Paper short abstract:

The threat of communism in British colonies speeded up decolonization; however, little has been written of its impact on post-colonial institutions. Drawing from archival and official records, the paper will show how the threat of communism continues to shape policing in post-colonial Nigeria.

Paper long abstract:

This paper argues that communism aided the decolonial process while simultaneously derailing the development of a civilian-centric and professional police institution in post-colonial Nigeria. There is well-established literature to support the argument that the threat of communism in British colonies sped up the decolonization process, however, little has been written about the impact of communism on post-colonial institutions in Nigeria. Whereas the British desired to leave a legacy of a uniformed civilian, non-political, non-military-based police force in their erstwhile colonies, London was all too aware of the fragility of the ruling structures it established before leaving and continued to harbour a fear about the impact of communist-driven nationalist movements in their former territories. Evidence shows that in Nigeria between 1945 and 1960, the progress that had been made under the 1930 colonial police reform program had been almost reversed. The British had established a paramilitary posture to identify, monitor, and control individuals whom they considered ‘potentially dangerous’ to British interests due to their association with communist ideologies. After independence, politically motivated violence and civilian unrest made it inevitable for the police to retain its communist pickings The use of force, brutality, violence, indiscriminate arrest and detention and the continued definition of the offender as ‘potentially dangerous’ to state interest by the post-colonial police force in Nigeria is therefore a prima facia case of a communist-inspired policing. The paper will rely on archival and other official records to analyse the subject.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses spatial formations in Cape Town. It focuses on the constructions and the effects of “Whiteness” in space, exclusions, in/securities, hierarchies, violence, and the art of survival with which PoC navigate Cape Town.

Paper long abstract:

Three decades have passed since the official demise of Apartheid, and the signs that read “Whites only” or “White area” have disappeared, but South Africa remains a country with racial segregation as the norm rather than the exception. Cape Town is amongst the South African cities with the most pronounced racial segregation, with the majority of the Black population living in poverty and undignified conditions. It is also known for its extensive Whitened spaces where Black people and PoC are made to feel unwelcome. To them, Cape Town remains a “city of exclusion” and of White domination. An implicit assumption persists that the city belongs to Whites whereas Black people are “temporary sojourners” whose place is in the townships. Thus, the struggle of Black people for a “right to the city” – the right to live and work in Cape Town –, which started in the 1970s, is still ongoing. PoC navigate everyday forms of exclusions, structural violence, and Whitened spaces that re/produce multiple and complex forms of in/securities.

This paper discusses spatial formations in post-Apartheid Cape Town, which is also considered as a post-traumatic space. It analyses the constructions and the effects of Whiteness in space, exclusions, trauma, racial spatial segregation, and structural violence, how these re/produce (spaces of) in/securities and, vice versa, how in/securities re/produce the former. Lastly, the paper discusses the everyday art of survival with which PoC navigate Whitened Cape Town, a space full of in/securities.

Paper short abstract:

Objective security describes the world of the past, while subjective security looks into the future. It is the latter’s aspirational aspect that allows people – as in Central Africa – to imagine life beyond what is currently feasible in conflictual contexts and to push limits of the possible.

Paper long abstract:

Too often, objective security is taken as the „reality“, that which is, whereas subjective security is how people „perceive“ this reality, often in distorted ways. The aims of scholarship are thus regularly to understand these distortions, whereas practitioners attempt at sensibilizing and informing the populace. Subjective security, however, is no derivative. It has a distinct epistemology, lives in the minds of people, and shapes the world they inhabit. One way of understanding the often-paradoxical relationship between objective and subjective security is through the lens of temporalities: objective security describes the world of the past, while subjective security looks into the future. Objective security is descriptive, wherein the present becomes the cumulation of pasts, and the future is expected as a calculated continuation. Given the conflictual past of such countries as the Central African Republic, a positive future is thus commonly found in „resilience“ – conflict is to be expected and people are therefore lauded for making spaces for lives and livelihoods regardless. Subjective security, on the other hand, looks into the future, often in contradiction or reinterpretation of the past. Thus, Central Africans desire a state „return“ even though the state was rarely present in the past and if so, often in a discriminatory and violent manner. It is this aspirational aspect of subjective security that allows people to go beyond what is currently feasible to not only imagine a world beyond the boundaries of fact, but to push limits of the possible.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines conflict early warning systems as a hierarchical way of generating knowledge about local contexts in a way that is refracted through postcolonial insecurities and donor relations, with Liberia as a case study.

