Challenges of Nation Building in Africa and the Middle East

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Challenges of Nation Building in Africa and the
Middle East
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Uhuru The Struggle for Independence in Africa

• The Colonial Legacy
• Benefits
• Transportation and communication
• Improved sanitation and health care
• Political systems contributed to gradual creation
  of democratic ideas
• Benefits varied
• Only South Africa and Algeria developed along
  modern lines
• Disadvantages
• Concentrate on export crops
• Plantation agriculture and cash crops

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The Rise of Nationalism

• Goal was independence
• Kwame Nkrumah (1909-1972) formed the Convention
  Peoples Party in the Gold Coast (Ghana)
• Jomo Kenyatta (1894-1978) formed the Kenya
  African National Union with a political and
  economic agenda
• Mau Mau movement among the Kikuyu people of Kenya
  used terrorism to achieve uhuru (Swahili for
  freedom)
• African National Congress formed in 1912
• Originally dominated by western-educated
  intellectuals
• Want economic and political reforms including
  equality for educated Africans

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The Rise of Nationalism

• Resistance to French rule in Algeria grew in
  mid-1950s -- independence gained in 1958
• Struggle in Algeria affected Tunisia that was
  given independence in 1956
• Morocco gained independence in 1956
• Ghana (Gold Coast) gained independence in 1957
• Followed by Nigeria, Belgian Congo, Kenya,
  Tanganyika (when joined by Zanzibar, renamed
  Tanzania)

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The Rise of Nationalism, contd

• Most French colonies agree to accept independence
  within the framework of the French Community
• By late 1960s only part of southern Africa and
  Portuguese Mozambique and Angola remained under
  European rule
• Why so slow in gaining independence?
• Colonialism was established later in Africa
• With only a few exception, coherent states with a
  strong sense of cultural, ethnic, and linguistic
  unity did not exist

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The Era of Independence

• Pan-Africanism and Nationalism The Destiny of
  Africa
• Most new African leaders come from the urban
  middle class
• Accept the Western model -- capitalism and at
  least lip service to democracy
• Diverse views on economics
• Highly nationalistic
• Generally accept national boundaries
• These were artificial and contained diverse
  ethnic, linguistic, and territorial groups
• Organization of African Unity (1966)
• Pan-Africanism

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Dream and Reality Political and Economic
Conditions in Independent Africa

• Initial phase of pluralistic governments gave way
  to a series of military regimes
• Most African countries dependent on export of a
  single crop or natural resource
• In many instances, the resources still controlled
  by foreigners
• Neocolonialism
• Scarce natural resources spent on military
  equipment and expensive consumer goods
• Bribery and corruption
• Population growth
• Widespread hunger, HIV and AIDS
• Poverty, Effects of urbanization

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The Search for Solutions

• Desire to restrict foreign investment
• Tanzania An African Route to Socialism
• Arusha Declaration, 1967
• Limitations on income and established village
  collectives
• Corruption lower at first

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Modern Africa
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Kenya The Perils of Capitalism

• Blessed with better soil in the highlands
• Tradition of aggressive commerce
• Residue of European settlers
• Foreign investment and profit incentives
• Capitalism with mixed results
• Substantial middle class based in Nairobi, the
  capital
• Landlessness, unemployment and income inequities
  are high
• 1/5 of population squatters
• Unemployment is 45

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Kenya, contd

• One of the highest rate of population growth in
  world 3 annually
• 80 rural
• 40 live below poverty line
• Widespread unrest exacerbated by disputes between
  disparate ethnic groups and tensions between
  farmers and pastoralists
• Daniel arap Moi, authoritarian
• His rule was plagued by corruption
• Retired in 2002

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South Africa An End to Apartheid

• Greatest success story
• Apartheid, segregation white government
  restricted black sovereignty
• President F. W. de Klerk released ANC leader
  Nelson Mandela from prison
• Democratic national elections followed
• Mandela became president
• 1996, new constitution called for a multiracial
  state
• Thabo Mbeki replaced Mandela
• Rising unemployment
• Widespread lawlessness
• Chronic corruption
• Flight of capital and professionals
• Promise of land reform not fulfilled
• Wealthiest and most industrialized state in
  Africa
• Countrys black elite nearly ¼ of its wealthiest
  households

