African Studies Quarterly
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African Studies Quarterly Volume 12, Issue 2 Winter 2011 Published by the Center for African Studies, University of Florida ISSN: 2152-2448 African Studies Quarterly Executive Staff R. Hunt Davis, Jr. - Editor-in-Chief Todd H. Leedy - Associate Editor Shylock Muyengwa - Managing Editor Corinna Greene - Production Editor Editorial Committee Jenn M. Allen Meredith Marten David Anastas Asmeret G. Mehari Maia Bass Micah McCrary Mamadou Bodian Chesney McOmber Jennifer Boylan JeanCharles Milagros Robin Brooks Jessica Morey Leif J. Bullock Patricia Chilufya Mupeta Renee Bullock Anna K. Mwaba Erin L. Bunting Collins R. Nunyonameh Nicole C. D'Errico Greyson Z. Nyamoga Dan J. Eizenga Levy Odera Tim Fullman Levi C. Ofoe Kevin Funk Gregory Parent Cerian Gibbes Narcisa Pricope John J. Hames Musa Sadock Emily Hauser Matthew H. Shirley Merise Jalal Caroline Staub Cara Jones Noah I. Sims Claudia Hoffmann Erik Timmons Nicholas Knowlton Joel O. Wao Alison M. Ketter Amanda Weibel Ashley Leinweber Advisory Board Adélékè Adéèko Mark Davidheiser Ohio State University Nova Southeastern University Timothy Ajani Kristin Davis Fayetteville State University International Food Policy Research Abubakar Alhassan Institute University of Idaho Parakh Hoon John W. Arthur Virginia Tech University of South Florida, St. Andrew Lepp Petersburg Kent State University Nanette Barkey Richard Marcus Population Services International California State University, Long Beach Susan Cooksey Kelli Moore University of Florida James Madison University African Studies Quarterly | Volume 12, Issue 2 | Winter 2011 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq James T. Murphy Jan Shetler Clark University Goshen College Lilian Temu Osaki Mantoa Rose Smouse University of Dar es Salaam University of Capetown Dianne White Oyler Roos Willems Fayetteville State University Catholic University of Leuven Alex Rödlach Peter VonDoepp Creighton University University of Vermont African Studies Quarterly | Volume 12, Issue 2 | Winter 2011 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq © University of Florida Board of Trustees, a public corporation of the State of Florida; permission is hereby granted for individuals to download articles for their own personal use. Published by the Center for African Studies, University of Florida. African Studies Quarterly | Volume 12, Issue 2 | Winter 2011 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq Table of Contents Personal Rule in Africa: The Case of Eritrea Petros B. Ogbazghi (1-25) The Micropolitics of Mining and Development in Zambia: Insights from the Northwestern Province Rohit Negi (27- 44) Debunking the Myth of the “Good” Coup d’État in Africa Andrew C. Miller (45-70) Book Reviews Peter Alegi. Laduma! Soccer, Politics and Society in South Africa, from its Origins to 2010. Scottville, South Africa: University of KwaZulu-Natal Press. xi, 230 pp. Review by Alex Laverty (71-72) Tim Allen and Koen Vlassenroot (eds.) The Lord's Resistance Army: Myth and Reality. London: Zed Books, 2010. xxi, 356 pp. Review by Mark E. Grotelueschen (72-75) G. Thomas Burgess. Race, Revolution and the Struggle for Human Rights on Zanzibar: The Memories of Ali Sultan Issa and Seif Sharif Hamad. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2009. xii, 333 pp. Review by Charlie Wilson (75-76) Gaurav Desai (ed). Teaching the African Novel. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009. ix, 429 pp. Review by Charlotte Baker (76-78) Kwame Essien and Toyin Falola. Culture and Customs of the Sudan. Westport, CT: ABC-CLIO/ Greenwood Press , 2008. xix, 193 pp. Review by Waseem-Ahmed Bin-Kasim (78-80) Paul Wenzel Geissler and Ruth Jane Prince. The Land is Dying: Contingency, Creativity and Conflict in Western Kenya. New York and Oxford: Berghahn Books, 2010. xix, 423 pp. Review by Melissa Graboyes (80-81) Bayo Holsey. Routes of Remembrance: Refashioning the Slave Trade in Ghana. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 2008. 272 pp . Review by Kwame Essien (81-84) African Studies Quarterly | Volume 12, Issue 2 | Winter 2011 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq Lise Morjé Howard. UN Peacekeeping in Civil Wars. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. 416 pp. Review by Ioannis Mantzikos (84-86) David McDermott Hughes. Whiteness in Zimbabwe: Race, Landscape, and the Problem of Belonging. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. xx, 204 pp. Review by Tony Voss (86-88) Curtis Keim. Mistaking Africa: Curiosities and Inventions of the American Mind. Boulder: Westview Press, 2009. xiii 234 pp. Review by Dan Mitchell (88-89) Tukumbi Lumumba-Kasongo. Japan-Africa Rеlаtiοnѕ. Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. xv, 277 pp. Review by Ilunga Tchoma Kitenge (89-91) Kimani Njogu and John Middleton (eds). Media and Identity in Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2009. xvii, 333 pp. Review by Ken Walibora Waliaula (91-93) Victor Oguejiofor Okafor (ed). Nigeria’s Stumbling Democracy and its Implications for Africa’s Democratic Movement. Westport, CT: Praeger Security International, 2008. xvi, 190 pp. Review by Cynthia C. Ugwuibe (93-94) Augustine S. O. Okwu. Igbo Culture and the Christian Missions 1857-1957: Conversion in Theory and Practice. Lanham: University Press of America, 2010. xi , 329 pp. Review by Adaeze Nnamani (95-96) David Peimer (ed). Armed Response: Plays from South Africa. New York: Seagull Books, 2009. xviii, 216 pp. Review by J. Coplen Rose (96-97) Jan Vansina. Being Colonized: The Kuba Experience in Rural Congo, 1880-1960. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2010. xiii, 342 pp. Review by Joseph C. Miller (97-99) Kerry Ward. Networks of Empire: Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. 340 pp. Review by Adel Manai (99-101) African Studies Quarterly | Volume 12, Issue 2 | Winter 2011 http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq African Studies Quarterly | Volume 12, Issue 2 | Winter 2011 Personal Rule in Africa: The Case of Eritrea PETROS B. OGBAZGHI Abstract: Notwithstanding the on-going struggles for democratic transformation, many African countries still lack rudimentary principles of the rule of law and legitimate political institutions. Contemporary Eritrea exemplifies this type of situation in which personal rule is the embodiment of the political system. The article argues that the perpetuation of personal rule in Eritrea is explained by the political strategy of unleashing sheer coercive force against citizens by the military whose loyalty is bought off by providing its top echelons control over substantial state economic resources. This is facilitated by a culture of impunity fostered by a legacy of three decades of guerrilla conflict, and by deliberately keeping the rest of society off-balance in an economic situation characterized by rampant poverty. The regimenting of civil-society institutions within the power structures and chapters of party-controlled organizations has reduced them into instruments of social control in order to diffuse any form of organized resistance. Finally, the party and the bureaucracy as agents of the state function to accentuate the symbolic dimensions of socio- economic activities to which the entire society is mobilized in order to wedge the immense legitimacy gap and make the system appear popular. 1 Introduction In the 1990s, the promising transition in many African countries from dictatorship and authoritarianism to democracy seemed to be echoed in the apparent commitment of Eritrea to a similar transformation. The paradigm shift from dictatorship to democracy in African states led some scholars to refer to 1989 as a ‚landmark‛ and others to describe developments in terms of ‚waves,‛ ‚foundations,‛ and ‚experiments‛ in the history of African politics.2 It was a time of ‚the opening wide of the electoral floodgates.‛3 Indeed, there was an explosion of political parties and countless elections were held almost everywhere in sub-Saharan Africa. For example, the elections conducted between 1990 and 1994, showed that more than thirty-eight out of a total of forty-seven sub-Saharan countries involved rival political contenders.4 It is particularly important to note that out of these elections, thirty-five countries had larger opposition party representation in legislative seats.5 Domestic and international political and economic factors played, in varying degrees of interpretation, of course, a major role in the transition process of the early 1990s from authoritarianism, personal rule and military despotism to a fledgling democratic government.6 This was also the reasonable expectation of many Eritreans inside the country as well as in the Diaspora who witnessed Eritrea become an independent nation and set about formulating and adopting a constitution. In the aftermath of independence, people held extraordinary hope of a democratic change once Eritrea had extricated itself from the oppressive rule of Ethiopia’s Petros B. Ogbazghi is former Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Administration, University of Asmara, Asmara, Eritrea. He obtained his Ph.D. in Politics and Administration from Tilburg University, the Netherlands. He studied both at the Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in the Heague and at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands, where he obtained his Master's Degree in Public Policy and Administration. Currently, he works as a consultant and researcher on migration, refugees and racism in the Republic of Ireland. http://www.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v12/v12i2a1.pdf © University of Florida Board of Trustees, a public corporation of the State of Florida; permission is hereby granted for individuals to download articles for their own personal