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Number 3 October 2003 news from the Nordic Africa Institute FROM THE CONTENTS • Migration in West Africa Francis Akindès • Sierra Leone Arthur Abraham • Nordic Media and Africa Anne Hege Simonsen • Interview with Juhani Koponen Contents no. 3/2003 To Our Readers 1 Lennart Wohlgemuth Commentaries 3 Migrations, Public Policies for ‘Foreigners’ and Citizenship in West Africa Francis Akindès 7 Sierra Leone: Post-Conflict Transition or Business as Usual? Arthur Abraham 11 South Africa: Reintegration into Civilian Life of Ex-Combatants Guy Lamb 14 The Challenge of Nordic Media: Bringing Africa Home Anne Hege Simonsen Media 17 Nordic Media and Africa 18 Hunger and Politics: What international media did not report Sarah Chiumbu Interview 21 Interview with Juhani Koponen Research 24 Guest Researchers African institution 27 Panos West Africa Publishing 28 Recent Publications Conference reports 31 Conferences and Meetings 40 Publications Received Editor-in-Chief: Lennart Wohlgemuth News from the Nordic Africa Institute is published by the Nordic Africa Co-Editor: Susanne Linderos Institute. It covers news about the Institute and also about Africa itself. News appears three times a year, in January, May and October, and is free Co-Editor of this issue: Anne Hege Simonsen of charge. It is also available on-line, at the Institute’s website: Editorial Secretary: Karin Andersson Schiebe www.nai.uu.se. Statements of fact or opinion appearing in News are solely Language checking: Elaine Almén those of the authors and do not imply endorsement by the publisher. To Our Readers During 2002, Norwegian development coop- cations for the region. Based on these papers eration celebrated its 50th anniversary—half a the Institute organised jointly with CODESRIA a century after the start of the Kerala project in conference in Dakar in May this year that India. This anniversary became a state celebra- turned out to be a great success. Some of the tion, with gala performances and seminars. contributions are published in this and the next One of the major events—that was slightly issue of News as commentaries. delayed—was the launching of a three-volume We are happy to present as our first com- history of Norwegian aid in early June 2003 mentary an analysis of the Migrations, public (Norsk Utveklingshjelps Historie, Oslo: Fagbok- policies for ‘foreigners’ and citizenship in West forlaget). For someone who, like me, has worked Africa by Professor Francis Akindès from the for the past forty years with aid practice, aid University of Boaké in Côte d’Ivoire. This methodology and aid research, this work is a historical background gives us a basis on which rare treasure. we can better understand the present problem- What makes it so unique is that the authors, atic developments in the region. It also allows all historians, put aid in its historical context, i.e. us to understand how deeply involved the neigh- the developments in the world at large. Aid is bouring countries are in the present crisis. therefore not only discussed per se, but also as a The second commentary on Sierra Leone part of Norwegian foreign as well as domestic by professor Arthur Abraham—a well-known policies. In addition, the 50 year time frame historian at present at the Virginia State Uni- makes it possible to compare over time. Theo- versity, USA—stems from the same region and is retical discussions are enriched by accounts from a result of the Institute’s analytical engagement discussions in Norway (within the political fora, in the post-conflict transition of Sierra Leone. the civil society and in the press), all exemplified It again documents how difficult it is to act in by shorter and longer presentations from the the period following a severe crisis. If this real world of aid. What makes this publication period is handled wrongly the risks are great so important is that it contextualizes aid as one that new trouble will arise in the near future. important but still small part of the relationship The third commentary by Guy Lamb, sen- between North and South and points at the fact ior researcher with the Centre for Conflict that nothing is really new—most ideas have Resolution at the University of Cape Town, been tried out at least once in the past. It is my brings up a related problem from a different sincere hope that this study will help us improve part of Africa. One of the recipes recommended the difficult relations between the actors in the by conflict resolution experts for tackling the aid relationship. transition period from crisis to peace is the In the past six months the Institute has been orderly demobilisation of soldiers and fighters deeply engaged with the events in West Africa from the different parties in conflict. This com- in