Civil Wars in Africa

Kelechi A. Kalu, George Klay Kieh Jr.

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2022
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781978790124
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: African History
• Index: Politics & International Relations

Civil Wars in Africa, edited by Kelechi A. Kalu and George Klay Kieh, Jr., examines civil conflicts throughout various African countries. They argue that civil wars in Africa are by-products of the contradictions and crises engendered by the post-colonial state-building and nation-building projects in Africa. With few exceptions, the post-colonial states in Africa have failed to build societies that invest in the material well-being of their citizens; protect their political, civil, and other rights; promote accountability, transparency, the rule of law, judicial independence, and the holding of free and fair elections; and promote ethnic pluralism, tolerance, mutual respect, and peaceful co-existence, among others. In addition, the contributors show that the post-colonial states in Africa have been ruled by corrupt and autocratic leaders, who are obsessed with the maintenance of state power as the pathway to ensuring the private accumulation of wealth through sundry illegal means, including bribery, extortion, and theft of public funds. In sum, this volume addresses how the failure of the post-colonial African state to shepherd the process of building democratic societies based on the centrality of human security has led to the erosion of the legitimacy of the state and its custodians. Thus, once the contradictions and crises reached their crescendo, these post-colonial societies than implode into civil wars, even at the micro-level.

Table of contents

• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• Part I: Background
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Theories and Explanations of Civil Conflicts and Wars in Africa
• Part II: Case Studies
• Chapter 2: Burundi: A Continuum of Civil Wars and Violence
• Chapter 3: Civil War in Cameroon
• Chapter 4: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Conflict: A Study of the Tuobodom Chieftaincy in Ghana
• Chapter 5: Liberia’s Civil Wars
• Chapter 6: Personality Conflicts and the Nigerian Civil War
• Chapter 7: On Rwanda’s Civil War (October 1, 1990–April 6, 1994): Assessing the International Determinant
• Chapter 8: The Sierra Leonean Civil War: An Examination of Internal, Regional, and External Causes
• Chapter 9: The South Sudanese Civil War
• Chapter 10: The Colonial Roots of the Lord’s Resistance Army War in Postcolonial Northern Uganda
• Part III: Lessons and Insights
• Conclusion
• Index
• About the Editors and the Contributors