Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies
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Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies Series Editors Gregor Dobler (Freiburg University) William Miles (Northeastern University) Wolfgang Zeller (University of Edinburgh) Advisory Board Anthony I. Asiwaju (African Regional Institute) David Coplan (University of the Witwatersrand) Alice Bellagamba (University of Milan-Bicocca) Pierre Englebert (Pomona College) Jan-Bart Gewald (University of Leiden) Amanda Hammar (Copenhagen University) Thomas Hüsken (University of Bayreuth) Georg Klute (University of Bayreuth) Baz Lecocq (Ghent University) Camille Lefebvre (Panthéon-Sorbonne/CNRS) Kate Meagher (London School of Economics) Paul Nugent (University of Edinburgh) Wafula Okumu (African Union Border Programme) Timothy Raeymaekers (University of Zürich—) Cristina Udelsmann Rodrigues (University Institute of Lisbon) Holger Weiss (Åbo Akademi University) Jerzy Zdanowski (Polish Academy of Sciences) Werner Zips (University of Vienna) Published in cooperation with the African Borderlands Research Network and the European Science Foundation African borderlands are among the continent’s most creative and most rapidly chang- ing social spaces, acting as theaters of identity formation and cultural exchange, of violent conflict and regional integration, of economic growth and sudden stagna- tion, of state building and state failure. Because their unique position at the margins of social and legal spaces offers more flexibility to social actors, borderlands reflect changes on the national level more quickly and more radically than most inland regions. They thus become hot spots of social activity and, on an academic level, ideal places to study social, political and economic change. The Palgrave Series in African Borderlands Studies is the first series dedicated to the exploration and theoretical interpretation of African borderlands. It contributes to core debates in a number of disciplines—namely political science, geography, economics, anthropology, history, sociology and law—and provides vital insights for practical politics in border-related issues, ranging from migration and regional integration to conflict resolution and peace-building. June10,2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-i 9781137333988_01_prexii The African Borderlands Research Network (ABORNE) is an interdisciplinary network of researchers interested in all aspects of international borders and trans- boundary phenomena in Africa. The network held its inaugural meeting in Edinburgh in 2007 and has since grown to over 250 members worldwide. ABORNE’s core fund- ing is provided by membership fees and the Research Networking Programme of the European Science Foundation. The European Science Foundation (ESF) was established in 1974 to provide a common platform for its Member Organizations to advance European research collaboration and explore new directions for research. It is an independent organi- zation, owned by 78 Member Organizations, which are research funding and research performing organizations, academies and learned societies from 30 countries. ESF promotes collaboration in research itself, in funding of research and in science policy activities at the European level. Published by Palgrave Macmillan: Namibia’s Red Line: The History of a Veterinary and Settlement Border (2012) By Giorgio Miescher Violence on the Margins: States, Conflict, and Borderlands (2013) Edited by Benedikt Korf and Timothy Raeymaekers The Borderlands of South Sudan: Governance and Power in Contemporary and Historical Perspective (2013) Edited by Christopher Vaughan, Mareike Schomerus and Lotje de Vries June10,2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-ii 9781137333988_01_prexii Violence on the Margins States, Conflict, and Borderlands Edited by Benedikt Korf and Timothy Raeymaekers June10,2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-iii 9781137333988_01_prexii violence on the margins Copyright © Benedikt Korf and Timothy Raeymaekers, 2013. All rights reserved. First published in 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the World, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN: 978–1–137–33398–8 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Violence on the margins:states, conflict, and borderlands/edited by Benedikt Korf and Timothy Raeymaekers. p. cm. — (Palgrave series in African borderlands studies) ISBN 978–1–137–33398–8 (alk. paper) 1. Borderlands—Africa, Sub-Saharan. 2. Borderlands—Asia. 3. Political violence—Africa, Sub-Saharan. 4. Political violence—Asia. 5. Political geography—Africa, Sub-Saharan. 