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Cape Town A Tale of Two Cities
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Nigeria A Nation Divided

• Africas largest country population
• Wealthiest because of oil reserves
• Under military strongmen General Sani Abacha
  suppressed all opposition
• After his death, civilian government under
  Olusegun Obasanjo
• Imposition of Islamic law led to religious riots
  between Christians and Muslims
• Muslims farmers (pastoralists) compete for land
  with Christian farmers

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Sudan

• Southern Sudan
• Civil war between Christian farmers and Muslim
  pastoralists
• Central government in Khartoum supported
  pastoralist
• Peace agreement in 2004
• Darfur, Western Sudan
• Conflict between Janjaweed ("devils on
  horseback"), (camel-herding Arabs), and farmers
  (land-tilling tribes)
• Central government in Khartoum supports the
  Janjaweed

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Central Africa Cauldron of Conflict

• Rwanda and Burundi
• Civil war between minority Tutsis and Hutu
  majority
• thousands of refugees living in neighboring Congo
• Nomadic Tutsis, supported by Belgian government,
  dominated sedentary Hutus
• Zaire
• Conflict between Bantu-speaking Hutus who wanted
  to end Tutsi domination
• Laurent Kabila toppled General Mobutu Sese Seko
• Kabila renamed country The Democratic Republic of
  the Congo
• Promised a return to democratic practices
• Suppressed political dissent
• Kabila assassinated in 2001
• His son succeeded him

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Sowing Seeds of Democracy

• Stagnant economies led to collapse of one-party
  regimes and emergence of fragile democracies
• End of dictatorships in Ethiopia, Liberia, and
  Somalia, but followed by political instability or
  civil war
• Senegal elections in 2000 ended 40 year rule by
  the Socialist Party
• Uganda most notorious dictator, Idi Amin led a
  military coup against prime Minister Milton Obote
  in 1971
• Ruled by terror and brutal repression of
  dissident elements
• Deposed in 1979
• 1996 first presidential election

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African Union A Glimmer of Hope

• African states poor, populations illiterate
• African concerns neglected by international
  community
• Millennium Declaration
• Reduction of poverty, hunger, illiteracy by 2015
• Solutions must come from within
• Progress toward political stability in Senegal,
  Uganda, South Africa
• Sudan, Liberia, Somalia, and Zimbabwe racked by
  civil war or ruled by brutal dictatorships
• Conflicts between Muslims and Christians in West
  Africa threatens that region

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African Union

• Problem nation-state system not well suited to
  African continent
• 1991, OAU established African Economic Community
• OAU replaced by African Union
• To provide greater political and economic
  integration throughout continent
• AU has sought to mediate several conflicts

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Continuity and Change in Modern Society

• Impact of the West
• Education
• Emphasis on vocational training
• Eventual introduction in European Languages and
  Western Culture
• State run schools
• First the emphasis was on primary schools then
  high school and universities in the urban areas
• Funding and teachers are scarce in the rural
  areas
• Rural Life
• Agriculture and hunting
• Migrations to plantations, cities, and refugee
  camps

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Traditional Patterns in the Countryside
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African Women

• Change in relationship between men and women
• Traditional relationships
• Impact of Independence
• idea of sexual equality
• Politics still mostly men
• Women became a labor force, employed in menial
  tasks
• Education open to all but women comprise less
  than 20 percent of the students
• Rural women generally still bound by communalism
• Traditional practices still found

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African Culture

• Tension between tradition and modern, native and
  foreign, individual and communal
• Visual arts and Music
• Utility and ritual given way to pleasure and
  decoration
• African art preserves its traditional forms but
  adapted to serve tourist industry and export
  market

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African Literature

• Modern African literature
• Means to establish black dignity and purpose
• Chinua Achebe, first major African novelist to
  write in English, Things Fall Apart
• Writing from native perspective
• Shift from the brutality of the foreign oppressor
  to the shortcomings of the new native leadership
• Ngugi Wa Thiongo (b. 1938), A Grain of Wheat
• Wole Soyinka (b. 1934), The Interpreters
• Women writers
• Ama Ata Aidoo (b. 1042) Changes A Love Story

