Article contents
Towards a Critique of Policing and National Development in Africa
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008
Extract
Just as 1960 was characterised by independence and 1966 by military coups, so 1990 marked a cautious move in many states away from excessive centralisation towards a distribution of political power. Multi-party elections were held, or scheduled, in countries as diverse as Benin, Gabon, Somalia, Zaïre, and Zambia. The partial liberalisation these represented did not amount to a full transition to democracy — indeed, they did not amount to anything positive in some cases — but they did suggest that a potential rebalancing of certain aspects of political power was possible, if not probable. Since then, have any significant changes taken place in police systems and behaviour, and/or in the organisation of internal security? This article suggests some of the variables requiring discussion, and indicates areas for future research.
- Type
- Articles
- Information
- Copyright
- Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996
References
1 Bratton, Michael and van de Walle, Nicolas, ‘Toward Governance in Africa: popular demands and state responses’, in Hyden, Goran and Bratton, (eds.), Governance and Politics in Africa (Boulder and London, 1992), P. 29.Google Scholar
2 Potholm, Christian P., ‘The Multiple Roles of the Police as Seen in the African Context’, The Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb, IL), 3, 01 1969, PP. 139–58.Google Scholar
3 Ibid. P. 157.
4 The Economist (London), 12–18 11 1994, P. 88.Google Scholar
5 Lee, J. M., African Armies and Civil Order (London, 1969), P. 2.Google Scholar
5 Bienen, Henry, ‘The Initial Involvement: public order and the military in Africa’, in , Bienen (ed.), The Military Intervenes: case studies in political development (New York, 1968), P. 37.Google Scholar For examples of the breakdown of civil society, see Sandbrook, Richard, ‘Patrons, Clients and Factions: new dimensions of conflict analysis in Africa’, in Canadian Journal of African Studies (Toronto), 03 1972, p. 109: ‘Where a society's impersonal legal guarantees of physical security, status and wealth are relatively wea or non-existent individuals seek personal substitutes by attaching themselves to “big men” capable of providing protection and even advancement.’Google Scholar
7 The Guardinan (London), 8 12 1994.Google Scholar
8 For a discussion of the complexity of ‘security’ as a phenomenon, see Sayigh, Yezid, Confronting the 1990s: security in the developing countries (London, 1990), Adelphi Paper No. 251.Google Scholar
9 Lee, op. cit. P. 185.
10 Quoted in Baynham, Simon, The Military and Politics in Nkrumah's Ghana (Boulder, CO, 1988), P. 53.Google Scholar
11 The Guardian, 27 March 1995.Google Scholar For brief details of policing in Burundi in 1990s, see Lemarchand, René, Burundi: ethnocide as discourse and practice (Cambridge, 1994), PP. 109–10.Google Scholar
12 The Daily Telegraph (London), 5 01 1995.Google Scholar
13 Quoted in Cohen, Robin and Goulbourne, Harry, Democracy and Socialism in Africa (Boulder and Oxford, 1991), P. 125.Google Scholar
14 Bienen, loc. cit. p. 35.
15 Baynham, op. cit. p. 239.
16 Samuel Decalo discusses the many specific sources of political power, amalgamating legitimacy, coercion, and personal ambition, in his Coups and Army Rule in Africa: motivations and constraints (New Haven and London, 1990).Google Scholar
17 Bratton and van de Walle, loc. cit. p. 29.
18 Hyden, Goran, ‘Governance and the Study of Politics’, in Hyden, and Bratton, (eds.), op. cit. p. 24.Google Scholar
19 Khadiagala, Gilbert M., ‘Uganda's Domestic and Regional Security Since the 1970s’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 31, 2, 02 1993, PP. 231–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
20 John A. Wiseman, ‘Leadership and Personal Danger in African Politics’, in ibid. 31, 4, December 1993, P. 659.
21 Bank, World, Demobilization and Reintegration of Military Personnel in Africa: the evidence from seven country case studies (New York, 1993), p. 22.Google Scholar
22 The Daily Telegraph, 25 March 1994.Google Scholar
23 Interview with Soper, L. A. G., Director of Overseas Police Studies, The Police Staff College, Bramshill, Hampshire, 17 August 1994.Google Scholar
24 Tripp, Ailil Mari, ‘Local Organizations, Participation, and the State in Urban Tanzania’, in Hyden, and Bratton, (eds.), op. cit. p. 235, discusses the situation in the early 1990s and comments that ‘Local security has been … [an] area in Tanzania where people's inability to rely on the state apparatus led to the formation of independent security teams, even in the urban areas.’Google Scholar
25 See, for example, The Economist, 22 October 1994, on Mozambique.Google Scholar
26 Marenin, loc. cit. p. 3898.
27 See, for example, Brogden, Mike and Shearing, Clifford, Policing for a New South Africa (London and New York, 1993),Google Scholar and Cawthra, Gavin, Policing South Africa: the South Africa Police and the transition from apartheid (London, Atlantic Highlands, NJ, and Cape Town, 1993).Google Scholar
28 Tamuno, Tekena N., The Police in Modern Nigeria, 1861–1965: origins, development and role (Ibdan, 1970) is the earliest major study.Google Scholar See also, Ahire, Philip Terdoo, Imperial Policing: the emergence and role of the police in colonial Nigeria, 1860–1960 (Milton Keynes, 1991).Google Scholar
29 Nathan, Laurie, Marching to a Different Drum–Formation of the Namibian Police and Defence Force (Bellville, University of the Western Cape, 1990).Google Scholar
30 The Guardian, 9 December 1994. The chairman of the Namibian subsidiary of the large South African corporation that was building a casino was reportedly the brother-in-law of the President, and the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO) was alleged to have a substantial share-holding.Google Scholar
31 The black inspector-general of the Namibian police has been on the overseas command course in Britian, where the Police Staff College has also provided a short course for ten senior Namibian officers on the theme of ‘Policing a Democratic Society’. Five were white and five were balck ex-freedom fighters who had previously trained in Romania and fought in Angola.
32 Pacey, A. H., Davey, T. B., and Blakey, D. C., White Paper on Future Training Needs of the Nigeria Police Force (Lagos, 1982), P. 6.Google Scholar
33 Ibid. p. 9.
34 Pacey, A. H., The Nigerial Police, Future Training Needs. Report on Reconnaissance Visit (Lagos, 01 1988), P. 5.Google Scholar
- 18
- Cited by