6. Political geography—Asia. I. Korf, Benedikt. II. Raeymaekers, Timothy. III. Series: Palgrave series in African borderlands studies. JC323.V56 2013 320.12096—dc23 2013008610 AcataloguerecordofthebookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. Design by Integra Software Services First edition: August 2013 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 June 10, 2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-iv 9781137333988_01_prexii Contents List of Figures vii List of Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Part I Introducing a Borderland Perspective 1 Introduction: Border, Frontier and the Geography of Rule at the Margins of the State 3 Benedikt Korf and Timothy Raeymaekers 2 Geographies of Violence and Sovereignty: The African Frontier Revisited 29 Benedikt Korf, Tobias Hagmann and Martin Doevenspeck 3 Centering Borders and Borderlands: The Evidence from Africa 55 Markus Virgil Hoehne and Dereje Feyissa Part II The Border’s Rough Terrain: Violence, Security and the Border 4 Treading a Fine Line: State-Making and Conflict within Eastern Burma 87 Sylvia Brown 5 Navigating the Urban “In-Between Space”: Local Livelihood and Identity Strategies in Exploiting the Goma/Gisenyi Border 119 Karen Büscher and Gillian Mathys June10,2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-v 9781137333988_01_prexii vi ● Contents Part III The Border as Frontier: States, Sovereignty and Identity 6 Dangerous Divisions: Peace-Building in the Borderlands of Post-Soviet Central Asia 145 Christine Bichsel 7 State-Making and the Suspension of Law in India’s Northeast: The Place of Exception in the Assam–Nagaland Border Dispute 167 Bert Suykens Part IV “Bringing the State Back In”: Borders, War Economies and Peace Economies 8 Get It While You Can: Governance between Wars in the AQ1 Uganda–SouthSudanBorderland 193 Wolfgang Zeller 9 When Civil Wars Hibernate in Borderlands: The Challenges of the Casamance’s “Forgotten Civil War” to Cross-Border Peace and Security 219 Aboubakr Tandia Epilogue: The View from the Border 247 Jonathan Goodhand Notes on Contributors 265 Index 269 June 10, 2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-vi 9781137333988_01_prexii List of Figures 1.1 Spatialities of frontier and borderland 12 2.1 Different interactions between metropolis and periphery in the Turner and Kopytoff frontiers 35 2.2 Map of Somali region, Ethiopia 38 2.3 Map of north-central Benin 41 4.1 Strategic positions of KNU brokers 100 6.1 Maksat village 154 7.1 Assam–Nagaland border ca. 1878 173 7.2 Assam–Nagaland border ca. 1898 174 7.3 Assam–Nagaland border ca. 2010 174 8.1 Development town: Aid agency and commercial bank signs at a traffic junction in central Gulu 198 8.2 Memorial site in Atiak on the 14th anniversary of the massacre 203 8.3 In transit: Taking a rest in Bibia before crossing the border into South Sudan 206 8.4 Open for business: Bibia currency traders’ office 209 8.5 In the no-man’s-land: between Bibia and Nimule: Between Bibia and Nimule 212 June 10, 2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-vii 9781137333988_01_prexii June 10, 2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-viii 9781137333988_01_prexii List of Tables 1.1 The “borderland” and “frontier” perspectives 11 2.1 The geographies of rule of the Turner and Kopytoff frontiers 35 9.1 Chronology of the conflict, 2010 225 June 10, 2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-ix 9781137333988_01_prexii June10,2013 21:50 MAC-US/GINS Page-x 9781137333988_01_prexii Acknowledgments This book came about with the support of a great many people. The themes and ideas of this book were first discussed and shared in an international workshop, “Bringing the Margins Back In: War Making and State Making in the Borderlands”, held at the University of Ghent, Belgium, February 12–14, 2012. We would like to thank, first of all, the European Science Foundation for its continuous support, in particular for the African Borderland Research Network (ABORNE), which has been a driving force behind this project. We would also like to express our gratitude to the Universities of Ghent and Zurich for their additional financial contributions toward this workshop and Jonathan Goodhand and Tobias Hagmann for co-organizing the event. Many thanks also to chief editor of History and African Studies at Palgrave, Chris Chappell, for his belief in this project and his support in getting it smoothly through the reviews. A special thanks to Isabelle Thurnherr for being such a great copy editor, having put enormous time and effort in editing the differ- ent chapters. In ABORNE, we would like to thank, first of all, the leading editors of this series, Bill Miles, Gregor Dobler and Wolfgang Zeller, as well as our colleague Paul Nugent for their continuous assistance