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The Destiny of Africa

• African intellectuals torn between dual images of
  Western materialism and African negritude
• Destiny?
• Some yearn for dreams embodied in OAU
• Novelist Ngugi Wa Thiongo called for an
  internationalization of all the democratic and
  social struggles for human equality, justice,
  peace, and progress
• Others turn to democratic ideal of East Asian
  model

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Crescent of Conflict

• Militant Islam as a sense of community
• September 11, 2001
• Humiliation and disgrace
• Modern regimes in Turkey and Iran
• More traditional in Saudi Arabia
• European influence and control
• The Question of Palestine
• Arab League, 1945
• Zionists and an independent Jewish state, 1948
• Sense of Wests betrayal of the interests of the
  Palestinian people
• Palestinian refugees cross into neighboring
  states
• Syria angered by the creation of Lebanon

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Nasser and Pan-Arabism

• King Farouk of Egypt overthrown in 1952
• Monarchy replaced by a republic in 1953
• General Gamal Abdul Nasser seizes power in 1954
• Reforms
• Nationalizes the Suez Canal, 1956
• Britain, France, Israel attack Egypt
• U.S. supports Nasser
• Pan-Arabism
• Egypt and Syria unite to form the United Arab
  Republic,1958
• Other Arab states suspicious and do not join the
  union
• UAR ends in 1961
• Palestine Liberation Organization created in 1964
• Al-Fatah led by Yasir Arafat (b. 1929) launches
  terrorist attacks

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Arab-Israeli Dispute

• Growing hostility
• Knesset (parliament created)
• The Six Day War - June, 1967
• Nasser died in 1970 and succeeded by Anwar
  al-Sadat (1918-1981)
• Yom Kippur War, 1973
• The Camp David Agreement
• Sadat assassinated by Arab militants, October 1981

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Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO)

• PLO and the Intifada (uprising)
• Terrorist attacks by Palestinians
• Minister Ehud Barak tried to re-start the peace
  process
• Peace process broke down by 2000
• Hard-line prime minister, Ariel Sharon
• Suicide attacks by Palestinians against Israeli
  targets
• Intensive Israeli military crackdown
• Death of Yasir Arafat, 2004
• Mahmoud Abbas, moderate
• Key issues unresolved
• Future status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements
  in occupied territories
• 2006, radical Muslim forces in southern Lebanon
  launched attacks on Israeli cities
• Israeli troops crossed border to wipe out radical
  stronghold

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The Temple Mount at Jerusalem
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Revolution in Iran

• Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries
  (OPEC)
• Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980), 1941-1979
• Social and economic reforms
• Affluent middle class emerging
• Land reform
• Internal problems
• The Fall of the Shah
• Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeini (1900-1989)
• Shiite cleric exiled to Iraq and then France
• Shah leaves the country in 1979 and the
  government collapsed shortly thereafter with a
  new government dominated by Khomeini
• American embassy hostages

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Iran

• Iranian Revolution moderated slightly but
  repression returned in mid-1990s
• Mohammad Khatemi, a moderate cleric
• Move to a more pluralistic society open to the
  outside world
• Reforms easing of press censorship, dress
  codes, and womens activities
• Opposition from conservative elements
• 2003, student protests
• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, militant Muslim
  fundamentalist elected
• Tensions with the West

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Iran
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Crisis in the Gulf

• Irans enemies were not just the U.S. but soviet
  Union to the north and Iraq to the west
• The Vision of Saddam Hussein
• Saddam Hussein (b. 1937), 1979-2003
• Believed in a single Arab state in the Middle
  East
• Persecuted non-Arab people Persians and Kurds
• Sights to territorial expansion to the east
• Iraq and Iran uneasy relationship
• Religious differences (Irans mainly Shiite,
  ruling class Iraqis were Sunni)
• Perennial dispute over borderlands
• Kurdish revolt

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Iraq

• Iraq attacked Iran 10 year war
• Poison gas used against civilians
• Children employed to clear minefields
• 1988 cease-fire
• Iraqs occupation of Kuwait
• Operation Desert Storm
• U.S. assembled a multinational coalition and
  liberated Kuwait
• Economic sanctions imposed on Iraq as a condition
  of peace

