DEVELOPMENT AND COOPERATION D+ C ENTWICKLUNG UND ZUSAMMENARBEIT E +Z

International Journal

ISSN 2366-7257 D +CMONTHLY E-PAPER November 2017

ROHINGYA COOPERATION CLIMATE CHANGE Global silence Why India is How climate-smart in view of an important agriculture can genocidal action partner provide solutions

Colonial legacy Title: Depiction of a slave ship: wood engraving from 1875. Photo: akg-images/Lineair D+C November 2017 In German in E+Z Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit. Both language versions Focus at www.DandC.eu Colonial legacy Monitor Consequences of the past Gates Foundation promotes Sustainable Development Goals with new report series | The division of Africa by European colonial ONE regards quality of aid in danger despite record ODA level | Cocoa industry powers had long-lasting consequences. They under pressure | Refugees increase water demand | Nowadays: Women’s issues in are manifested in today’s political systems, in Ugandan media | Imprint 4 economic dependencies and linguistic divi- sions. However, Africans themselves have to overcome the hurdles left by colonial rule,

Debate says Jonathan Bashi, a law professor and con- sultant in the Democratic Republic of the Comments on the Rohingya’s exodus from Myanmar, Africa’s garment industry and the Congo. In West Africa, French troops help stabi- superiority of democracy over dictatorship plus a letter to the editor responding to a lise the region, explains Mohamed Gueye, a contribution by Ndongo Samba Sylla in our October e-Paper 10 Senegalese journalist. Pages 24, 27 Tribune Compensation for former injustice hans-jochen luhmann At the beginning of the 20th century, German Relevant reading on the status of global climate policy beyond the Paris agreement 14 soldiers in the colony German South West Africa, which is today’s Namibia, committed a genocide. The German government needs to karim okanla face the core demands of the concerned Most Beninese people must cope with the constant insecurity of informal employment 16 Herero and Nama people, demands political scientist Joshua Kwesi Aikins, activist of the wolfram klein organisation “Berlin Postkolonial”. Activists around the world demand that rich nations Why India is one of the most important countries of the world in regard pay reparations for slavery and colonialism. to development work 18 Kehinde Andrews, the co-chair of Britain’s Black Studies Association, agrees with them. michaela schaller Pages 28, 30 Climate-smart agriculture as a response to climate change in Kenia 21 Creole on the rise Focus: Colonial legacy In the Caribbean, the colonial powers’ lan- jonathan bashi guages were blended with various African Structures rooted in colonialism impede African unity 24 languages, and new languages emerged, the so called Creoles. Today, Creoles are languages in their own right, representing the region’s interview with mohamed gueye cultures, as Hubert Devonish, professor of 27 “If the French troops leave Mali, the country will collapse” linguistics in Jamaica explains. Page 32

Joshua Kwesi Aikins Herero demand reparations from Germany for genocide committed in colonial times 28 Spanish colonial heritage Spain’s colonial rule has left deep marks on interview with kehinde andrews Mexico and still shapes society, writes Virginia British scholar wants western nations to pay reparations for slavery and colonialism 30 Mercado, an academic from Mexico. Spanish colonialisation also marks the Philippines, Hubert Devonish and so does American colonialisation, as free- lance journalist Alan C. Robles assesses. Creole languages of the Caribbean express peoples’ identities 32 Pages 34, 36 virginia mercado Spain’s colonial rule has left marks on Mexican society 34 Room for improvement In Bangladesh, independence leaders’ aspira- alan c. robles tion for a new legal system that would be up to The anti-democratic legacy of Spanish and US colonialism in the Philippines 36 the nation’s needs largely remains unfulfilled. The young state’s legal system has yet to be de-colonised. Law scholars Ridwanul Hoque Ridwanul Hoque and Arpeeta S. Mizan and Arpeeta S. Mizan explain what needs to be Why Bangladesh’s legal system has yet to be decolonised 38 done for. Page 38

D+C e-Paper November 2017 briefisection. ng compiled innext month’s our website–they’llbe plus related oneson tions ofourfocussection d+c e-paper november2017 3 familiar. alltoo found onit,looked website,recently its check however. butwhatI That ithasawebsite isgood, tional official development(ODA) assistance cannot. healthy. Itcanhelptoofemancipationinaway promote thecause thatcondi- country. ofevery is upto thepeople a griponthehistoricaltruthis Getting too. heldresponsible current governmentsbe must toblamingonly keep theformercolonialpowers.The sense makes it nolonger theexception.After– not two ofindependence,however, orthreegenerations Trumpdisplays Donald President gance US todaytheglobalnorm to be seems more inclusive. become indeed To many thekindofstrongmanarro- people, know didnot from fipeople likeBritainhad thatcountries handexperience rst hadlaidthefoundationsofmisrule. their own predecessors often indevelopingalltoo failingtothat remember ian leanings countries, werements keenlyaware andauthoritar- abuses human-rights ofcorruption, ofgovernance. onissues to Westernthey feltentitled giving lectures govern- later, inthenewroleandafewdecades themselves ofbenevolent donors, cast Neither anymore, isacceptable ofcourse. went Enlightenment also alongwithcolonialismandslavery.that European historicaltruth,however, Itisanunsettling toentitled self-determination. value isofequal and person isthatevery Thebasicidea Development Goals. oftheUNsystemandhave arerights cornerstones inspiredtheSustainable cently heardJob ShipululoAmupanda,ayoung Namibian putit. scholar asIre- lying intheformermasters’ –comfortable beds, feels It felt–andstill won, oftenone. butalltoo theyonly replacedthealienelite withanewdomestic independent. after Indiabecame seven decades overcome been hasnot even thatitstill today, deeplyrooted strongandso so ever, way is that its proved and freedoms of basic rights of depriving masses it wasdoubt, an oppressive, exploitative truth, how- system. The depressing margins of society. saying Iamnot Nothat British colonialism was a blessing. in force, offi lived still onthe ofpeople Englishandmasses used cialdom still was apparently muchslower inIndia.Many colonialconventions were still more inclusive. andbecome The UnitedProgress hadmodernised Kingdom forthediff stood actually museums erence thetwoconcerned. between states worked onit,themorethatdiff Icameto understand erence the between power hadleft. imperialist era’s sincethe hadchanged asifnothing looked cloneoftheBritishMuseum, ways whichin some items. inits TheIndianMuseum, ested isthecolonial inter- trickstopeople get wasfacilityusingallup-to-date Museum amodern thediff it,because about telling people erence wasimpressive. so TheBritish in Kolkata within a the few Indian months. Museum Calcutta) I keep (then still and In 1996,inLondon thatIwenttheBritishMuseum to happened see itso Mechanisms ofoppression view our

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Ph otos: Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/picture-alliance/NurPhoto, Paul Harrison/Lineair professor atDhaka University.professor Ridwanul crisis,writes refugee Hoque,alaw inviewofthedramatic is largelyleftto itself ing to theUN. thereceiving country, Bangladesh, accord- exampleofethniccleansing” a “textbook fl fromed Myanmar. there is Whatishappening thanhalfamillionRohingyaMore have people The Rohingya’s exodusfromMyanmar Debate Tribune A teamfromforRural theCentre Development A complexundertaking as team leader Michaela Schaller reports. reports. MichaelaSchaller as teamleader inwesternKenya.among smallholderfarmers This cultivation promoted isnow being method not paynot well, itpays atleast regularly. According (SLE Berlin) has researched what conditions must whatconditionsmust hasresearched (SLE Berlin) people must cope with the constant insecurity of insecurity withtheconstant cope must people to the scholar Karim Okanla, most Beninese Beninese KarimOkanla,most to thescholar Benin’s employmentblues Climate-smart agriculturewas (CSA) developed Climate-smart informal employment. Thoughthegovernmentin thecivil does service. in response to the impacts ofclimate change. to theimpacts in response In Benin, masses of people would liketo ofpeople have masses ajob In Benin, be in place for implementation to be successful, successful, inplace forimplementationto be be page 16 page page 21 page page 10 page

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UN 2030 Agenda Kesete Admasu, a former health min- ister of Ethiopia, has contributed an essay on his country’s approach to improving Data look harder than they are maternal and child health. He convincingly points out that awareness raising and com- munity involvement are essential. However, his insistence that all women should give Bill and Melinda Gates have launched a new The publication makes a similar case birth in “health facilities” is unconvinc- annual report series to promote the Sustain- in regard to HIV/AIDS. The rate of new in- ingly vague. He probably does not mean able Development Goals (SDGs). This year’s fections has declined considerably, but this full-blown hospitals, but that is not elabo- edition focuses on health issues. healthy trend became slower as “the sense rated. In Bangladesh and India, experts of crisis dissipated”. The Gates Foundation warn that, especially in rural areas, there By Hans Dembowski warns that the infection rates may double are not enough hospitals to accommodate again by 2030 “if we regress”. all women who give birth, so only difficult “We are launching this report this year and The graphs look impressively precise. cases should be referred to hospitals (see will publish it every year until 2030 because Unfortunately, the IHME remains vague D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/08, p. 21, and 2017/09, we want to accelerate progress in the fight what exactly it would take to “make pro- p. 24, and print edition 2017/09–10, p. 30 and against poverty,” Bill and Melinda Gates gress” or what “regressing” would mean. p. 28). Given that Bangladesh’s track record state in the introduction. They want poli- The IHME experts do not offer any estimates on maternal health is impressive and that cymakers to be guided by the SDGs, which concerning how much money needs to be the country is more prosperous and much were adopted by the UN in the 2030 Agenda spent to achieve the best results possible, or more densely populated than Ethiopia, it is two years ago. precisely who would have to take what kind hard to see why its rural health infrastruc- The philanthropist couple has a histo- of action. Without such information, the ture should be worse than Ethiopia’s. ry of promoting development programmes. data are not as “hard” as they appear to be. The new Gates Foundation series The Gates Foundation is involved in the The publication includes several brief serves a worthy cause, and its first edition Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and essays that elaborate some issues in more offers some interesting information. In or- Malaria, the Alliance for a Green Revolution detail. Moussé Fall, an imam from Senegal, der to contribute substantially to rigorous in Africa and the ONE Campaign, which lob- explains why family planning is consistent development debate, however, the next edi- bies donor governments to keep their prom- with the Muslim faith, for example. Accord- tions must become far more detailed. ises (see article next page). In view of plans ing to him, “the Prophet of Islam encourages to slice the official development assistance women to space births because they have Link (ODA) of the USA and “a similar mood of re- a duty to breastfeed for two full years”. Fall Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation: trenchment” in other donor countries, Bill argues that it is okay to use technologies Goalkeepers – The stories behind and Melinda Gates now intend to add yet that were unknown in Prophet Muham- the data 2017. more pressure. mad’s time, provided they are used in line http://www.globalgoals.org/goalkeepers/ The Gates Foundation asked experts with Koranic principles. datareport/ to assess recent trends for 18 of 232 SDG in- dicators. It reports that, because of “insuffi- cient data”, no precise assessment could be made of the quality of primary education, gender equity and labour productivity in agriculture. The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the Seattle-based University of Washington provided most of the analyses included in the publication. Its graphs show that, while global de- velopment has been moving in the right direction in recent decades, humankind is generally not on track to meet the targets set for 2030. The IHME graphs also indicate what results are likely if global development efforts are increased or reduced. The re- port warns, for example, that the incidence of malaria can rise from currently 29 to 39 new cases per 1,000 people by 2030 “if we regress”. On the other hand, they may sink

to a mere five per thousand “if we progress”. Worldwide HIV infections. Source: http://www.globalgoals.org/goalkeepers/datareport/

D+C e-Paper November 2017 4 Monitor: conferences And studies

Aid for Development Conference in Addis Aba- ba in 2015. ONE sees “a crisis in domestic re- Indispensable public sector source mobilisation in Africa”. African governments’ total domestic revenues are reckoned to have dropped by almost 24 % since 2012. The reasons, according to ONE, Global official development assistance (ODA) supporting refugees in their own countries include low commodity prices, large infor- reached the record level of $ 140.1 billion in rose in particular to $ 15.4 billion (almost mal sectors and complex tax as well as il- 2016. Nonetheless, the ONE Campaign, 11 % of global total ODA). Three of the six licit financial flows, weak administrative which is backed by some of the world’s lead- OECD members that reached the 0.7 % goal capacities and corruption. The ONE authors ing philanthropists, argues that the quality of only did so because of refugee expenditure. demand that African governments shore up aid is in danger. For example, the ODA share Germany was one of them, and ONE praises their act and spend larger shares of their flowing to the least developed countries its Federal Government for the promise to budgets on the important sectors of health, (LDCs) is declining. Moreover, most donor stay in the 0.7 % range even as domestic education and agriculture. At the same governments are still not living up to the old ­refugee costs are set to decline in the future. time, sovereign debt levels are said to be ris- pledge of spending 0.7 % of GNP on ODA. As ONE argues, money spent on refu- ing once more. gees in OECD countries is spent well, but The report notes that FDI is largely by- By Hans Dembowski should not count as ODA. The reason is that passing Africa. In 2016, the continent only it hardly contributes to improving the lives attracted less than three percent of global ONE publishes an annual assessments of of people in the world’s poorest places. To FDI. Compounding the matter, a mere six global aid. The series is called Data Report. alleviate poverty and contribute to achiev- countries accounted for 75 % of the FDI in- The guiding idea is to hold donor govern- ing the Sustainable Development Goals flow to Africa’s LDCs and fragile states. In ments accountable. This year’s report shows (SDGs), ONE wants ODA flows to go to the ONE’s view, ODA can be used to improve the that only six members of the Organisation LDCs. Their share of global ODA, however, business climate in order to attract inves- for Economic Co-operation and Develop- has declined from about one third in 2013 to tors. The report warns, however, that pri- vate finance cannot take the place of public investment. ODA is said to remain “vital as a concessional resource for the most vulner- able countries, which struggle to raise suffi- cient domestic resources”. ONE calls itself a “campaign and lob- bying organisation”. The term is correct, but it does not reveal that ONE is largely driven by mega-rich philanthropists. The board members includes billionaires as well as people who are either related to or work for the American billionaires Warren Buf- fett, Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Michael Bloomberg and George Soros. The board also includes Mo Ibrahim and Aliko Dangote, two very successful African entrepreneurs. The individual most popularly known for his ONE involvement is probably the Irish rock star Bono. In spite of his counter- culture image, ONE actually represents a world view that is shared by some of the Bill Gates and Bono. world’s richest persons. It is important to note that they consider public-sector spend- ment (OECD), an association of donor gov- 28 % in 2016, whilst stagnating in real terms. ing indispensable for making markets work ernments, fulfilled the 0.7 % promise last According to ONE, “the quality of ODA is properly. year. Since the combined aid level for all under threat”. OECD nations is a mere 0.31 %, ONE insists Apart from ODA, the report also con- Link that ODA must more than double. siders developing countries’ tax revenues ONE Campaign: The 2017 Data Report – ONE appreciates that global ODA in- and the foreign direct investments (FDI) Financing for the African century (includes creased by 7.4 % last year, but emphasises they attract. This approach is in line with several donor-country profiles).

that the sums donor governments spent on the decisions made at the global Financing https://www.one.org/us/data-report-2017/ Ph oto: Chiasson /picture-alliance/empics

D+C e-Paper November 2017 5 Join us on Facebook!

