Free article preview  

In the wars engulfing Central Africa, soldiers and business people are redrawing Africa's state system at terrible human cost

At the heart of Africa, the Congo-Kinshasa war has dragged more than a dozen states into its vortex and dealt a powerful blow to the tottering state system established on the continent over the past 40 years. Historians with a taste for symmetry suggest that Africa’s post-colonial state system may prove to have begun and finished with crises in the Congo. The differences at each end of the process are striking....

(This article contains approximately 4460 words)

end of free article preview

Current subscribers: log in now to read the complete article. Misplaced your password? Then click here for a password reminder.

Not a subscriber? Then you can read this article in full either by becoming a subscriber now, for 3, 6 or 12 months, or you can buy this individual article.

  • Subscribe to Africa Confidential:
  • Buy this article:
  • 3-month subscription
    Prices from £205.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
    6-month subscription
    Prices from £376.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
    12-month subscription
    Prices from £705.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
  • UK & European Union
    £17.00 (+ VAT where applicable)
    Rest of the world
    $27.00

  • If you have a print subscription already, click here for a password that gives you full access to the website.
  • If you are logged in, but still cannot access the full text of this article, email customer services or telephone us on +44(0)1638 743633.

Keywords:

Congo-Kinshasa, Soviet Union, China, Awkward marriage, awkward divorce, Zimbabwe, South African, Angola, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Daniel arap Moi, Big business and the chief economist, Laurent-Désiré Kabila, Rwanda, Nigeria, Shehu Shagari, Ibrahim Babangida, Sani Abacha, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Charles Taylor, Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Lebanese, French, Gambia, Senegal, Idi Amin Dada, Juvénal Habyarimana, Mobutu Sese Seko, Sudanese, Guinea-Bissau, Burundi, Somalia, Cultural ghosts, Leroy Vail, Samora Machel, Jean-François Bayart, Mwayila Tshiyembe, Big Men in Europe and Africa, Yugoslavia, Albania, Eritrea, Somaliland, Hassan Abdullah el Turabi, Saudi Arabia, Iraqi, Saddam Hussein, United States, Iran, Islam versus Islamism, Algerian, Tunisian, Egyptian, Syrian, Germany, Joseph Kony, Frederick Chiluba, Zambia, Benjamin Mkapa, Outside the IMF's grasp, Edward, Kim’, Jaycox, Big men, big favourites, Ethiopia, Joseph Stalin, William Reno, Siaka Stevens, Congo-Brazzaville, Adebayo Olukoshi, Liisa Laakso, Sweden, Stephen Ellis, Béatrice Hibou, Patrick Chabal, Jean-Pascal Daloz, Christopher Clapham, , Africa Confidential, Union Economique et Monétaire Ouest-Africaine, Front Patriotique Rwandais, Forces Armées Congolaises, Interahamwé, génocidaires, Al Itahad al Islami, Inkatha, Challenges to the Nation-state in Africa, Nordiska Afrikainstutet, The Criminalisation of the State in Africa, Africa Works, Africa and the International System

Tag Cloud:

&(2) 19th(2) 39(3) abacha(2) abuja(2) africa(44) aid(3) america(3) asian(2) autonomy(2) backs(2) baghdad(2) banyarwanda(2) bayart(2) below(2) breakaway(2) burundi(2) cambridge(2) century(2) cfa(3) christian(7) colonial(5) commercial(6) congo(12) congo-kinshasa(2) constituency(2) convenient(2) cultural(2) currency(2) currey(2) delivered(2) dissidents(3) dominated(2) east.(2) ecomog(4) economies(2) economist(2) economy(5) election(3) ethnically(2) ethnicity(2) europe(5) european(3) example(2) factors(2) federation(2) francophone(7) french(3) fundamentalist(3) funds.(2) ghana(2) government(5) grasp(2) identities(8) imf(2) impose(3) insistence(3) integration(4) islam(2) islamic(2) islamism(2) islamist(7) james(2) jaycox(2) jean-françois(2) joseph(2) kenya(11) kikuyu(3) leone(6) leone.(2) liberia(5) marriage(2) material(2) maybe(2) military(4) militias(2) mobutu(2) monoliths(2) monopoly(5) mozambique(3) multi-party(2) museveni(2) muslim(4) nation-state(4) nation-states(2) nationalist(2) ngos(2) north-eastern(2) organisations(5) post-colonial(3) presidential(2) primacy(2) privatisation(3) readily(2) reality.(2) rebellion(2) redrawing(2) regionalisation(2) related(2) religious(8) routes.(2) rwanda-uganda(2) sacu(2) sadc(2) saudi(2) scientist(2) senegal(2) sierra(8) so-called(2) somalia(4) sovereignty.(2) strategists(2) struggles(2) successive(2) sudan(4) sudanese(2) systems(2) tanzania(6) taylor(3) theology(2) top-down(3) tragically(2) turabi(2) uganda(9) ugandan(3) uk.(2) unions(2) varies(2) war(4) west(6) zambia(2)