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Iraq
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Conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq

• Response to the terrorist attacks of September,
  2001
• Nation controlled by the Taliban who provided a
  base for terrorist Osama bin Laden
• After September 11, 2001, coalition overthrows
  the Taliban and attempted to build a new and
  moderate government
• Challenge history of internecine warfare among
  various tribal groups
• Bush government turned its attention to Iraq
• Alleging that Saddam Hussein provided support to
  bin Ladens terrorist and
• Saddam had weapons of mass destruction
• American-led forces attached Iraq and overthrew
  Saddam Husseins regime
• Elections were held
• Saddam captured and executed
• Insurgency continues

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Afghanistan
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Society and Culture in the Contemporary Middle
East

• Varieties of Government
• Traditional monarchy of Saudi Arabia
• Some areas traditional authority replaced by
  one-party rule or military dictatorships
• Other states charismatic rule given way to
  modernizing bureaucratic regimes
• Israel, democratic institutions

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Economics of Oil

• Millions in the Middle East live in abject
  poverty, a fortunate few are wealthy the
  difference is oil
• Economics and Islam
• Approaches to developing strong and stable
  economies
• Arab socialism
• Western capitalist model
• Maintaining Islamic doctrine
• Agricultural Policies
• Wealthiest hold much of the land
• Lack of water
• Migratory Workers
• Encouraged emigration
• Obstacles to Democracy
• Willingness of the West to coddle dictatorships
  to keep access to oil
• Culture of Islam

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Islamic Revival

• Many Muslims believe Islamic values and modern
  ways not incompatible and may be mutually
  reinforcing
• Fundamentalists are a rational and practical
  response to destabilizing forces and
  self-destructive practices
• Seeking a cultural identity
• Modernist Islam
• Create a modernized set of beliefs such as in
  Turkey, Egypt, and Iran
• Secularization
• Reaction to secularization in Iran where there
  was a movement to Islamic purity
• Seeking purity found in Algeria, Egypt, and
  Turkey

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Islamic Revival

• Return to Tradition
• Ayatollah Khomeini
• Iran had long tradition of Ideological purity
  within Shiite sect
• In Iran today, traditional Islamic beliefs are
  all-pervasive extending into education, clothing
  styles, social practices, and legal system
• Iranian ideas spread throughout the area
• Algeria
• fundamental Islamic groups grew victory in 1992
• Military cancelled second round of elections and
  cracked down on militants
• Campaign of terrorism against moderates

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Islamic Revival

• Egypt
• Muslim Brotherhood assassinated Sadat and
  attacked foreign tourists
• Turkey
• Islamic Welfare Party took power in 1996
• Established a security relationship with Israel
• Seeks closer ties with U.S.
• Religious and economic discontent

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The Modern Middle East
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Women and Islam

• Traditional role of women in Islamic societies
• Modernist views that Islamic doctrine not opposed
  to womens rights
• Many restrictions due to pre-Islamic folk
  traditions that were tolerated in the early
  Islamic era
• More traditional views have prevailed in many
  Middle Eastern countries
• Impact of the Iranian Revolution
• Most conservative nation is Saudi Arabia
• Rights extended in some countries
• Vote in Kuwait
• Equal right to seek a divorce in Egypt
• Attend university, receive military training,
  vote, practice birth control, and publish fiction
  in Iran

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Literature and Art

• Cultural Renaissance
• Literature
• Iran one of the most prolific countries
• The veil (chador) a central metaphor in Iranian
  womens writing
• In Egypt the most illustrious writer is Naguib
  Mahfouz who wrote Cairo Trilogy
• Art
• Influenced by Western culture

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Answering the Call of the Muezzin
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Discussion Questions

• What role did nationalist movements play in the
  transition to independence in Africa?
• How have religious issues affected economic,
  social, and cultural conditions in the Middle
  East in recent decades?
• What factors can be advanced to explain the
  chronic instability and internal conflict that
  have characterized conditions in Africa and the
  Middle East since WW II?