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Fair trade we work together,” says Wolf Kropp-Büttner of the German Initiative on Sustainable Co- coa (GISCO). GISCO is a joint initiative by A drop in prices is Germany’s federal government, the German sweets and confectionary industry, the Ger- man retail grocery trade and civil society hurting cocoa farmers to improve the livelihood of cocoa farmers and their families as well as to increase the production and market share of sustainably produced cocoa. The living conditions of cocoa farmers nary people buying a bar of chocolate, but Kropp-Büttner is cautiously optimis- depend on a variety of factors. The world they dominate the business of processing tic about the progress that has been made market price of their product plays an the tropical fruit. For example, the world in recent years. More and more companies important role, but so do their education market leader, Barry Callebaut, set a goal are buying certified cocoa that meets re- level, the sustainability of their operations to improve the living conditions of half a cognised standards set by organisations like and marketing. Chocolate producers have million farmers and end child labour by Rainforest or Fairtrade. According to Kropp- imposed voluntary commitments on their 2025. Marina Morari, a representative of Büttner, such cocoa now makes up almost industry. But they should also adhere to the Barry Callebaut, says: “We want to see de- half of the chocolate supply in Germany. UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and cent livelihoods.” However, critical voices are also calling on Human Rights. The world market price is important, chocolate producers like Barry Callebaut to but it’s not the only factor affecting farm- use more fair-trade cocoa. At the moment, By Linda Engel ers’ quality of life, she explained during a manufacturers are only responding to the podium discussion at the Anuga Food Fair demands of their corporate customers. Small farms in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana to- in October in Cologne. The farmers also It would be a huge step in the right gether grow about 60 % of the world’s co- lack the education and the information direction if companies would adhere to the coa. Most of these family operations only have a few hectares of land. Many small- holders live under the poverty line, and of- Cocoa cultivation in Ghana. ten their children must work on the planta- tions as well. The situation has become even worse since the end of 2016, when the world price of cocoa dropped sharply. Edward Akapire from Fairtrade Africa emphasises how im- portant this price is: it determines not only how much farmers invest, but also whether they can send their children to school, for example. According to Akapire, young peo- ple are not interested in cocoa farming at the moment. The industry is under additional pressure because it anticipates a bottle- neck in cocoa production in coming years. to successfully manage their operations. UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and One problem is that the trees only bear According to Morari, many farmers don’t Human Rights, which were adopted in 2011. good quality beans for a few years. As a know, for example, how much land they They specify, for instance, that companies result, farmers have to plant new trees actually have, which prevents them from must guarantee that individuals or groups regularly and wait several years for them calculating how much fertiliser they need. have a way to complain about human-rights to bear mature fruit. Therefore, only a por- violations that businesses commit locally. tion of their trees are bringing in money Fair trade is growing The responsibility of corporations is espe- at any given time. Investments take a long cially great in those places where the state time to pay off. Many stocks in Ghana and Responsible companies are not only inter- is fragile or weak. To date, around 20 coun- Côte d’Ivoire are considered too old. ested in improving working conditions; they tries, including Germany, have developed One way that major chocolate pro- also want to prevent environmental damage national action plans based on the princi- ducers have reacted to these issues is by like deforestation. They work at the national ples. By doing so they hope to ensure that imposing voluntary commitments. These or international level with civil society and national companies also abide by the UN

companies are largely unknown to ordi- state actors. “We can only make progress if principles when operating internationally. Photo: picture-alliance/robertharding

D+C e-Paper November 2017 7 Monitor: conferences And studies

Refugees Water suitcase

Migration is driven by various issues, increas- ingly including climate change. At the same time, migrants aggravate water scarcity in host communities. It is important to understand people’s vulnerabilities.

By Masha Motlagh

James Kung’u from Kenyatta University in Kenya assesses migration in the context of climate change and conflicts over water resource. His focus is on pastoral commu- nities in northern Kenya. With increasing frequency and severity of droughts, pasto- ralists are roaming ever farther with their herds in search of pastures and water. As weather patterns change, so do their mi- gratory patterns, causing more conflict and competition. The scenario is similar in other African countries (for a Nigerian example Syrian refugees standing in line to get water in Jordanian camp in June 2016. see D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/06, p. 19, and print edition 2017/07–08, p. 26). Kung’u re- ports that rural people are increasingly giv- highest numbers of human displacements for groundwater is increasing in border ar- ing up their traditional livelihoods to look due to extreme weather events, drought, eas, depleting resources. What is needed in for new ones in the cities or abroad. rainfall-pattern changes and desertification. the refugee camps is education, wastewater In Africa, according to Chrispin When people leave an area, water management, sanitation and the promotion Kowenje of Masono University in Kenya, demand is reduced there. However, it in- of water saving, according to the scholar. three quarters of all livelihoods are nature- creases in the places the people move to. The refugee crisis is not a temporary matter, based and depend on water, so rainfall is Babel considers refugees’ water demand to so Jordan needs financial help, Hamaideh very important. The main challenges that something like a “suitcase” that they bring demands. Moreover, she calls for capacity governments face are population growth along wherever they go. Their need must building in order for everyone’s basic hu- and climate change, but they lack well-de- be assessed diligently, he insists. Jordan, man requirements to be met. She emphasis- fined policies and proper regulations. Water for example, is hosting millions of refugees es that climate change is causing problems resources must be managed better, Kowenje from Syria, Iraq and Palestine. Both the in- that are further exacerbated by the influx of argues, and international cooperation can flux of people and climate change are ag- migrants. help. The idea is to proactively create and gravating water and livelihood problems. Water availability can be reduced by protect livelihood opportunities; otherwise Food, water and health security are in- natural disasters as well as armed conflict, people will be under pressure to leave. creasingly at risk, Babel says. At the same as Nina Röttgers of TU Berlin says. Either Climate change, water availability and time, water scarcity is one of several driv- way, exacerbated water shortages may cause migration are indeed interrelated matters, ers of conflict in Jordan’s strife-torn neigh- migration and flight. She has studied the im- as Mukand Babel from the Asian Institute of bouring countries. pacts of Syria’s civil war on the town of Ro- Technology in Thailand told a conference Arwa Hamaideh from the University java and the impacts of Nepal’s earthquake hosted by the ITT (Institute for Technology of Jordan agrees. Her country is struggling in 2015. Different international responses and Resources Management in the Tropics to accommodate masses of people. The are appropriate in each case, she says, but and Subtropics) of TH Köln, a university of main challenge is ensuring that the ba- action is needed. That many skilled people applied sciences, in Cologne in September. sic human needs of the refugees are met. leave devastated areas makes reconstruc- Sudden changes of environmental condi- Water accessibility is essential, and poor tion more difficult. According to her, 2,000 tions can destroy people’s livelihoods, forc- infrastructure is a major obstacle. Low- natural disasters have taken place since the ing them to migrate. According to Babel, quality water is being sold from dirty tanks, year 2000, and 100 of them affected more Photo picture-alliance/AP

China, India and the Philippines have the Hamaideh reports. Moreover, the demand than 50,000 people. Photo:

D+C e-Paper November 2017 8 Nowadays D+C correspondents write about daily life in developing countries

If staff members are not in full Discussing how to put control of these matters, NTV is the Imprint wrong place for them, he says. “TV D+C Development and Cooperation personalities should work hard to women down best Vol. 44, 2017 protect themselves. You can indulge in D+C is published together with the German edition E+Z Internet: www.DandC.eu nude pictures, but if they come out the D 12 107 ISSN 0721-2178 Ugandan media often report harshly on repercussions will be severe.” women’s issues and female sexuality. One of Uganda’s daily newspa- Published on assignment from: D+C Development and Cooperation is funded by Germany´s Sometimes they want to put women down, pers, the Daily Monitor, regularly runs Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and but sometimes they hope to start debates. controversial stories regarding women’s commissioned by ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL. D+C does not serve as a governmental mouthpiece. Our mission is to provide a credible In 2015, one of Uganda’s leading issues. One story, for instance, quoted forum of debate, involving governments, civil society, the private television stations fired a female presenter a minister who told women not to deny sector and academia at an international level. D+C is the identical twin of E+Z Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit, the German edition. after she fell victim to revenge pornogra- sex to their husbands in order to avoid phy. The managers even issued a memo to domestic violence. Another controver- ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL gGmbH Service für Entwicklungsinitiativen female employees, warning them to avoid sial opinion piece featured a male writer Tulpenfeld 7 taking nude photographs and threatening telling women to expect their husbands 53113 Bonn Tel. (02 28) 2 07 17-0 them with dismissal if any such pictures to replace them with the housemaid if Fax (02 28) 2 07 17-150 were published. The rule applies not only they didn’t do household chores like www.engagement-global.de

when a staff member publishes pictures of cooking. Advisory board: herself. It applies even when someone else Eunice Rukundo is the Daily Thomas Loster, Prof. Dr. Katharina Michaelowa, Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner, Petra Pinzler, Hugh Williamson publishes her photo. Monitor’s features editor. Why does she Solomon Muhiirwa, NTV’s human- publish pieces that denigrate women? Publisher: FAZIT Communication GmbH resource manager, was responsible for issu- She says she wants to trigger public Executive directors: Peter Hintereder and Hannes Ludwig ing the memo. “As a media house, we have debate. Address of the publisher and editorial office: a standard to uphold,” he says. “We want to “One of the secondary roles of the Frankenallee 71–81, D-60327 Frankfurt am Main, Germany avoid certain vices that our presenters may media is to encourage dialogue about This is also the legally relevant address of all indicated as indulge in. Otherwise, it becomes a prob- these issues,” Rukundo explains. “Every responsible or entitled to represent them in this imprint. lem for the station.” He insists: “We have a time we put something controversial Editorial team: brand to protect.” out there, I want to encourage dialogue.” Dr. Hans Dembowski (chief), Sabine Balk, Katja Dombrowski, She believes that the women’s move- Sheila Mysorekar, Eva-Maria Verfürth, Dagmar Wolf (assistant) ment is progressing, and it is important Phone: +49 (0) 69 75 01-43 66 Fax: +49 (0) 69 75 01-48 55 to make people discuss these matters. [email protected] “Take the example of the minister tell- Art direction: Sebastian Schöpsdau Layout: Nina Hegemann ing women to be submissive if they want Translators: M. Bell, C. Davis to prevent domestic violence. Getting Disclaimer according to § 5,2 Hessian Law on the Freedom people to talk about it educates the min- and Rights of the Press: The shareholder of the company is isters. If we keep quiet, these officials FAZIT Communication GmbH.

will continue saying what they want Advertising and subscription service: unchallenged,” Rukundo points out. FAZIT Communication GmbH, c/o InTime Media Services GmbH The newspaper’s digital platforms Postfach 1363 offer a forum for social-media debate. D-82034 Deisenhofen, Germany Phone: +49 (0) 89 8 58 53-8 32 “If we don’t report these things, we’d Fax: +49 (0) 89 8 58 53-6 28 32 never know what they’re saying on the [email protected]

ground and we’d never discuss it.” The Opinions expressed by authors indicated in bylines do not features editor says that it is becoming necessarily reflect the views of ENGAGEMENT GLOBAL, the uganda publisher or the editor and his team. Individual articles may be unacceptable to put down women in reprinted provided the source is mentioned and two voucher copies Uganda “because we talk about those are sent to the editor unless copyright is explicitly indicated. This does not apply to the photographs published in D+C Development issues”. and Cooperation and E+Z Entwicklung und Zusammenarbeit. The Kampala editors request that no unsolicitated manuscripts be sent. However, they do welcome proposals along with abstracts that serve to Lindsey Kukunda outline submissions. is a writer, digital safety Prices (incl. mailing charges): trainer and director of single issue: € 2.20 the civil-society annual subscription, Germany: € 14.00 annual subscription, world: € 18.00 organisation “Not Your

Body”. She lives in Kampala, Uganda. Printing: [email protected] Westdeutsche Verlags- und Druckerei GmbH Kurhessenstraße 46 Twitter: @RizaLouise, @NotyourbodyUg 64546 Mörfelden-Walldorf, Germany

D+C e-Paper November 2017 9 Debate: opinions

Human security claims that some Rohingya refugees in India are “terrorists” and wants to deport them. Because of a case being heard by the Su- Global silence in view preme Court, it cannot do so, but it certainly does not want to take in more refugees. On the one hand, Modi promised to ship some of genocidal action rice to Bangladesh. On the other hand, he is apparently considering selling arms to My- anmar’s military. China and Russia clearly support the Over 500,000 Rohingya, mostly children and health of the refugees. Bangladesh is a very Myanmar government. The USA is not show- women, have fled to Bangladesh in recent small and resource-poor country, but has a ing any determination to act. In this sce- weeks. Several thousand died en route. huge population of 160 million. It is estimat- nario, much hinges on the diplomatic ability Bangladesh is facing a dramatic humanitar- ed that at least 500,000 Rohingya were living of Bangladesh to negotiate with Myanmar. ian crisis because the Myanmar army began in Bangladesh even before the current influx Dhaka has expressed faith in a peaceful reso- to crack down on the entire community after began. When this comment was finalised in lution of the problem and even tolerated two an armed Rohingya group attacked several mid-October the number must have risen to breaches of its aerial limits by Myanmar’s police posts and an army base on 25 August more than 1 million. The current humanitar- military helicopters. In an interesting twist, 2017. ian crisis is overburdening the country. Bangladesh wants to import rice from My- Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia re- anmar. The UN must take the issue of ethnic By Ridwanul Hoque sponded promptly. They assured assistance cleansing in Myanmar much more seriously

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority peo- ple in the Rakhine state (formerly Arakan) of Myanmar. They face discrimination, and predominantly Buddhist Myanmar does not recognise them as citizens. There is a long history of Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh and other countries. The current crisis is worse than the previous ones. Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has spoken of a “textbook example of eth- nic cleansing”. Indiscriminate killings, the burning of villages and fields, rapes and “disappearances” are being reported. The New make-shift camp in Teknaf near Bangladesh’s south-eastern border. perpetrators belong to the Myanmar army. Soldiers are accused of opening fire on flee- ing people, planting landmines and electri- for rehabilitating refugees and providing than it has done so far. It cannot avoid its re- fying barbed-wire fences along the border. them with shelter in Bangladesh. Germany sponsibility to protect. It seems that there can What is less well known, is that that over and Iran also have promised such assis- be no real solution without Myanmar accept- 30,000 non-Muslims have been internally tance. However, other nations must do more ing that the Rohingya are indeed its citizens. displaced, and Hindus have been fleeing than merely provide food and money. They Bangladesh is playing its part – but from Myanmar to Bangladesh. should also accept Rohingya refugees from others must put pressure on Myanmar as Politically, this is the second major Bangladesh, at least temporarily. well. The growing international recogni- crackdown on the Rohingya since Aung San In spite of clear signs of genocide, the tion of the problem seems to have had some Suu Kyi came to power in 2015. Though the global community and the Western media impact already. Myanmar authorities have noble laureate has no formal government of- remained quite silent for a long time. The reluctantly expressed a willingness to take fice, she pulls the strings as head of the rul- UN Security Council discussed the crisis back “some” Rohingya. At the same time, ing party. Her tacit support for the military twice. The first meeting asked Myanmar to however, persecution is continuing in My- continuing to violate Rohingya’s human end violence and the second ended with no anmar. rights is deeply irritating. concrete resolution. To a large extent, Bangladesh must The stance of India is dubious. In Ridwanul Hoque cope with this crisis on its own. The govern- September, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a law professor ment states that all Rohingya refugees must visited Myanmar and expressed support for at Dhaka University. eventually be taken back by Myanmar. The the government. Modi’s party is known for Zakir Hossain Chowdhury/picture-alliance/NurPhoto

priority, however, is to protect the life and its anti-Muslim attitude. His government [email protected] Photo:

D+C e-Paper November 2017 10 Debate: opinions

Manufacturing tion in Africa. Because of smuggling, local markets are flooded with cheap imports that crowd out domestically-made items. Asian lessons for Africa As no taxes or duties are paid, government budgets suffer. African economies must tap into eve- ry step along the textile value chain (spin- Western observers tend to worry about porting products that were made from Afri- ning, weaving, dying, printing et cetera). labour conditions in Bangladesh’s garment can commodities abroad. There is scope for creating jobs for masses factories. Where they see exploitation and One option is to develop the textile of unskilled people. So far, the region’s misery, however, an African expert sees and garment industry. Africa imports about governments have largely failed to adopt a promising development path that sub- 85 % of its new clothes from Asia – includ- policies that might drive this kind of de- Saharan countries should follow too. ing traditional African dresses, by the way. velopment. They have not built the needed The share is much too high given that Afri- infrastructure, they have not passed the By Belay Begashaw can countries produce cotton, have masses required regulations, and they have not of un- and underemployed people and are adopted fiscal systems that would serve as Manufacturing is underdeveloped in Africa, marked by considerable market demand. incentives. so its contribution to gross domestic prod- When industrialisation set in any- Labour costs are low in Africa, where uct is dismally small. The continent’s share where historically, it normally started with textile employees currently earn $ 40 to $ 160 of the $ 12.3 trillion global market for manu- textile and garment production. Bangla- per month on average. Africa obviously has factured goods was a mere 1.5 % in 2014, desh and Vietnam are recent examples. a competitive advantage in this respect. according to the London-based magazine Both countries’ economies have been grow- However, African companies tend to be very The Economist. The continent’s industry ing fast in recent decades, with manufactur- small, and only very few employ more than needs to become more competitive to gen- ing becoming ever more important. In both 200 persons. They can expand fast if the busi- erate employment. countries, moreover, poverty has been re- ness and investment environment improves. So far, Africa basically exports pri- duced considerably. African countries need Africa’s manufacturing GDP grew by mary and semi-processed agricultural and that kind of success. 3.9 % in 2014. Expanding public infrastruc- mineral commodities. In the countries of There are lessons to be learned. An ture would drive industrial development. origin, only little value is added. Raw ma- overarching concern is the lack of infra- In turn, rapid growth in the textiles sector terials made up 46.3 % of exports from sub- structure garment producers (and other would change Africa’s economic perspec- Saharan countries in 2014, but only 10.3 % of manufacturing sectors) need: roads, electric tives fast and drastically. global exports, according to the World Bank. power, water supply, ports, markets, finan- Africa is an ancient human habitat. It is At the same time, Africa has become a cial services et cetera. These gaps drive up ecologically diverse and blessed with a great huge market for finished goods and services production costs. variety of cultures. Its multitude of textile from other continents. Its foreign-exchange Moreover, existing policies do not fabrics, prints and dresses – both traditional reserves are being drained because it is im- encourage investing in garment produc- and modern – impresses consumers through- out the world. With an annual retail value of over $ 4 billion, embroidered and intricately patterned African clothes have garnered in- ternational attention. This is the launch pad from which development must take off. African governments have commit- ted to improving their peoples’ fate in the UN 2030 Agenda, which includes the Sustainable Development Goals, and in the Africa 2063 Agenda. Textile and gar- ment production is a promising sector in this context. The sector can lift millions, if not hundreds of millions, from poverty.

