Africa
May 1998

May Article Abstracts

Title: Kabila's Congo
Author: Peter Rosenblum
"Recent months have seen the pace of repression increase in Congo. Human rights reports have been seized and activists intimidated and beaten. Political figures have been arrested or, in the case of Étienne Tshisekedi, sent into internal exile. . . Yet the political space created by seven years of opposition to Mobutu endures. . . Judging by [President Laurent] Kabila's recent course, this space will last only until he can close it with impunity."

Title: Thinking Regionally About Africa
Author: Salih Booker
United States policy toward Africa has been "more opportunistic than strategic. What is missing is a framework that incorporates the subregional context within which African states are attempting to make economic and political progress."

Title: Economic Takeoff in Africa?
Author: Deborah Bräutigam
President Bill Clinton's recent trip to Africa focused considerable, upbeat attention on the continent's economic potential. "Are the African economies emerging from the tunnel, or are they still catching only glimpses of light?"

Title: Africa's "New Leaders": African Solution or African Problem?
Author: Marina Ottaway
Marina Ottaway reviews the recent political history of Africa's "new leaders" to find that while there may indeed be "new thinking" among them, their governments "remain inherently authoritarian. It has been a relatively benevolent authoritarianism so far, but it could degenerate into the predatory style of rule that destroyed these countries in the past."

Title: After Mandela's Miracle in South Africa
Author: Michael Bratton
"South Africa has entered a more rough-and-tumble era of open multiparty competition. . . To generate the deep reserves of trust and civic responsibility necessary for a brighter future, black and white South Africans will have to recognize afresh that their futures are inexorably connected."

Title: Somalia: Political Order in a Stateless Society
Author: Ken Menkhaus
"While Somalia today is stateless, it is not anarchic. Although repeated efforts to revive a central government have failed, local communities have responded with a wide range of strategies to establish the minimal essential elements of governance. . . Indeed, in some parts of Somalia, local communities enjoy more responsive and participatory governance, and a more predictable, profitable, and safer commercial climate, than at any time in recent decades."

Title: Somaliland Goes It Alone
Author: Gérard Prunier
"On a continent where success stories are rare, Somaliland's modest progress deserves a better response than the international cold shoulder it has received so far. This is especially true because its brand of peacemaking is real, grounded in the cultural traditions of its people and not in the benevolent but ill-informed efforts of foreigners."

Title: Liberia's Path from Anarchy to Elections
Author: Terrence Lyons
"The July 1997 elections transformed the nature of politics in Liberia. . . An assessment of whether [they] served as the beginning of a democratic era will have to wait until future elections in which the voters are given a choice among viable candidates rather than a choice between war and peace."

Title: Democracy Dismantled in the Congo Republic
Author: John F. Clark
"Few expect President Denis Sassou-Nguesso to return Congo to the path of democratic experimentation. But whether Congo comes to resemble more closely Museveni's Uganda or Mobutu's Zaire is now largely in his hands."