University of Florida Homepage

On the Waters: Economic and Political Drivers of Maritime Conflicts between Uganda and its Neighbors

by Robert Ojambo Abstract The Great Lakes region has, in the recent past, been awash with numerous border conflicts/or threats to conflict among the member states. Whereas various studies have endeavored to explain the emergence of such conflicts, many of them lay the blame on colonial cartographical errors and territorial hegemony that developed after independence. […]

The Cattle are “Ghanaians” but the Herders are Strangers: Farmer-Herder Conflicts, Expulsion Policy, and Pastoralist Question in Agogo, Ghana

by Azeez Olaniyan, Michael Francis, and Ufo Okeke-Uzodike Abstract The phenomenon of farmer-herders conflict across West Africa has prompted management strategies by several governments across the subcontinent. One of the conflict resolution mechanisms has been the policy of expulsion, which the Ghanaian state adopted as a response to incessant conflict between the settled agriculturalists and migrating […]

Patterns of State Collapse and Reconstruction in Central Africa: Relfections on the Crisis in the Great Lakes

by René Lemarchand Introduction In a matter of days last October, a large swathe of eastern Zaire erupted into an orgy of violence, sending tremors through the Great Lakes region and beyond. What brought Armageddon to the shores of Lake Kivu were the search and destroy operations launched by units of Rwanda’s Armée Patriotique Rwandaise (APR) […]

The Great Lakes Crisis

Introduction by Michael Chege In the third week of October this year, the “Cobra” militia, commanded by the former president of Congo-Brazzaville, Dennis Sessou-Ngueso, took control of the national airport and the presidential palace in Brazzaville thus bringing to an end the two-way civil war that pitted him against the forces of the democratically-elected president […]

Achieving Human Rights in Africa: The Challenge for the New Millennium

by Paul J. Magnarella Introduction Fifty-one years after the United Nations adopted the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and almost nineteen years after the Organization of African Unity (OAU) adopted its own African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the human rights situation on the African continent is decidedly bleak. Indeed, achieving genuine respect […]

Delimitation of the Elastic Ilemi Triangle: Pastoral Conflicts and Official Indifference in the Horn of Africa

by Nene Mburu Abstract This article observes that although scholars have addressed the problem of the inherited colonial boundaries in Africa, there are lacunae in our knowledge of the complexity of demarcating the Kenya-Sudan-Ethiopia tri-junctional point known as the Ilemi Triangle. Apart from being a gateway to an area of Sudan rich in unexplored oil […]

Is War Contagious? The Transnationalization of Conflict in Darfur

by Jennifer L. De Maio Abstract Scholars often regard the transnationalization of civil wars as unique expansions of the war and in doing so overlook the importance of the international system in contributing to the spillover of violence. The relationship between domestic situations and international contexts directly contribute to the transnationalization of civil war. I […]

Decentralization and Conflict in Uganda: Governance Adrift

by Terrell G. Manyak & Isaac Wasswa Katono Abstract This study examines the challenges that threaten one of Africa’s most ambitious experiments in political, administrative and fiscal decentralization. Based on extensive interviews with local government leaders throughout Uganda, the research uncovered a complex interplay of conflicts that impact decision-making effectiveness. The sources of these conflicts […]

Personal Rule in Africa: The Case of Eritrea

by Petros B. Ogbazghi Abstract Notwithstanding the on-going struggles for democratic transformation, many African countries still lack rudimentary principles of the rule of law and legitimate political institutions. Contemporary Eritrea exemplifies this type of situation in which personal rule is the embodiment of the political system. The article argues that the perpetuation of personal rule […]