Paper long abstract:

This paper examines conflict early warning systems from the two perspectives of the political economy of conflict prevention and peacebuilding work in West Africa, one one hand, and the socio-technical context of data collection and interpretation on the other hand. The focus is on national early warning systems, with Liberia as a case study. Briefly, an early warning system of this sort consists of local-level data collection on events that are deemed indicative of a brewing conflict, a central body (a government agency, university, or CSO) that aggregates, validates, and analyses the data, and transmits a recommendation for action. Despite frequent invocations of local ownership in such systems, their work is in practice overwhelmingly steered (and financed) by the vicissitudes and preoccupations of key donors. At the same time, the local-level data collection is subject to a whole range of constraints, ranging from economic and technical (i.e. do local rapporteurs have reliable access to mobile telephony), to the epistemological (e.g., do all rapporteurs understand the categories used in the system, e.g. "gender-based violence", the same way), to the political (e.g., do some rapporteurs face threats when trying to report certain incidents). This paper, based on a research collaboration between the Folke Bernadotte Academy and the Monrovia-based Ducor Institute, examines these and other various issues to suggest that early warning must not just be understood as a relatively straightforward conflict prevention mechanism but as an arena for the (re)definition and silencing of disparate grievances and concerns.

Paper short abstract:

By drawing on empirical data from borderlands in Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso and Niger we argue both for a place-based understanding of security and the analysis of relational connections between various expressions of insecurities to grasp the wider assemblage of violent borderlands.

Paper long abstract:

Depending on place, routes and mobilities the worsening security situation in West African borderlands is experienced, interpreted and dealt with in very different ways. (Global) narratives of the security services about causes and violent actors as well as state practices of reconnaissance and counterinsurgency are contrasted by the everyday spatial knowledges, experiences and practices of the borderlanders which are not homogeneous either and make sense of violence very differently. In our presentation, we will systematically analyse these contrasts (and similarities) in various overlapping in/securityscapes using case studies from borderlands in Benin, Togo, Burkina Faso and Niger. Hence our view on security is necessarily spatial. Starting from the violent spatial dimensions of biopolitical control at borders we argue for a place-based understanding of security but simultaneously highlight the relational connections between various expressions of insecurity to grasp the wider assemblage of violent borderlands

Paper short abstract:

Cette communication essaie de décrire et analyser, principalement à partir du point de vue des acteurs, les dispositifs locaux de lutte contre le terrorisme. Les modalités de mise en oeuvre de ces dispositifs locaux décline la manière la crise sécuritaire est appréhendée par les acteurs.

Paper long abstract:

Cette communication essaie de décrire et analyser, principalement à partir du point de vue des acteurs, les dispositifs locaux de lutte contre le terrorisme. Bittou et Ziou sont toutes deux communes frontalières du Ghana qui ont cependant un vécu différent de la crise sécuritaire à laquelle est confronté le pays depuis les huit dernières années. Alors que la commune de Bittou subit couramment des attaques terroristes depuis 2019, la commune de Ziou quant à elle n’a pas connu jusque-là une attaque sur son territoire. Comme dans de nombreuses parties du pays, on note la présence dans ces deux communes des volontaires pour la défense de la patrie (VDP), des supplétifs civils des forces de défense et de sécurité (FDS) qui sont très actifs sur le plan du contre-terrorisme. Dans la commune de Ziou, leur engagement est mis en avant comme facteur déterminant dans la non-survenue d’attaques. En dehors de ce facteur qui est objectivable, les habitants invoquent la « protection des ancêtres » ou le déploiement de forces mystiques par les leaders coutumiers locaux. Au-delà du caractère identitaire, l’usage de telles méthodes dites endogènes au même titre que les séances collectives de prière entreprises au sein des religions révélées un peu partout dans le pays est révélateur de la manière dont la crise sécuritaire est appréhendée localement à l’échelle collective ou individuelle.

Paper short abstract:

Looking at the capital cities of Central African Republic and Guinea Bissau, this paper asks in how far the geopolitical marginality contributed to a level of social stability among citizens and their management of expectation in relations with the state despite chronic political turmoil.

Paper long abstract:

In the face of seemingly chronic —and spreading— political turmoil, much of the international and academic focus goes into the relations of turbulent states with their old and new partners in security and aid relations. Others zooms in on the decidedly local or transnational dimensions and effects of insecurity. The national arena of state-society relations remain somewhat overlooked. In this paper, I propose to shift perspective to the everyday dynamics between citizens and their public authorities in the political centres of states in chronic political turmoil. The Central African Republic and Guinea Bissau have historically have found themselves on the margin of former colonial empires and current geopolitics. I ask in how far the national political turbulence persisted because of the historic shelter from bigger international interest, and secondly, consider in how far this wider context contributed to a level of social stability among people and the management of expectations in their relation with the state. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in the two capital cities – one in which the situation changed dramatically in the past decade, I propose to unpack what we can learn about state turbulence in West and Central Africa from how citizens navigate their relations amongst themselves and with their public authorities in the centre of power.