An Examination of Autochthony and Xenophobia

IDENTITY AND EXCLUSION IN AFRICA: AN EXAMINATION OF AUTOCHTHONY AND XENOPHOBIA ____________________________ A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of The College of Arts and Sciences Ohio University ____________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for Graduation with Honors in Political Science ____________________________ By Timothy M. Anderson May 2013 Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………….....4 The Politics of Belonging and Identity……………………………………...…8 Constructivist and Instrumentalist Theories………………………………….10 Chapter 1 Citizenship and Civil War: Autochthony’s Trajectories in Cote d’Ivoire……….…...14 Colonialism and Cote d’Ivoire………………………………………………..15 Independence and Houphouet-Boigny………………………………………..17 Bedie and the Doctrine of Ivoirite…………………………………………….21 Coup d’état and the New Ivoirite……………………………………………..24 Civil War in Cote d’Ivoire……………………………………………...…….27 Reconciliation and Peacemaking in Cote d’Ivoire……………………………32 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...33 Chapter 2 Identity, Exclusion, and Power in Cameroon: An Examination of Autochthonous Discourse.………………………………………………………………………….….35 Colonialism and Modern Consequences……………………………………...36 Cameroonian Political Tendencies; From Nationalist to Nativist……………39 Autochthony and its Salience; Regional Differences……………………...…44 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...50 Chapter 3 The Politics of Exclusion in South Africa: Authentic Residents and Amagoduka…...51 Xenophobia and Violence…………………………………………………….52 Policy’s Historical Legacy in South Africa……………………………..……53 Post-1994 Politics and Policy………………………………………..……….55 Popular Discourse and Media…………………………………………….…..60 Beyond National Policy: Local Belonging and Violence……………….……62 Conclusions…………………………………………………………………...69 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………...…….70 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………….75 4 Introduction In the 1990s, several African states undertook transitions towards economic liberalization and democratization. Not coincidentally, during the same period these states witnessed an upsurge in the political salience of belonging. Local communities and national governments alike increasingly have come to define inclusion along identity lines. In Cameroon and Cote d’Ivoire, autochthony, literally translated ‘to be from the soil’ has become a powerful construct in terms of access to state resources, land rights, and citizenship rights (Geschiere, 322). Similarly, in South Africa identities such as ‘bona-fide’ or ‘authentic’ township residents are employed to gain access to the spoils of the state, development projects, and land. Of course, such forms of belonging necessarily require determining who is to be excluded. With the construction of ‘autochthony’ and ‘authentic’ identities also comes the manufacturing of populations to be excluded, of ‘allogenes’ meaning ‘strangers’ and of ‘amagoduka’ meaning ‘those who must go home’. Individuals belonging to these exclude groups experience denial of citizenship rights and communal violence against them. Disputes between autochthons and allogenes have even resulted in full-scale civil war in Cote d’Ivoire. The politics of belonging, therefore, is as much about exclusion as it is inclusion. Conflicts over inclusion and exclusion have given rise to new schools of thought about the politics of belonging, identity and citizenship both in Africa and around the world. Peter Geschiere, one of the most prolific scholars in the field, views preoccupations with belonging as “the flipside of…globalization” because of its global 5 spread (Geschiere, 322). He notes that autochthonous discourse has taken place in the Netherlands to the Congo, always preoccupied with excluding ‘strangers’. Though our world continues to shrink as populations and information move faster, such globalizing may trigger “a return to the local” (Geschiere, 1). Globalization, it is argued, operates as a “paradox of flow and closure” meaning that while globalization allows for greater mobility it often results in exclusionary policies and practices (Geschiere and Nyamnjoh, 425). Ideas of autochthony and the stressing of local identities are not simply a promotion of “traditional” ways of life, but are instead used to exclude others from newly opened avenues of political and economic wealth. In that same vein, he argues “the autochthonous subject is shaped by broader processes: struggles over local belonging are closely intertwined with the desire to be recognized as a citizen of the world” (Geschiere, 27). For Geschiere, processes of globalization, economic liberalization and decentralization, and democratization seem to lead to closure and exclusion, rather than liberal ideas of inclusion (Geschiere, 332). Certainly disputes over local belonging are connected with broader, more global processes such as migration and access to international development projects. However, local belonging is always deeply embedded in any given region’s socio-political history. Therefore, in asserting that autochthony and belonging are a direct reaction to or effect of more global processes, Geschiere is not telling the whole story. Instead, in order to truly understand how the politics of belonging and exclusion operates, a comparison between different states and even different regions within these states is necessary. 6 How are belonging and identities constructed and redefined? What specific policies contribute to the manipulation of political identities? Who benefits from the politics of exclusion? This thesis looks to explain the reemergence of the politics of belonging and exclusion witnessed in African states through exploring and comparing specific state institutions and elite actions of three states used as case studies: Cote d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and South Africa. I argue that while the colonial history of each of these states contributes to contemporary disputes over belonging; it is the legacy of the post-independence institutions and elite actions that make exclusion a feasible political tool in these cases. This comparison is justified because while each of these states vary greatly in terms of their colonial histories, economic production, and political legacies, all have witnessed an upsurge in the political salience of belonging since the 1990s. If we are to understand how and why belonging operates globally, we must first examine and compare regions in which such discourses take place. While autochthonous identities are not new (the original definition dates back to Classical Athens) or unique to Africa, their political salience particularly at the national level has been on the rise since the 1980s. Geschiere and Nyamnjoh argue that the increased saliences of autochthonous identities are a direct, but perhaps unforeseen, consequence of the liberalization of politics in several African states (Geschiere and Nyamnjoh, 428). The exclusive nature of autochthony creates a somewhat paradoxical relationship between political liberalization and illiberal notions of exclusivity (Geschiere, 6). Political liberalization and decentralization, stressed by international organizations such as the World Bank and the International 7 Monetary Fund (IMF), led to a general decentralizing of African states and focused on strengthening civil society over the state. The strengthening and development of local municipalities over state institutions triggered debates about who truly belongs in an area and who is a “stranger”. Of course, bypassing the state and focusing on “traditional” modes of authority overlook the fact that most traditional governments are the result of colonial or even post-colonial institutions (Geschiere, 21). Furthermore, while debates around autochthony take place across different continents, recently in Africa these debates have spilled over into political violence (Dunn, 113). This relationship between autochthony and violence is due to several issues including the uncertainty and insecurity produced by the term due to its plasticity, autochthony’s reliance on a story of victimization, and finally autochthony’s close relationship with state making (Dunn, 124). In trying to make sense of the politics of belonging, my thesis is structured as follows. Firstly, in the introduction I review the scholarly literature concerning the politics of belonging and identity broadly. I also examine and employ several theories concerning identity. In the first chapter, I look at the colonial legacy, post- independence policies, and elite actions that led Cote d’Ivoire into a full-scale civil war over identity disputes. The next chapter examines Cameroon, exploring what policies and practices led to the reemergence of disputes between autochthones and allogenes. The third and final chapter deals with belonging in South Africa, focusing on inclusion and exclusion at both the national and local level. In the conclusion I 8 elaborate on my findings and outline the future of the politics of belonging on the African continent. The Politics of Belonging and Identity Borrowing from Brubaker’s analysis of the politics of belonging, my thesis focuses on inclusion and exclusion at both the local and national level (Brubaker, 64). Despite some scholarly arguments about the decreasing importance of states as arenas of identity contestation, they remain particularly important. Membership in a state allows individuals to gain access to public goods and exert political power while exclusion from the state may bear even greater consequences. Furthermore, the politics of belonging “to” a state is distinguishable

Load more