In The Horn of Africa Kidane Mengisteab, comprehensively introduces readers to the complex socio-political situation of the region. The book’s title may be somehow confusing for some readers, as traditionally the region consists of Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti and entities that emerged within Somalia. Mengisteab’s book however, covers a wider region – the so-called the Greater Horn of Africa – by adding Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda to the previously listed countries.
By Kateřina
Struhová
In The Horn of
Africa Kidane Mengisteab, comprehensively introduces readers to the complex
socio-political situation of the region. The book’s title may be somehow
confusing for some readers, as traditionally the region consists of Ethiopia,
Eritrea, Djibouti and entities that emerged within Somalia. Mengisteab’s book
however, covers a wider region – the so-called the Greater Horn of Africa – by
adding Sudan, South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda to the previously listed countries.
The region is,
seemingly, endlessly torn by conflict, prone to number of humanitarian
disasters and struggling with economic underdevelopment and comes to the
attention of many scholars. But The Horn of Africa is one-of-a-kind book. The
author’s intention is to provide a comprehensive analysis of key factors that
have created fertile ground for regional conflicts over the past sixty years –
post-decolonization – and explore new political and institutional arrangements
that could contribute to transforming such factors and relieve the region from
perpetual conflict.
The book is
divided into eight substantive chapters. The first ‘The Greater Horn of Africa:
Hot Spot in the Global System,’ serves as a brief introduction and sets out the
conceptual framework of the work. In chapters two to seven (‘Conflicts in the
Greater Horn,’ ‘The Legacy of Empires,’ ‘The State as a Source of Conflict,’
‘Failures of Governance and Nation-Building,’ ‘Regional Instability and
External Intervention,’ ‘Poor Resource Management and Environmental
Degradation’) Mengisteab introduces the reader to the problems the region
faces, while providing a solid theoretical background. The last chapter,
‘Prospects for Democracy, Integration and Stability’ closes the book with
summary of key points and suggestion for a solution that could improve the
conflict-prone situation in the region and alleviate its problems.
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| Publisher : Polity, 2013 ISBN: 978-0745651224 |
As conflicts of
the Greater Horn are multi-dimensional, Mengisteab attempts to provide overall
picture reflecting the topic’s complexity. He defines six categories of
conflict-generating factors: first he deals with historical factors, such as
state formation in pre-colonial era and colonization, and their legacies. Decentralized state-systems, kingdoms and empires of pre-colonial period left
future generations legacy including the culture of cattle raiding, which is one
of the major factors of communal conflicts (p.45), conflicting land-ownership,
differing modes of production and institutional systems as well as
socioeconomic context of fragmented ethnic groups. State-building was not
followed by proper nation-building in the Greater Horn region, leaving the
doors open for many ethnic, clan and other clashes. Following colonization triggered resistance struggles and wars of liberation and notably left behind
improperly created state-boundaries that continue to fuel interstate conflicts
in various parts of the region (p.51).
Second,
Mengisteab focuses on the nature of post-colonial states, and explains how
state structures themselves foster socioeconomic problems, and bad leadership.
Fragmented institutional systems impeding democracy and peaceful
nation-building, the lack of executive branches’ independence (p.75) – which
undermines accountability – and poor quality of leadership (and presence of the
leaders that divert state into an instrument for preservation of their own
power), are defined as factors contributing to (and often creating)
conflict-prone conditions.
The third cause
of instability is poor management of ethnic diversity and issues of
nation-building. Mangisteab argues that social, ethnic, religious or clan
diversity does not lead to conflict per se, but failure to integrate such
diversity into functioning state does. Nation-building, as a process of
establishing a community sharing common institutions, requires accommodation of
political and economic interests as well as cultural values of all identities
within the state. Failure in diversity management and establishment political
representation of all identity groups and inability to foster accountability is
likely to result in failure of nation-building, which can further implicate
various kinds of conflicts as well as for example continued economic crisis and
obstacles in the democratization process (pp. 85-110).
The fourth
category is the absence of effective management of disputes over boundaries.