Belay Begashaw is director general of the Sustainable Development Goals Center for Africa (SDGC/A) in Kigali, Rwanda. Shivaani/picture-alliance/NurPhoto

Growing global attention: African Fashion Week in Toronto in August 2017. [email protected] Photo:

D+C e-Paper November 2017 11 LETTER TO THE EDITOR

Investment is key to decent-work agenda

Ndongo Samba Sylla: Why the western model doesn’t work, D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/10, p. 24.

In his fi rst paragraph, Ndongo Samba Sylla calls for a change of the development paradigm and raises the reader’s expec- tation towards a paradigm that is feasible, realistic, economic and politically sensible. He Farm women in Burkina Faso. observes correctly that Africa’s labour force to a large extent is engaged in informal settings but also to the fact that a de- get wealthy by increasing farm African trade, cut red tape and and that most agricultural work structive trend of ill-managed size, as the author implies. make labour laws more fl exible. is done on family farms in ru- parastatal industries and ser- Introducing an alternative The author calls for more ral areas – largely by women. vices draining many nations agenda, Sylla substitutes facts solidarity, not competition. Agricultural jobs in peri-urban was stopped or at least limited. with fi ction. His fi rst asser- The sad fact is that most of Af- or plantation settings, which of To give just one example: tion is that development must rica is cordoned off from com- course also exist, fi nd no men- in the early 1990s, the Tanza- build on small family farms, petition. If there was a free mar- tion. The author then turns to nian government analysed its despite the fact that many of ket, not only for goods but also non-agricultural jobs defi ned 27 regional rural cooperatives, these farms are not profi table. for capital and labour, investors as largely informal, also in self- fi nding that all of them had His statement that agriculture would fl ock to Africa. Sylla’s employed arrangements be- negative worth, despite huge is the most neglected sector by defi nition of solidarity remains cause of lack of tax registration (often donor-funded) fl eets governments and international unclear: perhaps more trans- and social protection. While of vehicles, warehouses fi lled development partners can eas- fers into economically unviable he mentions that productivity with crop and substantial out- ily be dismissed by checking a enterprises? His other sugges- in agriculture is low, leading standing assets from farmers few numbers. tion, permitting more emigra- to continued poverty, he does because of “unpaid” input de- His second assertion that tion from Africa, can hardly be not attempt to provide explana- liveries. For reasons like this, economic diversifi cation is crit- an act of solidarity given that tions for low productivity. many African economies were ical for most African countries most of those who emigrate are This somewhat crude in free fall with unsustainable fails to provide a hint on how to disproportionally better-edu- descriptive introduction is fol- debt burdens, ineffi ciencies reach it – other than the rather cated, physically fi t and mobile lowed by the author’s analy- in all sectors and bloated gov- vintage recipe of local process- – exactly the people who could sis of the causes of economic ernment sectors. While hardly ing of primary products. He build a better future for Africa problems. Not unexpectedly, fl awless, the structural-adjust- does not mention any of the in their own countries, if they given the author’s institutional ment programmes initiated preconditions for economic were fi nding opportunities. affi liation, the culprits are the by several governments with diversifi cation, such as invest- usual suspects: The World Bank the support of the IMF and the ments. And for investments to Reinhard Woytek and the International Mone- World Bank contributed to re- occur, a business-friendly en- is programme director for tary Fund. I take issue with this ducing these problems. vironment needs to be in place, SADC Transboundary simplifi cation, not least since Out of nowhere, the consistent with IMF and World Use and Protection of Natural Africa experienced a period of author claims that Africa can- Bank recommendations. A bet- Resources. He is signifi cant economic growth, not copy the western develop- ter investment climate requires expressing his personal which was attributable not only ment model, without defi ning the political will to embark on views in this letter. Kopp/Lineair

to higher commodity prices, the model. The west did not major reforms to boost inter- [email protected] Photo: Ph oto: xxx

D+C e-Paper November 2017 12 Debate: opinions

Governance Democracy is better

The People’s Republic of China has become the world’s most influential country after the USA. Its success is inspiring new confidence among authoritarian leaders and self-doubt in long-established democracies. After the turn of the millennium, western observers tended to argue that modernisation and the forces of globalisation would eventually make China a democracy. Many now con- sider that argument naïve. Some say it has been proven wrong, and a few probably even think that the rise of Donald Trump in the USA indicates the triumph of authoritarian- ism.

By Hans Dembowski

Such thinking is misguided. For many rea- sons, democracy is still preferable. One is that most dictatorships are not benign, and China itself is an example. The country has been under communist rule since 1949, and Mao Zedong was a brutal leader. In his era, the masses stayed utterly poor, and mil- lions died in domestic upheavals such as the “great leap forward” and the “cultural revo- lution”. Yes, things changed after Mao’s death, but probably not forever, as recent trends Oligarchic arrogance is something Donald Trump and Xi Jinping have in common. under Xi Jinping suggest. Led by Deng Xi- aoping in the 1980s, the regime started to liberalise certain sectors and even invited police is expensive, but does not contribute exploit. Their military prowess serves to in- foreign investors. The economy took off, to a nation’s prosperity. Moreover, oppres- timidate their people and project a sense of growth rates stayed high for decades, and sion discourages every entrepreneur or in- global power at the same time. In this sense, poverty was reduced dramatically. The re- novator who does not have a direct mandate China unfortunately seems to be becoming gime was autocratic, but it appreciated hu- from the government. Yet another issue is ever more like Russia. man rights in principle, arguing that it was that, where public debate is hushed up, poli- Germany has experienced two totali- prioritising economic and social rights over cymakers only become aware of social or tarian dictatorships in the 20th century. political rights. environmental problems very late – if they The lesson of the Nazis was that extreme Today, however, human rights are not don’t prefer to suppress bad news entirely. abuses of power lead to extreme disaster. discussed at all anymore. Xi’s autocratic grip On top of all this, corruption thrives in the Later, communist East Germany proved on power keeps getting tighter. Inequality is lack of checks and balances, no matter how unable of competing with West Germany in growing. Military spending is up, and the noisily the top leaders may claim to be fight- any field, apart from doping-fuelled sports. government is increasingly prone to sabre- ing it. And if there are any lessons from Donald rattling. The comparatively benign years of For these and related reasons, despot- Trump’s oligarchic arrogance and America communist rule seem to be over. ic rule is actually quite inefficient. However, First rhetoric yet, it is certain that his na- The truth is that, for several reasons, it does serve one purpose well, and that is tion’s global influence has not benefited strongman rule will do little to improve enforcing an oligarchic order. Such cartels – and that free media and public protests China’s socio-economic fortunes. Having of power do not develop their nations. They actually make it harder to implement de- Photo Loeb/picture-alliance/AP

masses of people controlled by the secret exploit them, and whomever else they can structive ideas. Photo:

D+C e-Paper November 2017 13 Tribune: in-depth analysis

Great disenchantment

Flooding in Houston: will decentralised action suffice where national governments deny climate change?

A profound sense of disillusion has settled which we must move on from, was not cre- manity stays on its current course? The in among climate experts. Global govern- ated according to some master plan. book offers a preview of the apocalypse, ance doesn’t work, so implementing global ●● Some authors try to understand the though only as it would affect Europe. public policies remains a pipe dream. mental stubbornness that stops people According to the Paris agreement, every from taking the appropriate collective ac- Bloomberg and Pope country will draft and implement its own tion in response to the overwhelmingly national climate policy. From a scientific obvious warning signals. The scope of The authors of the first book are two perspective, this approach is insufficient. such analyses extends far beyond climate prominent persons from extremely dif- Rising to the climate challenge, however, policy, and the thinking is generally based ferent backgrounds: Carl Pope is an envi- cannot be put on hold until the dream of on an assumption that has become com- ronmentalist and former top leader of the global-public policymaking finally comes monplace: industrial society in its current Sierra Club. Michael Bloomberg is a media true. form needs a major transformation. Bruno magnate and former mayor of New York Latour’s excellent and sharp-witted book City. Most of the book was written when By Hans-Jochen Luhmann (2017) belongs to this school of thought. it became conceivable that Donald Trump ●● Historical experience tells us that in might be elected US president, and some There are three possible reactions to this order to achieve great things, it is some- parts were composed after his inaugura- sobering insight. This essay will discuss times best to set one’s sights low. Paradigm tion. The book’s perspective is first and each one with reference to a recently pub- changes – at least in the arts and sciences foremost American. Its message is pretty lished book. – were most often brought about by people much that, even with a climate-change de- ●● Some dismiss the idea of “high-level focusing on things that were apparently nier in the Oval Office, climate goals can be politics” and are looking for ways to solve mere details. Focusing on details is cer- achieved from below, through a deep com- the climate problem without multilater- tainly hard once it is clearly understood mitment to democracy. ally coordinated action – and even without that a radical shift is required, but practi- The book starts with two introduc- national governments assuming a leading tioners of sober climate science are capa- tory sections on climate change and the role. The book by Michael Bloomberg and ble of such focusing. The third book (Pam current state of knowledge. The follow- Carl Pope (2017) takes this approach. An Berry et al., 2017) is based on a collabora- ing five sections address issues ranging encouraging thought in this context is that tion between about 150 leading scientists from energy to adaptation. Both authors

the fossil-fuel based industrial society, and simply asks: What will happen if hu- contributed individual sub-sections to Photo: West/picture-alliance/ZUMA Press

D+C e-Paper November 2017 14 Tribune: in-depth analysis

every issue. In the section on energy, for Latour answered these questions in been those in which policymakers modify instance, Bloomberg discusses “coal’s toll” his “Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion” the environment long term with new in- while Pope assesses “green power”. Strictly at the University of Edinburgh in February frastructure and other buildings. Such in- speaking, the book is thus not a joint work. 2013. The puzzle’s solution, according to terventions certainly require a long-term The conclusion, however, is a joint effort by him, is to be found in religious and quasi- vision. the two co-authors. religious convictions that shape our collec- The chapter on “Climate impacts in an Can climate change be tackled re- tive identities, even if we are not entirely increasingly globalised world” is truly inno- gardless of whether there is leadership aware of them. US citizens, for example, vative. So far climate science (like other fields) from the top in the US or even globally? The feel that they are beyond history, an atti- has been dominated by territorial thinking. idea may seem far-fetched. The authors tude that the prominent political scientist Scientists model the global trend, zoom in on correctly point out that their optimism of Francis Fukuyama clearly captured in his a region they are interested in and then typi- the world being able to opt for the “cool” book, “The end of history” (though arguing cally announce their findings as “the” expect- path rests on things that rarely attract from a different perspective). Those who ed consequences of climate change. much public attention. They state: “Each feel they have reached the end of history This approach is obviously flawed, part of the problem of climate change has a can hardly be shaken by threats of historic however. In an economically interrelated solution that can make our society health- proportions. Even a modern-day Job like Al world, for instance, Europe may well have ier and stronger.” Accordingly they want Gore, the climate activist and former vice to cope with strong impacts of extreme decentralised political action and market president, struggles to make himself heard. events in other world regions. Such impacts decisions to bring about change along with may even matter more than what happens social side-benefits. Berry et al. in Europe itself. Science must finally rec- No doubt, the USA in particular needs ognise the inadequacy of the old model, so such change. But the authors fail to point The booklet by Berry et al. (2017) arose from the nations of any given world region will out why such change has not occurred ear- three separate major projects funded by the be enabled to recognise the real climate lier and why it should all of a sudden hap- EU. In this case, it was inadequate, as Eu- risks they face, instead of being led astray pen now. ropean funding institutions seem to have by research with a too narrow focus. recognised, to present research results in This booklet is a pioneering first at- Latour the usual format of 20-page papers written tempt at producing an integrated pub- in technical jargon that only experts under- lication on “high-end scenarios”. It has The second book is by Bruno Latour, the stand. What is needed instead are more or shortcomings that are typical of fledgling French sociologist and philosopher of sci- less integrated publications that satisfy the attempts. The DG Research should follow ence. It is of an entirely different quality. general public’s desire to be informed about up as soon as possible with a volume of es- Latour discusses the global community’s the relevant results of publicly funded re- says that reflect sectors according to their ongoing environmental crisis before the search. For this purpose, compilations of in- policy relevance. backdrop of the history of philosophy. He dividual 20-page papers simply will not do. considers the European Enlightenment Integrated publications must be in- Hans-Jochen Luhmann and discusses the tensions between sci- terdisciplinary and written by several peo- is an emeritus fellow of ence, religion and political power. ple. So far, only few have been produced. the Wuppertal Institute Latour fearlessly examines the ba- One reason is that busy scientists typically for Climate, Environment sis of any possible hope and deconstructs would have to write them in their free time. and Energy. whatever he considers illusory. His start- This pioneering booklet is a valuable first [email protected] ing point is: “... facing the ecological muta- effort made by the EU Directorate-General tion, instead of getting all excited, as our for Research to change matters. ancestors did facing the discovery of new The authors address the topics of agri- lands, we remain frozen, indifferent, disil- culture, freshwater, coastal protection, for- References lusioned, as if, at bottom, nothing could estry, nature conservation, human health, Bloomberg, M., and Pope, C., 2017: Climate of happen to us. This is what we have to un- urban areas and climate impacts in an in- hope. How cities, businesses, and citizens can derstand.” creasingly globalised world. It is striking save the planet. New York, St. Martins Press. According to Latour, the state of the how “nature-oriented” most of these topics Latour, B., 2017: Facing Gaia: eight lectures on earth should normally have mobilised are. Only the chapters on coastal protection the new climatic regime. Wiley, Polity Press. years ago, “just as any question of identi- and urban areas touch on human-built in- Berry, P. et al. (eds.), 2017: High-end climate ty, security or property would surely have frastructure. change in Europe. Impacts, vulnerability and done”. Therefore he believes that we must The choice of topics was ultimately adaptation. Sofia, Pensoft Publishers. explain why “ecological questions [do] not driven by the desire to have an impact on http://impressions-project.eu/getatt. seem of direct concern to our identity, our the respective areas of policymaking. How- php?filename=Highend_brochure_ security and our property”. ever, the more important areas would have final_14199.pdf

