruba in the West (Action Group), Hausa/Fulani in the North (Northern People's Congress), and Ibo in the SE (NCNC)
sudan liberation army
loose association of Sudanese rebel groups who fought against the Janjaweed militiamen and Sudanese government forces in the Darfur conflict.
"Islamization"
Arabs and Muslims are encouraged to spread into other areas of the country to spread Islam
Samuel Doe
the President of Liberia from 1980 to 1990. His regime was characterized by ethnically-based dictatorship and the suppression of political opposition. His torture and killing is filmed and distributed across W Africa.
Heartmen and Zoes
Heartmen were freelance vendors of human body parts, for the use of individual clients. They supplanted zoes in their practice of human sacrifice. Zoes are priests who control local Poro chapters and may be a hereditary role.
Truth and reconciliation commission
One of Nelson Mandela's first acts as president. Led by Desmond Tutu. A nation-building exercise to produce one story that all can accept; a common healing from Apartheid. Amnesty rather than vengance.
"Greater Liberia"
The area where Charles Taylor setup his own alternative government after being stopped from taking Monrovia by ECOMOG. Taylor profited enormously from this position, as he realized the benefits of not controlling the state by engaging with western companies in extractive industries, making as much as 100 million a year, 20x the governments.
ECOMOG
A major source of Nigerian influence in Liberia, is able to sway the course of the war.
SA economic policy
Although the ANC is aligned with trade unions and the communist party, it feels that it must embrace private property and resist redistributive approaches that might frighten off FDI.
"bouncing diamonds"
Discarded rubber, which was mined and sold to independent traders
enclave capitalism (oil)
similar to the model of extractino that existed in early colonialism. deregulation to the extreme. Often with oil, but even organizations like the World Wildlife Foundation.
Fela Kuti
a Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer, pioneer of Afrobeat music, human rights activist, and political maverick.
Global Witness
an international NGO established in 1993 that works to break the links between natural resource exploitation, conflict, poverty, corruption, and human rights abuses worldwide.
Oil sharing provision of 2005 peace accord in Sudan
are a sticking point for negotiations. Sudan starts exporting oil in 1999, and most of the oil wells are in the south.
Justice and equality movement
a rebel group involved in the Darfur conflict of Sudan. It is led by Khalil Ibrahim. Along with other rebel groups such as the Sudan Liberation Army, they are fighting against the government-supported Janjaweed militia.
Nimba County
The source of a coup attempt against Doe resulting in harsh treatment of its people. Also the source of Charles Taylor's invasion.
US oil interests in Africa
New embassies are being built, whitehouse invitations to african leaders, increased aid to africa, AFRICOM
Southern People's Liberation Army
a Christian's Sudanese militia turned political party. Based in Southern Sudan, SPLA/M fought in the Second Sudanese Civil War against the Sudanese government from 1983 to 2005. In 1989 it joined the main opposition group in Sudan, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), which in January 2005 signed a Comprehensive Peace Agreement with the Sudanese government.
Hassan al-Turabi
a religious and Islamist political leader in Sudan, who may have been instrumental in institutionalizing sharia in the northern part of the country. He has been called a "longtime hard-line ideological leader.
chad-cameroon pipeline
over 1000 km long and is entirely underground
southern Sudan war
started in 1983, although it was largely a continuation of the First Sudanese Civil War of 1955 to 1972. It took place, for the most part, in southern Sudan and was one of the longest lasting and deadliest wars of the later 20th century. Roughly 1.9 million civilians were killed in southern Sudan, and more than 4 million have been forced to flee their homes at one time or another since the war began. The civilian death toll is one of the highest of any war since World War II.[1] The conflict officially ended with the signing of a peace agreement in January 2005, yet fighting continues to the present day, and hundreds of thousands remain internally displaced.
Ogoni peoples
Minority in rivers state, identity constructed in response to other pressures, have had representation within their state, btu they felt entitled to a greater share of oil revenues.
"government by NGO"
When a government stops providing social services entirely and NGOs step in to provide them.
Export Credit Agencies
Underwrite, finance, and insure risky development projects in developing nations. Quasai-governmental institutions that loan money to corporations often for oil. Less stringent investment guidelines than the World Bank.
colonial economy in Sudan
Sudan is minimally developed and relies heavily on cotton. No industry, and development is highly unequal.
Executive Outcomes
A private security firm that proved vital for restoring security in Sierra Leone in return for diamonds.
The Sharpville Massacre (SA)
occurred on March 21, 1960, when South African police began shooting on a crowd of black protesters. The confrontation occurred in the township of Sharpeville. On March 21, a group of between 5,000 and 7,000 people converged on the local police station in the township of Sharpeville, offering themselves up for arrest for not carrying their pass books.
"The Coming Anarchy"
An article by Robert Kaplan, How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet
Production Sharing Contracts
Agreements between oil companies and states regarding how profits are to be shared
ken saro-wiwa
Ogoni activist who was hung twice under Sani Abacha.
"The Carter Doctrine"
The US will use force to secure oil supply
"September Laws"
1983 institution of Sharia law in sudan which solidifies support in the north for Jafar Nimeiri while alienating the south
warlords
Reigned in Liberia, Charles Taylor was the greatest. No one could control the entire state, and many didn't even care.
janjawid
Arab militias used both in Darfur and the southern wars in Sudan. In Darfur they were much more heavily relied upon.

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