This is closely connected with the lack of effective regional institutions,
weak or absent mechanism of peaceful settlements inter-state disputes and
intolerance between countries. Another factor is related to the global
socioeconomic environment and external actors’ interventions. The author argues
that external interventions can play positive role in conflict-reduction or in
mitigation of effects of various disasters, but often they rather intensify the
conflict, undermine democratic processes and adversely affect both inter- and
intra-state relations (pp. 6 and 111-113). He focuses on both military and
non-military interventions and provides examples of external interventions
during Cold War as well as of Post-Cold War Eras, including War on Terror and
piracy. Unfortunately, while discussing current geopolitical interests of the
West and mainly Chinese influence in this region that further undermines the
Greater Horn state institutions’ accountability by supporting oppressive
dictators, Mengisteab somehow fails to mention other important players whose
influence has been growing in recent years, such as Turkey, India, and various
Arab countries.
Finally
Mangisteab deals with an issue that still does not receive enough attention in
literature on Greater Horn of Africa; environmental degradation. As already
seen in the past, environment factors can cause large-scale disasters (re:
famines, livestock starvation or malnutrition, but also recurring violent conflicts
over the arable or pastoral land). The author discusses both external causes of
environmental degradation, such as the global climate change, and internal
causes, such as growing number of population, inadequate land policies and
development approaches or expansion of commercial farming – all factors that
result in socioeconomic disruption of regions’ societies.
Mengisteab
closes the book with a theoretical chapter dealing with methods for advancing
peace in the region. The Greater Horn countries suffer from obstacles that
prevent liberal democracy to succeed: dichotomous economic and institutional
systems, deformities in state structures and blurring distinction between
government and state and the absence of institutions of diversity management
(p. 189). Instead of focusing on establishment of the election-centered democracies, the author suggests implementation of a ‘contextualized approach’
(pp. 191-195), which would focus among others on democratic governance that
would reconcile the fragmented economic and institutional systems as well as on
creation of trustworthy and accountable state structures. He also stresses the
need for regional integration scheme that would help to mitigate conflicts by
for example developing mechanisms of diversity management or mediation, or
promoting regional economic development by intra-region trade (pp. 195-205). A
drawback of this final chapter is that despite being saturated with ideas that
could help to improve the situation in the region, Mengisteab suggests only generalized solutions without proposing specific changes to particular states’ policies
that could serve as a basis for a realistic action-plan.
The book fills a
gap in the literature, where the complex view of both structural and historical
origins of various conflicts in the Greater Horn of Africa was missing. The
author, however, sometimes simplifies the causes resulting in today’s
socioeconomic situation of the region and does not attempt to cover every
single cause in great depth. There are also parts of the book where he does not
distinguish between countries. Nevertheless, Mengisteab does a great job in
explaining the complicated conflicts in this part of the world and this work
comes highly recommended.
About Dr. Kidane Mengisteab
Dr. Kidane Mengisteab is Professor of African Studies and Political Science at the
Pennsylvania State University. His current research focuses on two areas. One
deals with the relevance of Africa’s ‘traditional’ institutions of governance,
in general and traditional judicial systems in particular, to conflict
resolution and institution building in contemporary Africa. The second area
deals with socioeconomic implications of the expansion of extractive industries
and commercial farming in Africa. He is author or editor of several books on
Africa.
About The Reviewer:
Kateřina Struhová is a Doctoral Student pursuing her degree in International Relations and European Studies and a Field Project Coordinator, MAGNA Děti v tísni. She has earlier
worked as a volunteer in African Chad as part of the humanitarian project EUROSHA
(European Open Source Humanitarian Aid Volunteers ) , which aimed at mapping
the areas Chadian region of Logone Oriental,
Publication Details:
This book review
was originally published at CEJISS’s official website under Open Access
Initiative funded by Metropolitan University of Prague, Czech Republic.
The Horn of Africa
Kidane Mengisteab
978-0745651224
Kateřina Struhová
Rating:
8 out of
10
Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS), Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic.