D+C e-Paper November 2017 15 Tribune: in-depth analysis

Jobs Benin’s employment blues

In Benin, masses of people would like to have ance. Moreover, civil servants normally get maritime traffic in Benin has considerably a job in the civil service. Though the govern- a pension after retirement. slowed, seriously affecting the collection ment does not pay well, at least it pays regu- People are quite keen on public-sec- and amount of taxes, including import and larly. Most Beninese people must cope with the tor jobs, even though most civil servants export duties. constant insecurity of informal employment. earn only modest salaries. Unlike most Beninese people, however, they have a re- Skills in short supply By Karim Okanla liable source of income. It helps them to meet the needs of their families. Most job seekers in Benin are still in their Shortly after taking office in April 2016, According to statistics of the Inter- 20s or 30s. Some hold university degrees Patrice Talon, Benin’s newly-elected Presi- national Labour Organization (ILO), about or diplomas from vocational schools. The dent, issued several decrees annulling re- 75 % of Benin’s people are economically vast majority, however, has very little for- cent recruitments to the civil service. The active. Agriculture contributes up to 75 % mal training or no education at all. Skills reason was that some of the persons con- of Benin’s gross domestic product and em- are in short supply. cerned had obviously bribed their way into ploys not quite half of the country’s work For all these reasons, informal em- a government job. Local media reported force. Cotton accounts for 85 % of exports. ployment is predominant in Benin. Those that they had paid corrupt officers large About 10 % work in the industrial sector, people who are not self-employed normal- sums of money. and 44 % provide services. Formal employ- ly work for a self-employed relative or do Newspapers also alleged that some ment is very rare, however. menial jobs to earn daily wages. Most peo- recruits had submitted applications with Benin is haunted by unemployment ple’s work is largely unregulated and goes fake degrees, while others had not even and underemployment. Therefore, the new along with fundamental insecurity. pretended to have the qualifications for a government pledged to create 500,000 Most income generation takes place position in the civil service. jobs from 2016 to 2021. Critics wonder how in the informal sector. Businesses are Talon’s decision to revoke the ap- it plans to live up to this promise in view of small and typically provide some kind pointments was contested, nonetheless. its tight budget. of service, selling household appliances, Many people took to the streets and staged The government has announced it second-hand garments or communica- several sit-ins on the premises of the Min- will hire more than 10,000 workers itself. tion gadgets, for example. The economy is istry of Public Service and Labour. They Whether they will get new positions or re- cash-based. Bank loans and other financial blamed the new government of being place retirees remains unclear. Another services are hard to get. unfair. They insisted that the cases were government initiative was to establish the One of the main drawbacks of the closed and that the new head of state had new National Agency for Employment. Its informal sector is that it operates with- nor right to reopen them. mission is to help jobless youths to either out a proper legal framework. The owners find salaried work or set up their own busi- do not always have street addresses. They Rules often Bypassed nesses. To date, it seems that salaried work do not pay taxes, and their businesses do remains the exception. not provide any kind of social net for em- Benin actually has clear rules concerning According to the law, formal em- ployees. The goods and services are cheap, who may apply for a civil-service job. They ployment means lifetime employment in but the quality is not guaranteed. Written must be citizens of Benin, enjoy full civic Benin. It goes along with various benefits contracts are rare. The informal economy and political rights, be morally upright, and privileges, including social protection. allows people to survive, but it keeps them understand the job and have the skills to Business owners tend to shy away from – and the country – poor. perform well. Certificates of formal edu- these long-term constraints. Even the civil service sometimes cation are required. Applicants who have The current economic outlook is not procures what it needs from the informal acquired relevant experience during in- good, moreover. The Free Port of Cotonou, sector. There have been many instances of ternships should get preference. However, which used to be the heart of the national informal businesses providing computers, these rules are often bypassed. economy, is no longer hustling and bus- printers and photocopiers to government Holding a government job is a rare tling with activity as it used to five or 10 offices. privilege in Benin, a country of 10 million years ago. The reason is that Nigeria, Be- At times, it looks like the government people with fewer than 100,000 civil serv- nin’s giant neighbour, has stopped using is maintaining a love-hate relationship ants. Working for government guarantees Benin as a transit corridor and is now rely- with the informal sector. The authorities a salary at the end of the month and some ing on its own port facilities for most inter- know that it would make sense to tax these bonuses, including a limited health insur- national transactions. As a consequence, businesses. Doing so would replenish pub-

D+C e-Paper November 2017 16 Tribune: in-depth analysis

lic coffers fast. The problem is that there evict them. Unsurprisingly, this policy has Karim Okanla is no magic trick that would get informal fuelled even more heated debate than the is a lecturer in media businesses to toe the line. revocation of fraudulent public-sector em- studies, communication Previous governments wanted to for- ployment. Critics argue that the govern- and international organisa- malise the informal sector gradually. Issuing ment is choking the informal sector, which tions at Houdegbe North licences was a first step. The Talon adminis- provides jobs and daily wages to hundreds American University in Cotonou, Benin. tration is taking a more radical approach. It of thousands of people. Improving Benin’s [email protected] has declared that many informal businesses employment situation is very difficult – as are occupying public space and begun to previous governments found out too.

No taxes paid: Beninese shoe shop. Photo: Lissac/picture-alliance/Godong

D+C e-Paper November 2017 17 Tribune: in-depth analysis

German ODA No progress without India

India’s size, its sustained population growth well as having the ability to send satellites ment specifically approaches partners that and its dynamic economy can present into orbit around Mars – by no means un- it considers the most competent. The Ger- extreme challenges. Without the subconti- dermines the argument for DC. It is merely man government qualifies as such in areas nent, global objectives cannot be achieved. evident that India needs to take charge of like energy transition, sustainable produc- This makes India a strategic partner and its development and also accept internati- tion, environmentally sound transportati- one of the most important countries in the onal responsibility. on and vocational training. world from a development-policy perspec- And that is happening. International On the other hand, the stimuli need tive. Germany takes account of that. development funds today account for just to be visible – both politically and in terms 0.1 % of India’s gross domestic product. of outcomes. Small-scale ventures and pi- By Wolfram Klein Even more than in most other developing lot projects are generally not enough. Size countries, development aid in India has matters. Several years ago, the Indian go- In the next few years, India is set to over- mostly a qualitative impact. It does not vernment severed ties with a number of take China as the world’s most populous take over whole task areas; it provides sti- donors and now states quite openly that country. Its gross domestic product – at muli and expertise. it wants a minimum turnover of a billion purchase power parity – is the third-lar- In the highly complex political, social dollars a year from each of the remaining gest in the world and growing fast. That and cultural environment of the Indian development partners. can present major challenges. The coun- subcontinent, those stimuli are not “self- Germany can meet that requirement try is already the world’s third-biggest sellers”. For one thing, they need to be because a massive volume of market funds greenhouse-gas emitter and likely to regi- requested: India is a self-assured country is leveraged in Financial Cooperation by ster by far the sharpest increases in emis- and basically wants help only to support a comparatively small volume of budget sions over the next two decades. At the its own development priorities and major funds. As a result, pledges for India have

same time, India has the largest number of national reform programmes. The govern- exceeded a billion euros a year since 2013. Photo: Kalaene/picture-alliance/ZBr people living in poverty: 400 million – as many as in all the countries of sub-Saharan Africa together. India is also on the brink of what is probably the most massive urbanisation process in human history. Over the next 15 years, the country’s urban population will grow from 370 million to more than 510 million. By 2050, the figure will rise by a further 250 million. Around 65 million Indians currently live in appalling con- ditions in urban slums. At the same time, pollution levels are high and getting wor- se: no less than ten Indian cities are on the WHO’s list of the world’s top 20 cities with the worst air pollution. The figures show there is no way that global challenges such as those addressed by the 2030 Agenda, the World Climate Conference or Habitat III can be resolved without India. India is still very much a de- veloping country, well behind the likes of Brazil or South Africa. This makes develop- ment cooperation (DC) with India not just important but essential. The fact that India is also a nuclear power, a software giant and the world’s se- A green and clean Delhi was the declared aim five years ago when this photograph was taken. cond-largest market for smartphones – as Air quality has significantly deteriorated since then.

D+C e-Paper November 2017 18 TRIBUNE: IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS

In no other country in the world Germany But fl exibility is also required, as well as matters that will have a crucial bearing on mobilises nearly as much money for deve- the ability to respond swiftly to opportuni- India’s future development. At the same lopment. In India, it is the second-largest ties as they arise. German aid was involved, time, however, they are highly sensitive is- bilateral donor after Japan. for instance, in the creation of the hospital sues from a political and social perspective Political visibility is achieved by spe- insurance scheme RSBY (Rashtriya Swas- and are thus barely actively addressed by cial formats – in the case of Germany and thya Bima Yojana). Within a few years of its the government. Civil-society involvement India notably by the biennial consultations launch, 140 million people in low-income is important here. India has innumerable at heads of government level and by the In- Indian families had access to insurance. NGOs, many of them very profi cient, so do-German Energy Forum that meets each But there are also major areas in good partner structures are in place. The year. The two main “beacons” of German which offi cial DC is not active in India. number and fi nancial volume of projects DC in and with India relate to renewable Discrimination against women, the mar- supported by German and international energy/climate action and sustainable ur- ginalisation of large social groups such as NGOs are probably greater in India than ban development (see box below). indigenous communities or casteless peo- in any other country in the world. The Fe- Focus and priorities are needed if ple, labour and social rights – including deral Ministry for Economic Cooperation German DC is to make a visible diff erence. child labour – and issues of governance are and Development (BMZ) co-fi nances NGO

nario, the Indo-German solar (BMUB) established a German Lighthouse projects partnership will save around 30 partnership with three medi- million tonnes of carbon dioxide um-sized cities selected for the over a period of 25 years. Indian government’s Smart Ci- The two most important issues non-fossil fuel sources will be ties programme: Kochi, Coim- addressed by German develop- increased to 40 % by 2030 – URBAN DEVELOPMENT batore and Bhubaneswar. The ment cooperation (DC) in and from around 14 % at present. aim is to bundle activities in with India: Renewable energy output will This focal area is largely geared DC, business, science and re- rise to 175 gigawatts (GW) by to the Smart Cities, Atal Missi- search and to harness German CLIMATE ACTION 2022 (currently around 30 GW), on for Rejuvenation and Urban experience. The total funding the lion’s share generated from Transformation (AMRUT) and volume already exceeds € 700 At the Paris Climate Chan- solar power (8 GW today, 100 Ganges clean-up initiatives es- million and will be increased. ge Conference in 2015, India GW in 2022). tablished by Narendra Modi’s In Kochi, for example, the agreed to become more climate- Germany is supporting government in 2015. India’s focus is on integrated solutions friendly by 2030 although it did that process. In the past three central government is spen- for public transport, including not set itself any absolute emis- years, € 1.4 billion (including ding around $ 33 billion on the waterways (ferries). € 85 milli- sion targets. The country aims market funds) have been provi- projects. This is not much, how- on has so far been made avail- to reduce the carbon intensity ded to create Green Energy Cor- ever, considering the massive able for the project. India wants of its economy by up to 35 %. ridors (GECs) for feeding electri- urban investment required – and needs innovative solutions This is not much more than the city from renewable sources into estimated at $ 1.2 trillion in 2010 for instance for smart decen- anticipated reduction resulting the Indian grid. Furthermore, by the consultancy McKinsey tralised wastewater infrastruc- from the past two decades of October 2015 saw the launch of – and the limited fi nancial re- tures or the introduction of technological progress. And the Indo-German Solar Energy sources of Indian cities. e-mobility in urban areas. DC yet it marks a new shift: for the Partnership. Its aim is to promote Urban development ad- should be particularly creative fi rst time, India has made an rooftop solar installations, solar- vice, sanitation and climate- here and develop solutions that international commitment to based decentralised rural elec- friendly urban mobility are core are also relevant for Germany work to mitigate the eff ects of trifi cation and solar parks. € 550 areas of German involvement. in the future. For instance, Ger- climate change. million was pledged in 2015 and In 2016, the Federal Ministry man DC could help make solar- At least some of the nati- 2016, and the implementation for Economic Cooperation and powered motorcycle rickshaws onal targets are ambitious. The phase has started. Compared to Development (BMZ) and the available for passengers at Indi- share of power generated from a conventional expansion sce- Federal Environment Ministry an underground stations. (wk) F oto: xxx

D+C e-Paper November 2017 19 Tribune: in-depth analysis

projects and does so on a greater scale in of 55,000 young people through the “Don as direct cooperation between (internatio- India than anywhere else. Two examples Bosco Tech India” network. The Salesians nal) NGOs and trade unions – are explicitly of NGO activities that receive support fun- are known and respected throughout the prohibited, others are sometimes seriously ding from the BMZ: country, especially for their close coope- impeded by bureaucratic hurdles. ●● Terre des Hommes works with its In- ration with skill-training institutions. The And yet a great deal remains possible dian partner to improve the lives of women organisation is a major interface for the re- and perfectible even in this area of DC in and girls in the textile industry in the south form of Indian vocational training, which India. It could be expedient to modify or of India. The project encompasses medical Germany currently supports at the invita- supplement German instruments for sup- and psychological care, training/retraining tion of the Indian government. The aim is porting NGOs, for instance for a sharper and awareness-raising. Here, Terre des to create dual training opportunities for a thematic or regional focus. A great deal Hommes is delivering services that have growing number of the 15 million young- could be achieved, for example, if the BMZ so far proved virtually impossible for offi- sters a year entering the labour market made additional funds available for NGOs cial DC to provide. Whether that situation and provide them with the skill sets that seeking to work in areas such as women’s will change remains to be seen. The ground are sought by employers. The two comple- rights or the promotion of solar power for is currently being prepared for a political ment one another very well: policy advice poor households and communities in In- dialogue on common goals and activities at government DC level, on the one hand, dia or South Asia as a whole. between stakeholders in Tamil Nadu (go- development and improvement of vocatio- vernment, employers, workers, NGOs) and nal training centres at non-government DC Wolfram Klein actors in the German Textile Alliance. level, on the other. heads the India and South ●● The Salesians of Don Bosco are the Unfortunately, the Indian govern- Asia Division of the BMZ. largest private provider of vocational trai- ment imposes more and more controls on The views expressed in the ning in India. They run 123 vocational NGOs, especially those working for civil article are his own. schools there and currently cater for a total and political rights. Some activities – such [email protected]

X + Please visit our www.dandc.eu website www.DandC.eu Tribune: in-depth analysis

