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Project

Beyond Criminal Justice: Toward a New Paradigm for Political Settlement in Africa
 

Burundi
Kenya
Mozambique
Rwanda
South Sudan
Uganda
Project ID
107453
Total Funding
CAD 396,143.00
IDRC Officer
Ramata Thioune
Project Status
Completed
End Date
Duration
24 months

Programs and partnerships

Governance and Justice

Lead institution(s)

Project leader:
Prof. Mahmood Mamdani
Uganda

Summary

Mass violence in contemporary Africa typically occurs in cycles. Months or years after one wave of violence is brought to an end, another wave overtakes it. Peace agreements are swept away and yesterday's victims emerge as today's perpetrators.Read more

Mass violence in contemporary Africa typically occurs in cycles. Months or years after one wave of violence is brought to an end, another wave overtakes it. Peace agreements are swept away and yesterday's victims emerge as today's perpetrators. Research explains these cycles of violence by pointing to state and institutional weaknesses as perpetuating the violence. More precisely, the state and its institutions tend to fail to uphold the political settlement and promote broad-based public support for it. As a result, development agencies have invested billions of dollars into state-building enterprises based on the logic that a stronger state would be better positioned to escape the conflict trap. This project challenges this dominant perspective by arguing that it is not the state's weakness that has led to repeated cycles of mass violence in Africa, but rather that the very nature of the state-society relationship is to blame. Put simply, the answer lies in understanding how these cycles of violence are intertwined with how the modern African state has used ethnic politics to shape and divide society. The project also aims to determine the ways in which political settlements can provide a foundation for sustainable peace, or further polarize communities and set the stage for resumed conflict based on levels of inclusiveness. Its objectives include: -to generate knowledge about political settlements that follow or precede episodes of mass violence; -to expand options and expertise available to those negotiating political settlements and to the policy community; -to develop a new generation of scholars who can actively participate in and guide African-initiated peace and justice processes; and, -to enable Makerere Institute of Social Research in Kampala, Uganda, to establish itself at the center of academic and policy debates on peace-building and state-building issues. The research team will conduct a comparative analysis of six cases: Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya (the Rift Valley), South Sudan (Darfur), Rwanda, and Burundi. They will demonstrate how divergent approaches to establishing a framework for peace can promote or break cycles of violence. In each case, researchers will test the hypothesis that political settlements that promote more inclusive political and social reform processes among communities of survivors provide the foundation for more durable and sustainable peace.

Research outputs

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Study
Language:

English

Summary

This paper explains conceptual lapses in the discourses of transition and
reform in post-war societies. Critical, is the fluidity that characterizes notions
of survivor and victim in the context of peace and justice. Transitional
interventions continuously create victims of war in their attempt to create
survivors of war. Although my focus is northern Uganda, I also draw examples
from other parts of the world. I argue that legal inclusiveness, market
inclusivity, and resolved antecedents of conflicts create conditions that
facilitate implementation processes of integration, settlement, and reconstruction
of post-war societies. Creating “survivability” is a collective work
of surviving communities, national, local, and other exogenous entities.
The way reform processes are played out in transitional period stems from
how international agencies, national governments, civil societies, non-governmental
organizations, and local actors deploy human and material resources
towards recovery...

Author(s)
Ocen, Laury
Study
Language:

English

Summary

Political reform in Burundi has sought to resolve the land question, using the law, itself a product of political violence, as a way to render justice to victims of the past. This paper shows how land ownership becomes central to belonging in the nation-state and how indigeneity and ethnicity are reasserted through land after violence. The paper is divided in three sections: the first traces the history and connections between land tenure, indigeneity, ethnicity, violence and the law. The second section looks at policy on land restitution, while the third frames the debate on land restitution policy in practice.

Author(s)
Bangerezako, Haydee
Study
Language:

English

Summary

The end of apartheid has been exceptionalized as an improbable outcome produced by the exceptionality of Nelson Mandela. It is thus said that the violence of Africa’s civil wars results from a culture of impunity among African leaders, and calls for punishment rather than political reform. This essay asserts the core relevance of the South African transition as an exemplar for ending civil wars in the rest of Africa. Whereas Nuremberg shaped the notion of criminal justice, the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) calls on us to think of justice as primarily political.

Author(s)
Mamdani, Mahmood
Brief
Language:

English

Summary

Kenya has become a land of the landless, alongside huge land acquisitions by others, as well as a country where ethnicity is employed not just as a weapon for fighting this social injustice, but also as an instrument for defending the social injustice. National politics have made Kenyans become apprehensive of each other, ‘those whose leaders are in government’ against ‘those whose leaders are in opposition’. The 2010 Constitution of Kenya reflects some of the independence debates of the majority – minority representation, and the question of devolved government. This paper addresses democratization, and the self-awareness of Kenyans as their own people.

Author(s)
Omaada, Esibo S.
Brief
Language:

English

Summary

The way memory of war is constructed in transitional periods stems from how international agencies, national governments, civil societies, non-governmental organizations, and local actors deploy human and material resources in the servicing of peace and justice. A liberalized rule of law can help transition from war to peace. It regulates social behavior of war parties in post conflict communities. The paper argues that legal inclusiveness is capable of creating a rule of law that facilitates implementation processes of integration, settlement, and reconstruction of post-war societies. Creating “survivability” is a collective work of surviving communities, national, local, and other exogenous entities.

Author(s)
Ocen, Laury Lawrence
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