Climate-smart agriculture A complex undertaking

Climate change and its impacts are a major challenge to agriculture worldwide. Cli- mate-smart agriculture (CSA) was devel- oped in response. CSA is now being pro- moted as a cultivation method among particularly vulnerable smallholder farmers in western Kenya. A team from the Centre In the highlands of for Rural Development (SLE Berlin) has Western Kenya, researched what conditions must be in the impact of place for implementation to be successful. climate change is exacerbated by By Michaela Schaller the proximity of Lake Victoria: In Kenya, more than 60 % of the people maize cultivation work in the agricultural sector, the majority in Kenya. as smallholders. Global warming is already causing extreme weather events – like heat waves, droughts and floods – more fre- quent and more intense. As a result, grow- ing seasons and agro-ecological zones are equipment and trained staff to develop ap- The study also recommends to de- shifting more and more. In Siaya and Kaka- propriate strategies. fine the term “climate-smart agriculture” mega, the counties under investigation in in a coherent way for Kenyan usage. The Kenya’s western highlands, the proximity CSA implementation in Western Kenya international definition of CSA allows for of Lake Victoria is further exacerbating the a wide spectrum of technical alternatives. effects of climate change. Farmers in both The SLE study was commissioned by the Kenya should therefore arrive at a consen- counties produce maize, sorghum, millet, German Agency for International Coop- sus on what it will call “climate smart”. A meat, dairy products and tea through rain- eration (GIZ) and was carried out in coop- national forum could be convened in order fed agriculture. Productivity in both coun- eration with GIZ Western Kenya and the to allow farmers, researchers, agricultural ties lies way below its potential. International Centre for Tropical Agricul- advisory services and administrators to de- Making matters worse, the soils are ture (CIAT) in Nairobi. The team focused velop a shared concept. Emphasis should overexploited due to inadequate manage- on three priority research areas for the im- be placed on cost-effective and flexible so- ment and continuous use without suffi- plementation of climate-smart agriculture lutions that would allow fast responses to cient nutrient replenishment. Soil degra- (see box, p. 22): changing environmental conditions. dation is reducing the counties’ already ●● policies and frameworks; The notion of mitigation is particu- low agricultural productivity and threaten- ●● the farm-level perspective; and larly interesting. If it is disregarded, cli- ing food security. ●● forging links between research and mate-smart agriculture looks very much The situation presents a major chal- practical application with help from the like conventional climate adaptation in lenge for Kenyan authorities, who are extension service. practice. On the other hand, payments still struggling with devolution. In recent The study clearly showed that county could encourage carbon sequestration. years, jurisdictions have been transferred governments will have to act as catalysts in Schemes that provide payments for ecosys- from the national to the county authori- order to create the necessary environment tem services (PES) can be useful. Another ties. However, several county authorities for large-scale CSA implementation. Cli- relevant ecosystem service is enriching the are not yet fully operational, and that re- mate-smart agriculture must be integrated soil with organic matter or planting trees. duces the scope for supporting sustainable into key planning processes so it can receive development programmes. financial support. Another goal is “smart de- The challenge of implementation Small farmers cannot take on soil velopment”, which makes use of synergies protection and climate-change adaptation between different authorities. Issues such The challenge of implementation is tre- on their own. Moreover, Kenya’s agricul- as food security, health and environmental mendous, though. Kenya’s agricultural

tural extension service lacks the necessary protection must be considered in context. extension service has many shortcomings, Photo: Paul Harrison/Lineair Fotoarchief

D+C e-Paper November 2017 21 TRIBUNE: IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS

so management has to improve, and more ture. Doing so will require a thorough and subsidised meteorological services, insur- and better-trained employees need to be appropriate transfer of information to ance against crop failure as well as income hired. The new staff must get appropriate guide farmers through the entire process. loss and measures to support farmers until pay, training and further vocational edu- At the same time, model farms, farmer- they see a return on their investment. cation. Improving the extension system is to-farmer exchanges and other measures In sum, implementing climate-smart the task of the Ministry of Agriculture. It should ensure the information is spread. agriculture is a complex undertaking. The needs to create a stimulating environment advantage is that this holistic approach and ensure that its teaching and training StrUCtUrAl BArrierS can build resilience among large segments modules are up-to-date. A central platform of the population and improve the stand- should help to guarantee that uniform, However, there are also barriers that are ard of living in rural areas. standardised and up-to-date educational structural in nature. They include unfa- materials are used. vourable market conditions, political and miCHaela sCHaller At the same time, a participatory ap- institutional barriers, a lack of infrastruc- is an independent consultant proach is needed that involves farmers, ture — including information and com- and climate expert. she was the extension service and research insti- munications technology — and poor ser- the team leader of the sle tutions. The idea is to ensure that farmers vice quality. Comprehensive policies and Climate-smart agriculture and advisers have opportunities beyond impact monitoring are indispensable for a Project 2016/17 in Kenya. only expressing opinions on cultivation successful large-scale implementation of [email protected] methods. They must be empowered to con- CSA. tribute signifi cantly to development. Moreover, farmers have no guarantee Once the extension service is better that their farms will be suffi ciently resil- liNK equipped to reach and advise farmers, the ient against future climate changes even Overseas projects of the Centre for rural latter will be in a better position to make if they take climate-smart approaches. Ad- Development: good decisions on climate-smart agricul- ditional safety nets are needed, including https://www.sle-berlin.de/index.php/ap-2016

will, which should be refl ected The focus is on increased Climate-smart agriculture in corresponding national productivity. Resilience build- measures, priorities and coor- ing comes second and mitiga- dination between the various tion third. The CSA framework The FAO developed the concept is a holistic approach that in- hierarchies. programme emphasises the of climate-smart agriculture cludes many locally adapted, Kenya is in a strong po- need for better coordination (CSA) in 2010 with the goal of: complementary practices that sition to act. The East African between the relevant actors, ● increasing farmers’ pro- lead to synergies that serve CSA country has signed a multi- which is particularly neces- ductivity and income over the goals. Consistent implementa- tude of international trea- sary following devolution, the long term; tion requires action at both the ties on climate change and process that transferred legis- ● supporting climate farm and the landscape level. agriculture as well as all rel- lative and executive powers to change adaptation and build- The goal is to achieve resilience evant agreements on climate the counties in 2010. Informa- ing climate resilience from the and climate protection on a protection and adaptation, tion, decision-making and im- farm to the national level and large scale. such as the Africa CSA Alli- plementation channels must ● contributing to climate In a study based on an ance. Climate change and its therefore be reestablished at change mitigation by reducing extensive review of the relevant challenges – particularly for the county level. (ms) greenhouse gas emissions or literature as well as fi eld re- agriculture – are high on the increasing carbon sequestra- search, the SLE team was able national agenda. The national tion in agriculture. to infer important criteria for CSA framework programme liNK CSA means much more the successful implementation is the core document that in- Climate-smart agriculture than simply applying individ- of climate-smart agriculture forms every step towards im- sourcebook by the FaO: ual climate-smart agricultural (see main article). Progress to- plementing CSA and is imple- http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/ techniques at the farm level. It wards CSA depends on political mented by a CSA task force. i3325e/i3325e.pdf In Mexico, rites of the ancient Aztec culture have blended with Catholic practice introduced by Spanish colonisers: participant of a parade on the Day of the Dead, a syncretic religious holiday, in Mexico City.

Colonial legacy In many former colonies in Africa, Asia and Latin America, the mechanisms of repres- sion introduced under foreign rule continue unabated. They include abuse of office and power, corruption, human-rights violations and authoritarian rule. Social inequality and racism, arbitrarily drawn geographic and language bor- ders, undemocratic structures and economic dependencies are part of the legacy of coloni- alism and the enslavement of millions of peo- ple too. Europe is expected to respond appro- priately to the atrocities committed. Photo: Sochor/picture-alliance Colonial legacy

Difficult legacy

The division of the African continent by Euro- pean colonial powers had long-lasting con- sequences. They are manifested in today’s social, political and legal systems, in eco- nomic dependencies and linguistic divisions. However, Africans themselves have to come up with solutions to overcome the hurdles left by colonial rule.

By Jonathan Bashi

In 1884, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Germany convened the Berlin Conference to coordinate the rush for territory in Africa by European nations. The idea was to organ- ise the division of the continent among the main conquering powers. The key decisions made at that conference had long-lasting impacts on the political, social and econom- ic trajectories of most African nations. The fact that a territory was entrusted to one or another colonial power deter- mined the model of governance and the le- gal system that were adopted. It also defined societies’ frameworks in economic and cul- tural life. The differences between the mod- els made African unification very difficult, if not impossible. Location names such as Victoria Falls or Lake Albert, clothing habits such as judges’ wigs in former British colonies or currency denomination (CFA Franc, Con- golese Franc et cetera) are just a few exam- ples of the strong influence that colonialism still has today. This influence and its con- sequences manifest themselves in various ways, affecting politics, the law, culture and the economy of different African nations.

Traditional distinctions ignored

Politically, the borders that were agreed at the Berlin Conference re-configured the continent for geopolitical purposes. The borders were imposed upon Africa without taking into account the history and dynam- ics between the peoples concerned. Ethno- linguistic groups who shared a common cul- tural and historical background were split. In the case of Cameroon, the split between the Francophone majority and the Anglophone The Kongo people, for instance, came under minority makes a shared understanding of “national unity” difficult: opponents of President Paul

the rule of three different colonial powers: Biya’s repressive action during his visit for the UN General Assembly in New York in September. Photo Ph oto: Matthews/picture-alliance/AP

D+C e-Paper November 2017 24 Colonial legacy

Belgium in the Democratic Republic of the nies, allowed some parts of the pre-existing ing inequality. Social disparities are grow- Congo, France in the Republic of the Congo political institutions and frameworks to ing. African countries today have small but and Portugal in Angola. The distinct legal remain. However, colonial administrators immensely rich elites and masses of people and social systems of the European powers occupied the key roles, served the highest languishing in extreme poverty. often did not correspond to the needs, hab- government posts and had the last say. Even today, African countries have ties its and customs of the administered people. The corresponding legal systems were to the former colonial powers that tend to be The ongoing tensions in Cameroon based on statutes emanating from English stronger than the ties to neighbouring coun- are an example of that legacy (see my com- Common Law, but it accommodated differ- tries. The Commonwealth, the Afro-French ment in D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/04, p. 13). ent aspects of local traditions and cultures. relationship, the Congo-Belgium partnership The groups in the northwest and the south- The use of indirect rule facilitated a some- still matter very much. After independence, east of the country are culturally similar, but what more effective and balanced govern- most African countries retained the econom- were split during the colonial period into ance in the former British colonies after in- ic ties that were established by the European Anglophones (under British rule) and Fran- dependence. The reasons were the stronger powers. They are still commodity-exporting cophones (under French rule). This division involvement of indigenous people in public economies, that import manufactured prod- is proving to be a source of serious conflict affairs and the impact their local traditions ucts, mainly from Europe and increasingly today. and cultures had had on the respective colo- from Asia. The lack of diversification and spe- On the other hand, tribes which for- ny’s political and legal system. cialisation makes them vulnerable to volatile merly constituted very distinct ethnic and commodity prices and dependent on aid, in- political groups, such as the Hausa-Fulani, Divide and rule cluding the partnership agreements with the the Ibos and the Yoruba in Nigeria, were former colonial powers. forced to cohabitate under the same colo- The colonial powers tended to adopt “divide For three main reasons, the political, nial administration (the British empire). and rule” policies, however. They accentuat- cultural and economic systems and alli- Moreover, the modes of government used ed the ethnic tensions the arbitrarily drawn ances established through colonialism im- by different colonial powers exacerbated di- borders had caused. They played off admin- pede efforts towards regional integration in visions among African nations. istrated groups against one another and cer- Africa today: Belgium, France and to some extent tainly did not want them to develop a shared ●● the emphasis on ethnicity and the Germany imposed direct rule. Their system identity. Accordingly, pre-existing political strong ties that bind national elites to the of government was highly centralised. Af- institutions were weakened, allowing the former colonial powers make national cohe- rican political institutions and legal frame- colonisers to impose their rule more easily. sion difficult and continental unity close to works were completely replaced by colonial A long-term consequence of this strategy is impossible; structures. The aim was to “assimilate” or that nation-building efforts proved very dif- ●● the commodity-exporting economies “civilise” the societies concerned. This ficult in countries such as the DR Congo (a have little scope for trading among one an- mode of government took away the author- former Belgian colony), Kenya and Nigeria other; and ity from local leaders and placed it solely in (former British colonies) or Cameroon and ●● weak and vulnerable statehood make the hands of the colonial powers, with colo- Chad. All too often, ethnicity still takes prec- countries aid-dependent. nial administrators running the key institu- edence over common national identity. The picture of post-colonial Africa is tions. In addition to the political and legal gloomy. Africans themselves must rise to This system was facilitated by the le- systems, education was key to redesigning the challenges and come up with solutions gal system based on the Civil Law system, the African societies during colonialism. Tra- to overcome the hurdles left by colonial in which the law is defined in a code that ditional African educational methods were rule. They must reform their current politi- provides a set of rules and principles to be replaced by systems that more or less copied cal, legal and economic systems by building applied and respected by the administered the models used in Portugal, Spain, France, and developing institutions, laws and values peoples. The history of direct rule can, to a Belgium, Italy and Britain and used the colo- that fit their particular circumstances. Ra­ certain extent, explain governance issues nial powers’ languages (see box, p. 26). ther than relying to a great extent on tech- that continue to plague most of the former However, the colonial administrations nical and financial assistance from former Belgian and French colonies today. The au- did little to promote basic education for the colonial powers and international financial thorities that took over from the colonial vast majority of the people. The result was institutions, African states should focus powers lacked experience and had little time a social division: a small class of local elites more on effective nation-building as well as to prepare for office. All too often, they stuck – mainly in urban areas – got a European regional cooperation and common efforts to the colonial model of wielding power. style education. They were taught European towards economic transformation and self- Indirect rule, on the other hand, was history, laws and values. They were pitted reliance. a more cooperative mode of government, in against the vast majority of their compa- which local African leaders were integrated triots, who lived mainly in rural areas and Jonathan Bashi into the colonial administration. The idea hardly had access to the colonial adminis- works as a law professor and was to smoothen the imposition of foreign trations. consultant in international rule and ensuring its acceptance. This sys- The consequences of this split are still development in the Demo- tem, which was mostly used in British colo- evident today, especially in view of increas- cratic Republic of the Congo.

D+C e-Paper November 2017 25 COLONIAL LEGACY

European languages are dominant in Africa

Non-verbal signals aside, lan- guage is the most important means of human communica- tion. The language we speak unites us with people who also speak it and divides us from oth- ers. Language communicates values, traditions and percep- tions – of space and time for in- stance – and shapes the way we think. It is an expression of edu- cation and a vital prerequisite for social participation. So, when colonial admin- istrations imposed their Euro- pean – and thus very alien – lan- guages on colonised peoples, they had a profound eff ect on those peoples’ identity. English, French and Portuguese became Bible in Bari, a language spoken in South Sudan and Uganda. offi cial languages and lan- guages of education. And they eigners) are exceptions without elites communicate in a world offi cial language is the only still retain that status today. a dominant European language. language, which opens doors to language that unites the na- Even decades after independ- South Africa has 11 offi cial lan- education in North America or tion. Nearly every nation is a ence, the elite in many countries guages, with English the main Europe and aff ords access to in- collection of linguistic groups in Africa speak the language of common language. ternational contacts and better – sometimes hundreds of them. the former colonial power. And The imposition of foreign employment prospects. Some- Multilingualism is the norm in nearly every country, that lan- languages by conquerors had times, those elites no longer but nationwide overlaps are the guage is an offi cial language – in both a divisive and a unifying speak local languages well. exception. So English, French many cases the only one – and eff ect that still persists today. Where children in schools or Portuguese serve as a lingua language of instruction. Linguistic boundaries were ar- are not taught in their native franca – even across national In Cameroon, which bitrarily drawn by colonial pow- language, there are drawbacks. borders. Anyone who speaks was partly a British and partly ers, driving wedges between The children themselves face French can manage perfectly a French colony, English and what had been largely homo- the additional hurdle of having well in large parts of West Af- French are offi cial languages. geneous groups. In Cameroon, to learn the language of instruc- rica; English is dominant in In former Belgian Rwanda, Eng- for instance, confl icts fl are up tion. And local languages, which southern and eastern parts of lish, French and Kinyarwanda today between Francophone are often transmitted only oral- the continent. enjoy equal offi cial status. Euro- and Anglophone communities ly, face a less certain future. In A European lingua franca pean languages also rank along- (see main article, p. 24). Also, some places, local languages is a language of foreign despotic side local ones in Botswana because access to the colonial are considered inferior; colonial rule but as such it stands above (English and Setswana), Malawi language – and thus education – thinking thus persists. Linguists ethnic confl icts and is thus able (English and Chichewa) and Bu- was exclusively or predominant- call for everyday languages to to play a neutral role. The best rundi (French and Kirundi). ly confi ned to the urban popula- be brought out of the private solution for Africa does not Ethiopia (Amharic), which was tion, marginalisation occurred. domain, for example by radio seem to be the complete elimi- never a colony, Somalia (Somali In many countries to- programmes, newspapers and nation of colonial languages and Arabic) and Tanzania (Swa- day, it is still the case that rural periodicals or book translations. but the coexistence of African hili and English, but the latter communities speak only local In some African coun- and European languages on an

only in communication with for- African languages and urban tries, however, the European equal footing. (kd) Photo Photo: Curtis/picture-alliance/AP

D+C e-Paper November 2017 26 Colonial legacy

“If the French troops leave Mali,

French President Emmanuel Macron the country will collapse” visiting the troops of France’s Barkhane counter-terrorism operation in Gao, northern Mali, in May.

The French military is engaged in many for- already trying to position mer West African colonies. The foreign themselves for the succes- troops’ presence and intervention, for sion. The Ivorian people instance in the fight against terrorism, is hope that the French won’t highly appreciated. Mohamed Gueye, editor- let the situation escalate and in-chief of Le Quotidien in Dakar, Senegal the country plunge into civil assesses the situation. war as in 2011, when Laurent Gbagbo and Ouattara fought Mohamed Gueye interviewed for the presidency. by Katja Dombrowski How effective are France’s France has several military bases in West counterterrorism operations? ­Africa and intervenes in a number of con- That is difficult to assess. flicts in the region. Are colonial ties the main According to Bakary Sambe, ­reason for that engagement? a Senegalese researcher Mainly, but not only. French troops are in- who investigates radical deed very active in the former French colo- Islamism, there have been nies. Remember, for instance, that former more than 400 Islamist at- French President Nicolas Sarkozy did not tacks in West African coun- hesitate to drop bombs on the presidential tries in the past five years. palace in Abidjan in order to put Alassane But nine out of ten of those Ouattara in power in Côte d’Ivoire. But attacks have failed thanks to Turks, Indians and many others. Now Afri- French troops have also helped troops from the intelligence services. And in the French cans have the chance to assess the veracity Senegal and ECOWAS (Economic Commu- speaking West African countries, those ser- of Charles de Gaulle’s declaration “Countries nity of West African States) to oust President vices work close hand with their French col- have no friends, they have only interests”. Yahya Jammeh in the Gambia. leagues. To what extent is the French military still To what extent is France helping to stabilise Is there a smooth cooperation between ­displaying colonial attitudes? governance – particularly in Mali and Côte French troops and their African allies? We have entered the era of terrorism, espe- d’Ivoire? Yes. France has no problem working with cially Islamist terrorism. In many countries, If the French troops leave Mali today, the the military in Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Burki- the French troops maintain a low profile. country will collapse the next day. Opera- na Faso or Mali. In all those countries, the You hardly see them in public in Abidjan, tion Barkhane, the French intervention in French assistance and support is necessary and if so, they are not very far from their the Sahel region, has not only stopped the to maintain the capacity of the troops. In base. The French military is very wary. They advance of the Jihadists in northern Mali, it Mali, France is training most of the troops, know that they would be an easy target in a has also saved the scalp of the government. hoping that they will be able to take over the hostile environment. Even in Bamako you Riddled by corruption and nepotism, the day the Europeans will have to withdraw. never see them circulating in town. The Malian government has done little to gain Even in Cameroon, where Boko Haram is times when drunk French troops strolled the confidence of the people in the northern very active, France works smoothly with the the streets of Dakar, Abidjan or Ouagadou- part of the country and to train and equip local troops. gou and treated local people harshly are its troops. Some opposition parties suspect definitely over. that if it were not for the French influence, How do African people feel about the Euro- the president would have tried to lure radi- pean power’s presence in their countries? cal Islamists by embracing parts of the sharia Things have changed in the past ten years. Mohamed Gueye law. In Côte d’Ivoire, the French presence is Before, Europeans, especially the French and is the editor-in-chief of Le crucial at this time too. President Ouattara English, were seen as the remnants of the co- Quotidien in Dakar, Senegal. will not run for another term at the end of lonial system. But many new actors have ap-

his mandate in 2020. Many candidates are peared on the African scene: Chinese, Arabs, [email protected] Photo: picture alliance/abaca

D+C e-Paper November 2017 27 Colonial legacy

Namibia Historical guilt Windhoek

Between 1904 and 1908, German soldiers because the colonial powers had organised A great part of the fertile land is owned by in the colony German South West Africa, the displacement. The Herero were already white Namibians, mostly of German origin which is contemporary Namibia, committed pushed back into the Omaheke desert where (see Henning Melber in D+C/E+Z e-Paper the first genocide of the 20th century. German troops occupied the water holes – 2017/07, p. 29). Approximately 65,000 to 85,000 people the refugees were meant to die of thirst. For a long time, the post-war German were killed. Around 80 percent of the Herero Trotha’s doublespeak expressed co- government did not recognise the colo- and 50 percent of the Nama people lost lonial arrogance: He didn’t consider well- nial wars as genocide. In 2004, Heidemarie their lives. planned mass murder as problematic, but Wieczorek-Zeul, then the federal minister a massacre committed against women and for economic cooperation and development, By Joshua Kwesi Aikins children would have tainted the German said: “In the sense of our common Lord’s prestige in the world. Prayer, I ask for forgiveness of our trespass- Recognition, apology and compensation In December 1904 the government of es.” The government immediately declared are the core concepts of a German politics the Reich cancelled this firing order. At this this indirect admission of guilt as a “private of memory, which itself is a key component point in time, a majority of the displaced opinion”. There was great concern that an of post-war German identity. This approach Herero had already died in the desert. In official concession would trigger reparation proved valuable in the reconciliation with a telegram on 11 December 1904, Imperial demands. German historians and civil-soci- victims of Nazism. However, the debate re- Chancellor Bernhard von Bülow gave the in- ety activists, however, have for over 20 years garding the genocide committed by German struction to intern „the rests of the Herero classified the war and killings as genocide soldiers in Namibia continues. In this case, people“ in „concentration camps“ – this was and demand its official acknowledgment. a responsible handling of history appears the first time that a German government Before the genocide, the Herero used to require yet another struggle over history used this term (see box, p. 29). In German to be one of the biggest groups in the coun- and its current ramifications. Herero and South West Africa only half of the internees try, but like the Nama, afterwards they were Nama organisations have brought a suit survived. marginalised for a long period of time. For against Germany with a New York court, su- their descendants, the recognition of the ing for recognition of the genocide. Consequences of the genocide historic atrocities is a necessary precondi- In October 1904, Lothar von Trotha, tion for a thorough analysis of the conse- the commander-in-chief of the German In the war years 1904 to 1908, an estimat- quences. Israel Kamatjike, representative of colonial protection force in German South ed 65,000 to 85,000 people were killed the Herero in Germany, says: “We want an West Africa, informed the Herero people in a in this act of planned mass murder. The apology, also in order to make reparations letter that they were no longer German sub- consequences of displacement and geno- possible.” The lands which were expropri- jects and therefore had to leave the country: cide are still pervasive in Namibia today: ated after the genocide would need to be „Within German borders, every Herero, with or without a gun, with or without cattle, will be shot. I’m not taking in any women or chil- dren; they will be driven back to their peo- ple, or they will be shot.” This shoot-to-kill order served as basis for the first genocide of the 20th century. It documents the intent of annihilation of all Herero and later also Nama. At the same time, even in the context of colonial mass murder, Trotha tried to keep up pretences: In an order of the day, only directed to the troops, the general explained that German soldiers should only fire above the heads of women and children, in order to drive them away and thus preserve the “good reputa- tion” of the troops. This order of the day, however, was cynical, as the historian Jürgen Zimmerer

explains: „Retreating meant death by thirst,” Herero chiefs on a memorial march in Okahandja, Namibia. Photo: Frans Lemmens/Lineair

D+C e-Paper November 2017 28 COLONIAL LEGACY

redistributed within the context of repara- The position of the German govern- ernment remains unwilling to assume full tions, he maintains. ment – namely that these issues could only responsibility. The offi cial attitude of the German be negotiated with the Namibian govern- Meanwhile, the Tanzanian defence government changed in 2015, in the context ment – appears to indicate historical am- minister Hussein Mwinyi has announced of debates around the recognition of the nesia. After all, the borders of Namibia and that he is exploring options for a lawsuit Armenian genocide by the Turkish state. the current majorities in the country are regarding the German colonial war of ex- Member of Parliament Karamba Diaby, consequences of German colonial aggres- termination in eastern Africa: During the himself of Senegalese origin, pointed out: sion, resulting in the marginalisation of Maji-Maji war from 1905 to 1907, in the area “Whoever says A, needs to say N.” His Herero and Nama. of contemporary Tanzania approximately message was that the mass murder of the 300,000 people died as a result of German Herero and Nama should be judged by the LAWsuit in neW YoRK colonial aggression. same criteria as that of the Armenians. The German government needs to face The then president of German Parliament In this context, a claim fi led by Herero the core demands of the Herero and Nama as Norbert Lammert came to share this view: at a New York court is politically highly well as other descendants of colonised peo- “Measured by today’s standards of interna- charged: Since March 2017 legal proceed- ple. Experience shows that the triad of recog- tional law, the suppression of the Herero ings have been taken up, in which the nition, apology and compensation has proven uprising was indeed a genocide,” he wrote US-based Herero representative Vekuii a helpful path to deal with past atrocities (also in the magazine “Die Zeit”. Rukoro, together with Herero-Chiefs from note article in D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/10, p. 9). Since then, German and Namibian Namibia, is bringing a suit against Ger- delegations negotiate in camera about a many. It seeks a full recognition of the JOSHUA KWESI AIKINS formal recognition. Herero and Nama or- genocide, but also the inclusion of Herero is a political scientist at the ganisations, however, have no seats at the representatives in the bi-governmental ne- department for development table. They worry that Germany will try gotiations. and postcolonial studies to set off development aid against repara- The German government had appar- at the University of Kassel. tions. Regarding its fi nancial help for the ently assumed that the case would be dis- He is active in the organisation „Berlin country, the German government indeed missed. The fi rst hearing was postponed Postkolonial“ and lives in Berlin. points to Germany’s “special relationship” several times and was set for mid-October. [email protected] to Namibia. This case is being closely monitored Herero activist Kamatjike claims Ger- internationally. Germany’s willingness to many wants to predetermine what should talk with Namibia about the genocide was LINKS be done with the reparation funds. This, internationally appreciated – particularly Civil society alliance „Völkermord verjährt however, is not considered as acceptable, in France and Britain, two countries with nicht/No Amnesty for Genocide“: since “reparations come without condi- colonial pasts of their own. By now, how- http://genocide-namibia.net/alliance/ tions.” On top of that, they have nothing to ever, Germany’s reputation is negatively Berlin-Postkolonial e.V.: do with development aid, Kamatjike says. impacted by the impression that the gov- http://www.berlin-postkolonial.de/

“bastards”; in the Nazi state, he ganisations demand their res- Laboratories of racist violence later became a pioneering mas- titution. termind on racist policies. In a When in late 1904 the way, the German colonies were German colonial powers estab- The concentrations camps, were brought into the concen- laboratories where extreme lished “concentration camps” which the German colonial tration camps. Life and death acts of racist violence were in German South West Africa, power operated from 1904 in in these camps were marked tested. they acted according to a model the region of what is Namibia by forced labour as well as bad For racist investiga- from South Africa. Three years today, were predecessors of conditions and insuffi cient tions, thousands of skulls were earlier, “concentration camps” the extermination camps of supplies for the interned. There shipped from the German colo- were put up in order to intern the Nazi regime. The colonial are direct political, ideological nies to the “Reich” – also from the families of freedom fi ght- camps were characterised by and personal connections to the concentration camps of ers of Dutch origin who wanted selection, forced labour and National Socialism. Eugen Fi- German South West Africa. To- to declare their independence “medical” experiments to prove scher, for instance, investigated day, many can still be found in from the British Empire and racist theories. in the colonial Namibia about collections of German universi- founded their own state. This In German South West Af- the off spring of European set- ties and museums, or privately strategy led to the breakdown rica, men, women and children tlers and Africans, the so-called owned. Herero and Nama or- of the Boers’ resistance. (jka)

D+C e-Paper November 2017 29 Colonial legacy

We’re really looking at very big numbers. In “We’re looking at the USA, they are discussing sums of $ 4.9 trillion to $ 15 trillion. really big numbers” Even transferring only $ 4.9 trillion from the rich nations to the descendants of the victims of historic atrocities hardly seems realistic. Yes, I know. One issue is it would probably destabilise western economies to the extent Radical activists demand that rich nations pay But aren’t the industrial revolution and tech- of making the entire exercise useless. Repair- reparations for slavery and colonialism. nological progress at least as relevant to ing the damage this way could destroy the Kehinde Andrews, the co-chair of Britain’s western prosperity? global system. On the other hand, the prin- Black Studies Association, made the case in Don’t forget that it started with textiles, and ciple of reparations is quite well established. an interview with D+C/E+Z. that this industry depended on the cotton Not so long ago, Germany’s Federal Govern- produced by enslaved Africans on colonial ment compensated people who did forced Kehinde Andrews interviewed by Katja Dom- plantations. Moreover, the investments that labour under Nazi rule, and earlier it had paid browski and Hans Dembowski drove the industrial revolution were financed reparations for Hitler’s genocidal holocaust. with profits made in the slave trade and the Why do you say that reparations are the way colonies. In Birmingham today, we worship Who would pay the money – western govern- to deal with the historic atrocities? pioneering innovators like James Watt, but it ments? First of all, we must understand that slavery is largely neglected that people like him relied Governments should certainly have to play and colonialism are what western prosperity on capital that was generated in the colonies their part and spend tax money, but the pri- and the current world were built on. Slavery and supported the slave trade. vate sector should be involved too. Consider brutalised all societies involved. Atrocious Lloyds of London, for example. It is a giant racism survives; both in severe structural What sums should reparations amount to, financial-sector company that started out inequality and in blatant racial prejudice, according to you? by insuring slave ships. Companies like that with one of many recent examples being the Well, we should take into account the unpaid must contribute their due share. The same white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, labour that millions of people were forced to applies to churches and everyone else who Virginia. If we want to fix today’s problems, do from the 16th to the 19th century. On top of had links to slavery. we have to tackle the root causes. that, we need to consider the damage done.

Who should get the money? That is a more difficult question. It would not make sense to hand it out directly to masses of people. They’d spend it, so it would be gone fast, reinforcing the existing global political economy, unless the global system collapses first. We need a collective solution. That said, it would not make sense to give the money to the governments of formerly colonised countries either. They are part of the problem and deserve their reputation for corruption. All too often, they simply continued abusive practices introduced by the colonialists. What might work out, though, would be to establish a kind of international council, involving var- ious stakeholders apart from governments, such as civil-society organisations and aca- demia for example. That council would then decide what to do with the money.

What should be done with the money? It could be used for things like building in- frastructure, establishing educational insti- tutions and providing health care. But more importantly, it should be used to develop CARICOM demands reparations for “the enduring suffering inflicted by the Atlantic slave trade”. true economic independence for the former

Historical depiction of a British slave ship. colonies. Photo: picture-alliance/ullstein bild

D+C e-Paper November 2017 30 COLONIAL LEGACY

That sounds like offi cial development as- Well, fi ve decades ago South Korea and Gha- Would it make sense to build clean-energy sistance. Donor governments spent $ 140 na were at a similar level of development. infrastructure to compensate for historical billion on ODA last year, and it is not easy South Korea received massive aid and used atrocities? to invest such sums in a way that actually it to catch up with western nations. In principle it might, but we mustn’t let the delivers results. Okay, so Samsung is a leading multination- rich countries off the hook too easily. They ODA is not the answer. As Malcolm X al corporation now, but it still needs rare are the ones who caused global warming, said, “if you stick a knife in my back nine earths and other resources imported from and they are the ones who benefi ted from inches and pull it out six inches, that’s not Africa. It’s quite obvious that not every Af- the industrial development that made it progress”. The point is to heal the wound. rican country can become the next South happen. For this reason, climate fi nance ODA does not do that, all too often it only Korea – or China, for that matter. already serves a specifi c compensation compounded problems by reinforcing an purpose, and so far rich nations have nei- unjust hierarchical order in which Europe CARICOM, the regional organisation of Car- ther pledged enough money nor estab- and North America are always the top and ibbean nations, is demanding reparations for lished mechanisms for paying what they Africa is the bottom. slavery and colonial rule (see box below). Do did pledge. Legacies of slavery and colo- you think it will achieve anything? nialism are central to understanding the Some of our Asian friends would dispute Well, the debate has changed. It is no longer global climate injustice, but we should not that hierarchy because they consider about “you did something wrong – now give confl ate the topic of global warming with Europe, and even North America, to be us money”. It is more about getting the for- the reparations debate. decadent. They see Europe as a spent force. mer colonial powers to acknowledge guilt, But they all believe that Africa is the bot- apologise and off er reparations in terms of tom. ODA may make a diff erence in the education programmes, debt relief, infra- sense of alleviating poverty somewhat, but structure et cetera. The movement “Stop KEHINDE ANDREWS not in terms of reversing an unjust world the Maangamizi” in the UK organises an an- co-chairs Britain’s Black order built on colonialism and slavery. nual march asking for recognition, and in Studies Association and is There is no scenario that would deliver Af- the USA, black activists are demanding free an associate professor in rican or Caribbean countries’ actual equal- education, for example. Something like that sociology at Birmingham ity with the dominant nations. We need a may well happen, but it won’t be enough to City University. revolutionary approach. repair the real damage. [email protected]

in the Caribbean, claiming science and technology cul- CARICOM demands reparations that this world region has the ture and “highest incidence of chronic G debt cancellation to ad- diseases” as a long-term con- dress the “fi scal entrapment” In 2013, CARICOM, the region- G repatriation, insisting sequence of “the nutritional Caribbean governments are al organisation of Caribbean that the descendants of more experience, emotional brutal- struggling with. nations, launched the CARI- than 10 million Africans, who ity and overall stress profi les In April 2015, an inter- COM Reparations Commission were abducted from their associated with slavery, geno- national reparations confer- (CRC). It demands that Europe homes and forcefully trans- cide and apartheid”, ence was organised by the US- compensate “the enduring suf- ported to the Caribbean as G support for eradicating based Institute of the Black fering infl icted by the Atlantic slaves, have a right to return to illiteracy, as the black and in- World 21st Century in New slave trade”. their ancestors’ homeland, digenous communities were York City. Hundreds of repa- The basis of this debate G an indigenous peoples often denied education, rations advocates from some is the “CARICOM Ten Point development programme to G an African knowledge 22 countries, including repre- Plan for Reparatory Justice”. It rehabilitate survivors of geno- programme to teach people sentatives from the CARICOM was endorsed in 2014. The ten cide, of African descent about their Reparations Commission took points are: G cultural institutions to roots; part. G a full formal apology, as ensure adequate remembrance G measures to promote Since then, the debate opposed to the mere “state- of the victims’ suff ering, psychological rehabilitation, on reparations and reparatory ments of regret” that some na- G support for alleviat- G technology transfer for justice has been gaining mo- tions have issued, ing the “public health crisis” greater access to the world’s mentum internationally. (sb)

D+C e-Paper November 2017 31 Colonial legacy

Tu di worl: Creole goes global

In the Caribbean, the languages of Europe’s colonial powers were blended with various African languages that were spoken by slaves and, to a lesser extent, indigenous languages. Scholars call those new lan- guages Creoles. Today, Creoles are lan- guages in their own right, representing the region’s hybrid cultures. Caribbean coun- tries still use their respective colonial pow- er’s language for official purposes, but their dominance is contested. Creole languages are authentic expressions of Caribbean nations’ identities.

By Hubert Devonish

The modern world, as we know it, was formed on the islands and territories in the Caribbean Sea. It was here, rather than in Europe, that a large labour force was first used for the manufacture of a mass consumer product: sugar. By the mid 17th century, sugar plantations were large-scale agro-industrial operations. The labour force, which can be de- Advertisement in Falmouth, Jamaica. scribed as a proto-proletariat, was made up of millions of enslaved Africans and some enslaved indigenous people. Enslavers of English, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portu- oles. They were the result of colonial inter- tute a family of languages. They reflect a set guese and Danish origin were in control. action between speakers of European and of related identities and historical experi- The sugar plantation colonies in and West African languages. ences, dating back to the time when the Car- around the Caribbean were the pioneers Typically, these languages’ vocabulary ibbean was the centre of global economic of the European-based manufacturing derived from a European language such as development. operations which were at the heart of the English, French or Spanish. The syntactic When European empires expanded industrial revolution. The Caribbean sugar structures of these languages, however, are into the Indian and Pacific Oceans in the 18th plantations were, as suggested by histori- very similar. The French-vocabulary Creole and 19th centuries, they used the Caribbean as ans C. L. R. James and Eric Williams, also (spoken in Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Lucia a model for establishing plantation colonies. the main sources of capital used to finance and Dominica), the Spanish/Portuguese Cre- People and languages from the Caribbean the industrial revolution in the “mother ole (spoken in Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao) and Atlantic were brought to new places. As countries” in Europe. and the English-lexicon Creole (spoken in a result, the Creole languages spoken in the Jamaica, Antigua, St. Vincent and Guyana) Indian and Pacific Oceans have many fea- New world, new languages share striking similarities in their grammar. tures in common with those of the Atlantic. This resemblance is probably rooted in the Within this new world, Africa, the Americas West African languages which the first gen- Power and people and Europe collided. The old identities – eration of enslaved Africans spoke. and with them, the languages that expressed It is clear that the Creole languages of The international system is based on states them – died. Indigenous languages such as the Caribbean – and by extension the Atlan- organised around the sense of nation pro- Kaliphuna, Guanahátabey and Ciguayo are tic area, including Guyana, French Guiana duced by the technologies of writing and no longer spoken. Colonial genocide erased and Suriname in South America, Georgia print applied to national languages. This their speakers in the 16th and 17th centuries. and South Carolina in North America, Sierra is a system which, up to the second decade st New languages emerged, now called Cre- Leone and Nigeria in West Africa – consti- of the 21 century, has been centred on the Photo: Ron Giling/Lineair

D+C e-Paper November 2017 32 COLONIAL LEGACY

countries of northern Europe and North alternative, mass-based sense of national struggle. This is a fi ght to ensure that the America. On the periphery are the formerly identity, within an offi cial language frame- national identity embodied by the state is colonised countries of the so-called “devel- work dominated by English. This reverber- the one that is associated with mass lan- oping world”, including the countries of the ates globally particularly through music. guage of the descendants of African slaves Caribbean. Leading Jamaican artists have become – for example Jamaican Creole, rather than For offi cial purposes, these countries popular internationally (see box below). English, the language of the colonial elite. still use languages of the former colonial One reason is certainly that the people in Jamaican Creole has gone global, pro- powers – but that is not the way most of many other former colonies experience claiming itself and its associated national their people speak. This is true for many similar language tensions to those evident identity “tu di worl”. ex-colonial countries in Africa, Asia and the in Jamaica. Moreover, the marginalised Pacifi c. Marginalised linguistic, cultural and linguistic, cultural and ethnic minorities HUBERT DEVONISH ethnic minorities in the countries of Europe in Europe and North America are all too is professor of linguistics and North America have to cope with simi- familiar with this situation. at the University of the West lar circumstances. Against this background, on wings of Indies. He is based at the In Jamaica, a cultural struggle has song, albeit with some digital assistance, University’s Mona campus resulted in the largely unwritten Creole Jamaica has been able to globalise the in Kingston, Jamaica. becoming the language that expresses an bitter-sweet experience of a local language [email protected]

From the start, Jamaican By the 1980s, a new genre Jamaica’s nation language popular songs used Creole and of Jamaican music emerged: English. This was particularly Dancehall, with language spo- true for reggae music. Jamai- ken rather than sung. Patois, In Jamaica, English is still the Rex Nettleford point out that can history professor Edward as the main language of spoken offi cial language, and Standard Jamaica’s cultural identity was Kamau Brathwaite calls it “the interaction, came to dominate English is taught in schools. For formed by oral traditions. native sound of the cultural the genre. It is now the main a long time, the local Creole, Local poet, folklorist and revolution that would eventu- language for artistic public us- called Patois, was the language performer Louise Bennett, ally lead to Bob Marley.” age, refl ecting rising national of the countryside and the un- known as “Miss Lou”, was one In 1974, reggae musi- consciousness since independ- educated. It was considered to of the fi rst artists to write and cian Bob Marley recorded the ence from Britain in 1962. be inferior “bad English”. To- perform in Patois in the 1960s. song “Them Belly Full”. The Recording technology is day, however, a vibrant pop cul- For 20 years, she had a popular chorus off ered commentary facilitating the spread of Pat- ture uses it – and it resonates radio show which greatly con- in the form of folk wisdom in ois today in a similar way that globally. tributed to establish the idea of Jamaican Patois, whereas the the printing press fostered the Patois serves to express the Jamaican Creole as “nation English verses expressed social emergence of what are now Eu- people’s identity. It gradually language”. In the 1980s, poets grievances including the rising rope’s national languages. In started to gain ground in the like Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mi- costs of living. It stated that a the 15th and 16th century, local early 1960s, around and after chael Smith and Mutabaruka “hungry mob is an angry mob” vernaculars became codifi ed in independence. Jamaicans ex- wrote and performed in Patois. and that “the weak must get Europe and then contributed to pressed pride in their culture By then, doing so meant taking strong.” The chorus included defi ning national identities. Re- and their language. Patois was a clear anti-colonial, anti-racist two Jamaican Creole language corded Jamaican popular mu- increasingly recognised as a “na- stance. proverbs stating “Rien a faal sic, from Millie Small through tion language”, representing the Jamaica is a small island, bot di doti tof” (The rain is fall- Marley to Shabba Ranks, Vybz hybrid culture of the island, with but it has emerged as a global ing but the earth is hard) and Kartel and Chronixx, repre- its English vocabulary, West Af- superpower in the area of cul- “Pat a bwail bot di fuud no nof” sents a body of orally produced rican grammar, occasional in- tural and linguistic infl uence, (The pot is boiling but the food artistic language that helps to digenous words and a particular, mainly due to its music: songs is not enough). This song hailed defi ne national consciousness defi nitely non-British pronun- export Jamaican language to a new era of the use of creole among the people of the Jamai- ciation. Cultural historians like countries around the world. language in music. can nation state. (hd)

D+C e-Paper November 2017 33 Colonial legacy

The movement arose in the context Who are we? of the preparations for celebrating the 500 years anniversary of what used to be called “the discovery of America” in 1492. It felt like a cold shower to Mestizos who had thought the identity question had been dealt with. It For 300 years, Mexico was a Spanish colony ancestors’ homeland. The Mestizos (“half- equally unsettled white people who wanted and the centre of a huge administrative area breeds”) are now the majority, but they were to celebrate the civilizational benefits of the called “New Spain”. The impacts of Spanish rejected by all races that the colonial caste Europeans’ arrival. rule still mark society, even though the inde- system considered. The recognised races pendence movements that created the Latin were Spaniards, Indios, Africans and Asians. America was not discovered American nations emerged more than 200 The term “Mestizo” only applied to the off- years ago. spring of Spaniards and Indios, so another Other segments of Mexican society opposed set of absurd categories was invented to be celebrating what was increasingly being By Virginia Mercado able to name the roots of every single per- called genocide. The big issue was whether son. it was appropriate to honour the physical Some colonial legacies are good, others are Such categorisation was extremely and cultural extermination of America’s bad. It is valuable, in particular, that the limited. It did not take into account the eth- indigenous population. Protest slogans in- Spanish language is now shared, with few nic diversity within each group, but only cluded “there was no discovery” and “there exceptions, from the USA’s southern border focussed on world regions. Nonetheless, is nothing to celebrate”. Five centuries after to the southern tip of the continent – and the system kept becoming even more com- Columbus, after all, Mexico was still a poor is also spoken by many people in the USA. plex. While its merits were most dubious, it and backward country, the natural resourc- Diverse cuisines, music, architecture and served to allocate privileges and left perma- es of which were being exploited – and the landscaping are positive too. Tourists ap- nent marks on society. deep disparities brought about by colonial preciate what is called “colonial style” in rule were obviously the root cause. historic city centres, parks and hotels. Identity issues The indigenous peoples of America On the other hand, colonialism has – from Canada to Patagonia – decided to forced Mexicans to ponder their identity for Are we Indios or Europeans? Victims or per- meet in Mexico in 1992. The connotations of a long time. The Creoles (the descendants petrators? In the years after Mexico gained the 500 year anniversary had to change. To of the Spaniards) have never been to their independence in 1821, writers and intel- speak of “discovery” became unacceptable, lectuals conceptualised the Mestizo as the and the focus was now on “the encounter of answer to the identity question. And after two worlds”. Celebration gave way to com- the revolution in the early 20th century, José memoration. Columbus fell from the heav- Vasconcelos, an intellectual and political en of national heroes. leader, claimed that Mexicans belong to a Today, the colonial era is not only still “world race” (“raza cósmica”) that shared the visible in geography and people’s physi- best characteristics of all ethnic groups and ognomy, but in spiritual life as well. Chris- would be the foundation of new humanity. tianisation was certainly an important part For several decades, this idea seemed of the Conquista. Churches were built on to please the majority of people of mixed de- the foundations of pre-Hispanic temples; scent. The result was a major cultural trans- sacred places and religious holidays were formation. The European education model re-defined. For a very long time, church in- was promoted, and indigenous villages were stitutions handled matters like education taught to read and write (in Spanish, obvi- and the registration of births, marriages and ously). At the same time, people identified deaths. The missionaries learned the indig- with indigenous suffering of the past. Crea- enous languages to convert people. In some tive artists tackled the traumatic issues, ways, they were the friendly face of the con- expressing a new sense of nationalism. Oc- quest. tavio Paz’ essay “The labyrinth of solitude” The faiths became amalgamated, and was an example. such syncretism is evident in every major Things changed again in the 1990s, Catholic festivity today. One example is the however. There was a wave of cultural and cult of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Its symbol- ethnic assertion, the likes of which had ism matches indigenous ideas of Mother seemed impossible only a few years earlier. Earth in a cosmic surrounding, placed be- Our Lady of Guadalupe is worshipped on the Certain rights of indigenous peoples now tween Sun and Moon. The Holy Virgin is date that was dedicated to the goddess had to be accepted, including the one to celebrated at the location and on the very

Tonantzin in pre-Hispanic times. safeguard the languages. date that Tonantzin, Mother Earth, was wor- Photo: Wikipedia

D+C e-Paper November 2017 34 COLONIAL LEGACY

are wielded. Class divisions and racism mat- tainly laid the foundations for contempo- ter very much (see box below), and members rary Mexican society, but that did not result of the elite tend to be beyond the law. in lasting political or diplomatic tensions. In the eyes of many people, state insti- Soon after independence, Mexico and Spain MEXICO tutions have only limited legitimacy. Rea- developed friendly relations in a sense of Mexico City sons include corruption and the security solidarity, and that has not changed in good forces’ tendency to act with disproportion- or bad times ever since. ate force. It would certainly be overblown to blame the country’s current drug wars on colonialism, but it must be acknowledged VIRGINIA MERCADO that historically diffi cult relations between is an academic at the shipped in the past. The ceremony, under law enforcers and local communities are Universidad Autónoma del watchful eye of the modern church, still re- part of the problem. Estado de México (UAEM) sembles pre-Hispanic rituals. Finally, it is worth pointing out that and instructor in peace and Another lasting colonial legacy is the Mexico’s relations with Spain, the former development studies. way in which economic and political power colonial power, are good. Foreign rule cer- [email protected]

Daily discrimination

Mexico does not have a real survey had only found out what castes system, but some peo- was obviously the case anyway. ple’s privileges are closely Others claimed that the survey linked to their socio-economic was designed to split society. background. Most Mexicans Apparently, the way the media are keenly aware of both class cast people of diff erent ethnic divides and racism. It is a sim- backgrounds matches the sur- ple fact of daily life that people vey results. Whether the as- with darker skins tend to be sumptions are actually true is a treated worse. very diff erent matter, of course. In April 2017, the Insti- Social disparities are re- tuto Nacional de Estadística y inforced by linguistic discrimi- Geografía (INEGI), the govern- nation, moreover, as is evident mental agency for statistics and on social media and internet geography, triggered a broad- forums that focus on social based public debate by publish- issues. The members of the ing research results concerning political, economic and intel- skin colour. INEGi defi ned 11 lectual elite are prone to using Some run small businesses, others have good jobs – and skin colour diff erent complexions and ran adjectives and attributes that makes a difference. a survey to fi nd out what they express their sense of moral stood for in people’s eyes. The superiority. Specifi c terms, in- result was that dark skin was cluding “Indio”, serve to brand “Mirrey ” sounds like “virrey” the country’s social setting, associated with poor educa- “the others” as dark-skinned (viceroy) and means “milord”. without, however, acknowledg- tion while a light skin was be- and inferior in business aff airs. The term indicates a person ing that their own position is lieved to indicate educational Language is thus used to dis- whose privileges do not derive fi rmly rooted in it. Mirreys are achievements. In a similar vein, credit and ridicule the causes from personal merits but from not bound by the rules that ap- light skin was read as a sign of of society’s lower strata. belonging to the privileged ply to everyone else. They know successful careers. On the other hand, some class. Mirreys show off their they enjoy impunity and don’t Emotions ran high on so- terms with colonial connota- wealth and power. They are hesitate to make use of that

cial media. Some argued that the tions serve to label the elites. likely to express contempt for privilege. (vm) Photo Photo: Lopez-Mills/picture-alliance/AP

D+C e-Paper November 2017 35 Colonial legacy The philippines Manila

History No trust in institutions

Colonialism created the Philippines, shaped strongman governance was “pre-political” Spain introduced Catholic dogma its political culture and continues to influ- because it was “informal, folk-sustained, and worship, a highly centralised govern- ence its mindset. The 333 years under Spain uncentralised and still without specific ment, bureaucracy and Roman law. The and nearly five decades under the USA that agencies”. There was no distinction between Philippines was divided into provinces decisively moulded the nation. the family and the community. Leaders’ au- composed of clustered villages, towns and thority was based on kinship, subservience, cities. Friars from various religious orders By Alan C. Robles deference and dependence. kept watch. A few hundred Spaniards easily con- However, the conquerors also built The Philippine experience is unique; it was quered most of the archipelago. The excep- their empire on the islands’ pre-Hispanic actually colonised four times. In the 18th tion was the southern island Mindanao, foundations. Cooperative chieftains be- century, Britain temporarily displaced the where Islam had taken a firm root. The colo- came village officials who used their posi- Spaniards and ruled the islands for a few nial power thrived on native disunity, enlist- tions to the advantage of their families and years, and during World War II, Japan did. ing allies to help subdue the holdouts. clans. They soon formed a separate class, It was Spanish and US rule, however, that left lasting marks. According to the his- torian Serafin Quiason (1998), “the patterns of culture and poverty, dependency and underdevelopment have deep roots in the Spanish and American colonial policies and practices.” Indeed, Spanish colonialism laid the foundation for the toxic issues that still haunt Philippine politics: ●● an unaccountable, abusive elite, ●● massive corruption, ●● a dysfunctional system of govern- ment, ●● huge social disparities and ●● a meddling of the Catholic Church with theocratic leanings. In the early 20th century, the Ameri- cans added capitalism and formal elections, introduced some marginal reforms and de- clared the country to be a “democracy”. When a Spanish expedition arrived from Mexico in 1565, there was no idea of the Philippines being any kind of coherent entity. This vast collection of islands was dotted by small settlements (“barangay”) and inhabited by various tribes and ethnic groups speaking different languages. Is- lamic missionaries had arrived in the south, but the Spanish annexation stopped them from progressing further. The conquerors forced Catholicism on the natives, defined the boundaries of the colony and named it after their king, Philip II. The barangays had typically been ruled by chieftains who were called “datu”, “raja” or “pangolo”. According to one his-

tory book (Cortes et al., 2000), this system of Main gate of Fort Santiago in Manila’s historical centre Intramuros. Ph oto: Beck/ImageBroker/Lineair

D+C e-Paper November 2017 36 Colonial legacy

the “principalia”, and eventually turned into leaders’ families. The colonised people oligarchs and warlords dominated at the lo- a self-perpetuating oligarchy. Under Span- never had reason to trust government insti- cal level and shared the spoils at the national ish rules, “elections” were confined to village tutions or formal western law. Depressingly, level. As Quiason put it, “what evolved was positions with the members of the elite al- this attitude still marks Philippine politics in democracy in form but not in substance”. The ways electing each other. the 21st century. dynasties treated the country’s institutions The natives were not allowed to call After three hundred years and numer- as tools for increasing their own wealth and themselves “Filipinos”. This term was re- ous revolts, Filipinos finally staged Asia’s power. Policymaking served clan interests. served for Spaniards born in the colony. For first revolution. They were close to gaining American colonialism formally ended centuries, brown-skinned natives were con- independence. However, another power, the in 1946. The Philippines became a nominal temptuously called “Indios” (Indians). United States, intervened in 1899, ostensibly republic with weak democratic institutions. Spain went out of its way to prevent to help the revolutionaries. The Americans The people lacked any clear understanding of Indios from learning Spanish. Instead, the displaced Spain and then turned on their rights and freedoms. In 1972, President Ferdi- monastic orders assiduously mastered the “little brown brothers” in a bloody three- nand Marcos declared martial law and estab- native languages in order to carry out con- year war. lished a dictatorship that lasted until 1986. versions. According to the scholar Benedict A particularly violent legacy of US co- Anderson (2007), their monopoly on linguis- “50 years in Hollywood” lonialism was the Philippine Constabulary tic access to the natives “gave them an enor- (PC). This paramilitary police force was sup- mous power which no secular group shared”. After three centuries of slow development posed to keep the peace. For all practical Fully aware of this, the friars “opposed the under Spain, Filipinos next experienced ex- purposes, that meant suppressing Filipinos. spread of the Spanish language”. Spanish be- plosive change under the US rule. According It was a key component of a regime of sur- came the tongue of power that only the colo- to a popular quip, the colonial experience veillance that kept an eye on Filipino nation- nisers and a few members of the local elite amounted to “300 years in the convent and alists, politicians and activists. Its track re- understood. 50 years in Hollywood”. Washington claimed cord of blatant human-rights abuses did not Under Spanish rule, the Philippines that colonising the Philippines was an act of stop when the Americans left. The PC was as- became East Asia’s only Christian country. “benevolent assimilation” and would even- sociated with torture and murder under the Ironically, its Catholic faith was always far tually lead to nationhood. In actual practice, Marcos regime. from pure. Though Spain’s missionaries erad- however, that was mostly for show. The PC was abolished after martial law icated overt practices of animism, traditional The new imperial power promised to ended, but now Rodrigo Duterte, the popu- beliefs in spirits and magic survived. They build an American style republic. It intro- list president, wants to bring it back. Indeed, were fused with Catholic doctrine to create a duced policies to promote everything from he seems eager to impose authoritarian rule unique folk religion. In this regard, the Phil- education and hygiene to infrastructure. (see my essay in D+C/E+Z e-Paper 2017/02, ippines resemble Latin America more than Laws and institutions were supposed to p. 24, and print edition 2017/03-04, p. 36). other Asian countries. Indeed, the country teach Filipino leaders the mysteries of de- The omens for Philippine democracy are cur- was even administered from Mexico for 200 mocracy. English became the archipelago’s rently not good. The sad truth is that the non- years. However, the Philippines never fit in official lingua franca, and learning it was democratic attitudes which evolved under the with the Hispanised countries of Central officially encouraged. However, the schools colonial rule seem to be of lasting relevance. and South America because Spanish never were never expanded in a way that would became the archipelago’s lingua franca. have allowed the majority of the people to do Alan C. Robles What the people did learn over the so. Even today, English is the nation’s official is a freelance journalist centuries was that government, laws and language, but most Filipinos do not speak it. based in Manila. bureaucracy were instruments of oppres- Legislation has been written in English for sion, exploitation and abuse. Even well- more than a century, but to most citizens, it [email protected] intentioned laws were implemented in remains as inaccessible as Spanish law was. oppressive ways, but the victims never un- The powerful Catholic church was derstood that. All colonial laws were written left untouched. It stayed influential under References in Spanish after all. Those in power seized US rule, and it did not hesitate to meddle Anderson, B., 2007: Under three flags – land, imposed taxes and demanded trib- in secular matters. Wealth and power re- Colonialism and the anti-colonial imagination, utes, including forced labour. The monastic mained concentrated in the hands of a few New York, London: Verso. orders established feudal power structures. families. The Americans didn’t alter the so- Cortes, R. M., Boncan, C. P., and Jose, R. T., The faith served to keep the natives under cioeconomic order, co-opting the native elite 2000: The Filipino saga – History as social control. Sinibaldo de Mas, a Spanish official, to subdue resistance. Just as their Spanish change. Manila: New Day Publishers. observed in 1841: “A friar is worth more than predecessors had, they depended on the lo- Kiernan, V. G., 1982: European empires from a squadron of cavalry.” cal elites. conquest to collapse 1815 to 1960. Leicester: At the same time, the principalia It is true that Americans introduced University Press. taught the Indios that kinship ties overruled popular elections, but these events were Quiason, S., 1998: The Philippines: a case impersonal bureaucratic systems. Public games of musical chairs played by the small of multiple colonial experiences. In: The office was for personal gain and benefited groups of dynastic families. Landowning Independent Review, pp. 29-37.

D+C e-Paper November 2017 37 Colonial legacy

bangladesh Dhaka Room for improvement

In Bangladesh, independence leaders’ aspi- According to the colonial legacy, laws Like other colonial powers, Britain re- ration of a new legal system that would be up are made in a power-driven, command- sorted to a strategy of “superimposing” state to the young nation’s needs largely remains based and top-down process. There is very laws. It prioritised the colonial law over pre- unfulfilled. The young nation’s legal system little scope for popular participation in leg- existing local norms and customs. Previous has yet to be decolonised. islative debates, and people’s chances to legal cultures in South Asia were thus up- find justice tend to be small. rooted. The two most important reasons for By Ridwanul Hoque and Arpeeta S. Mizan The original constitution endorsed this legal imperialism were that: fundamental freedoms. Nevertheless, emer- ●● the British thought the indigenous Bangladesh became an independent nation gency provisions allow the state to postpone systems to be incapable of good or “civi- on 26 March 1971 after a bloody independ- the enforcement of human rights and to de- lised” laws, and ence war against the Pakistan army. At the tain citizens for up to 30 days without trial. ●● their own law facilitated their rule. time, the country’s leaders opted for es- These clauses were adopted in 1974 in a step The ideas of justice and good govern- sential legal continuity. The legal system, that must be seen as a re-importation of the ance were not of priority. Indeed, the ju- which Pakistan and India had inherited anti-liberty laws that both the British em- diciary was submissive to the colonial ad- from the British empire, basically stayed in pire and Pakistan had imposed earlier. ministration. In some ways, it served as an force. Under British rule, sections 122 and extension of – rather than a check on – the The new constitution, however, set 123 of the colonial Penal Code (“Offence of bureaucracy. For example, special tribunals the goal of attaining an indigenous and Sedition”) were routinely applied to free- were set up to try freedom fighters like Bha- transformative legal order, free from the dom fighters as well as people merely sus- gat Singh or the organisers of the Chittagong genetic defects of the colonial law. Over the pected of such leanings. In some respects, Armory Raid in the 1930s. past four decades, Bangladesh’s legal sys- Pakistan exacerbated this repressive colo- The struggle for an independent judici- tem has developed in its own way, embrac- nial law, by criminalising speech that might ary began immediately after the partition of ing some positive developments (see box, p. criticise state sovereignty or put public safe- India in 1947. The bureaucracies of both In- 39). Unfortunately, however, contemporary ty at risk. This law is still in force in Bang- dia and Pakistan did not want to separate the Bangladeshi law is still largely colonial in ladesh. Unsurprisingly, some more recently lower criminal judiciary from the executive. nature as well as spirit. A truly self-defined passed laws – such as the Information and Magistrates had juridical as well as admin- legal system remains a distant dream. Only Communication Technology Act – similarly istrative powers. This allowed them to exert in 2012 did the Supreme Court allow offi- criminalise the act of defaming any person power more forcefully, as had been intended cially the national language, Bangla, to be through cyber-technology. The approach is by the colonial regime. India separated judi-

used in court proceedings and judgments. reminiscent of colonial oppression. cial duties of magistrates from those officers’ Photo: Shahidul Alam/Lineair/Majority World

Supreme Court building in Dhaka.

D+C e-Paper November 2017 38 COLONIAL LEGACY

executive duties in 1975 and Pakistan did so is overly bureaucratic and litigation is all to petition courts for divorce, while Hindu in 1997. Bangladesh’s constitution of Decem- too often frivolous. That public confi dence women were entitled to own property. An- ber 1972 provided for an independent judi- in the legal and justice systems remains low other signifi cant reform was the codifi cation ciary, but the courts were made completely is certainly a colonial legacy. of civil and criminal laws. subservient again in 1975. Only in 2007, was British law upheld some pre-existing In Bangladesh, overhauling of the the lower criminal judiciary separated from principles. As the Moghul administration country’s legal system, especially the crimi- the executive branch of the government. This before them, the colonial masters consid- nal and civil procedural codes, has long happened in compliance with a 2000 Su- ered personal law to depend on a person’s been a buzzword. Yet successive govern- preme Court ruling directing what is known religious faith. Accordingly, Muslims and ments have only paid lip service, if any, as “separation of the judiciary”. Hindus lived by diff erent rules. This dis- to the public aspiration for major legal tinction is still made in India, Pakistan and and judicial reform. So far, the country’s PRE-DEMOCRATIC MINDSET Bangladesh. legal system has not been decolonised. It is worth emphasising that religion- The mind-set of Bangladesh’s bureaucracy based personal law systems are not neces- remains overly colonial. It can still be felt sarily at odds with a modern understand- ARPEETA S. MIZAN that district offi cers were basically revenue ing of human rights. It is true that there are is a lecturer at Dhaka collectors in the British era, with the regime certainly examples of bad practice in the University’s Department tolerating their tendency to mix govern- name of religion and the topic can serve of Law. ment service with personal interests. to mobilise fundamentalist sentiments. [email protected] Generally speaking, the colonial judi- However, all South Asian courts tend to ciary was slow, racially biased and not an interpret faith-based law in a progressive independent branch of government. Unfor- way that fi ts the constitutional principle of RIDWANUL HOQUE tunately, today’s courts are not much diff er- equality. is a law professor ent. Serious problems of case-backlogs and It is noteworthy, moreover, that some at Dhaka University. wide judicial and administrative discretion sensible reforms were introduced under are still evident. The criminal justice system British rule. Muslim wives gained the right [email protected]

PIL was pioneered by the to which public servants could Holding government Supreme Court of India, and the only be prosecuted with gov- top judges of Bangladesh and ernment permission, was un- agencies accountable Pakistan soon followed its ex- constitutional. In yet another ample. PIL has changed the way case, the Supreme Court ruled the people regard the judiciary. that offi cials of the security In Bangladesh, there has been more active in regard to pro- It empowers the court to tackle forces do not enjoy immunity some notable progresses to- tecting human rights and per- grievances that would otherwise when people die in custody wards building a legal system sonal liberty. The most promi- not be addressed. In particular, during an anti-terrorism drive. detached from damaging colo- nent expression of this trend is it gives scope to holding govern- Decisions like these nial legacies. Much still needs probably public interest litiga- ment offi cials accountable. indicate a shift from the co- to be done, however. tion (PIL). The term means that In one PIL judgement of lonial tradition of granting One important step was to the courts accept cases fi led by 2016, Bangladesh’s Supreme governmental offi cials immu- allow Bangla, the national lan- public-spirited persons on be- Court issued guidelines on how nity for the consequences of all guage, to be used in court along half of others, even though they to apply section 54 of the Code action taken in supposed with English. The Rules of the themselves are not personally of Criminal Procedure 1898. “good faith”. These are steps High Court Division of the Su- aff ected. PIL cases tend to ben- It thus restricted the police’s in the right direction. Howev- preme Court were amended ac- efi t the poor and disadvantaged authority to arrest people er, Bangladesh still has a long cordingly in 2012. sections of society who, for without warrant. In another way to go to ensure that gov- Another improvement is many reasons, do not have ac- instance, the Supreme Court ernment agencies are never that the judiciary have become cess to the courts. decided that a law, according above the law. (rh/asm)

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