general and in the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire in mentary exemplifies such a programme in South particular. The latter is likely to have serious Africa and points to the problems in imple- repercussions on the rest of West Africa, not menting this idea in practice. What seems so only because of the importance of the size of the right and easy in theory becomes very compli- immigrant population in the country, but also cated and awkward in practice, and in particular because of the position of the country in the requires resources in the form of money and region. The Institute thus commissioned a personnel that are seldom available in the tran- number of scholars from the region to write sition period. ‘think-pieces’ or empirically based analytical As an important step in the Institute’s ef- papers on the Côte d’Ivoire crisis and its impli- forts to develop a pro-active media policy, a News from the Nordic Africa Institute 3/2003 1 media conference was hosted in Uppsala in Finally we are proud to present the work May 2003. The major aim was to discuss how and experience of Professor Juhani Koponen. Nordic journalists covering Africa and the In- He has recently been appointed as professor of stitute can together further the coverage of development studies at the Institute for Devel- Africa in the Nordic countries. In this issue two opment Studies at the University of Helsinki contributions are the result of this conference. for which we congratulate him with all our The first is a commentary by the Norwegian heart. He is an old friend of the Institute, has journalist Anne Hege Simonsen as the coordi- been a research fellow here and published a nator of the workshop focusing on questions number of times with us. With his experience such as: Why is Africa important? Why should from Africa in general and Tanzania in particu- it be covered in the Nordic media? Who cares, lar he will continue to be an important sup- and why? The second is an article by the jour- porter of research in and on Africa in the Nordic nalist and keynote speaker Sarah Chiumbu, countries. ■ Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa in Zimbabwe. Lennart Wohlgemuth Norsk utviklingshjelps historie (‘The history of norwegian development aid’), vol. 1–3. Olso: Fagbokforlaget, 2003. 2 News from the Nordic Africa Institute 3/2003 commentaries Migrations, Public Policies for ‘Foreigners’ and Citizenship in West Africa By: Francis Akindès social and cultural dynamics at work in the ex- Sociologist and Professor colonies. This region is also characterized by an at Université de Bouaké, extraordinary cultural, religious and linguistic Côte d’Ivoire diversity. The adoption of French and English as official languages adds to this linguistic diver- sity. History of West African migrations The sociological configuration on the ground is the product of several centuries of exchanges The recent crisis in Côte d’Ivoire illustrates both the which are now well documented. In the course importance of population movements in West Af- of the pre-colonial period, between 1250 and rica, and the vulnerability of migrants and their 1850, important trading networks had already descendants, most of whom are denied citizen- been set up from the three main areas of produc- ship rights. In this article, Francis Akindès calls for tion: the Sahel for salt, gum arabic, gold, copper, more inclusive citizenship policies and for greater perfume and dyes; the Sudan for indigo, shea butter (karité), cloth and iron; Guinea for sea regional integration. On pp. 34–36, there is a con- salt, gold, ivory and cola nuts. The trade in these ference report which also gives a short background various goods encouraged the development of to the Côte d’Ivoire crisis. entrepôt towns on the edge of the forest and the savannah. The flow of trade went even further The area covered by the Economic Commu- than this to reach the Mediterranean basin. The nity of West African States (ECOWAS), as a dynamics of these trading networks also con- political region, is shared by fifteen states which tributed to a mixing of cultures and nationali- could be divided into three groups: the Sahel ties. Between 1850 and 1960, colonization region (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger); the reconfigured the directions of the flows around extreme west (Cape Verde, Gambia, Guinea, strategic cash crops such as groundnut, palm oil, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Senegal and Sierra cocoa, hevea and coffee. From that point on, two Leone); and finally the Gulf of Guinea (Benin, urban basins emerged: the Cape Verde/Lake Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo). In Tchad axis and the coastal towns which opened 2000, the population within this Community (at doors to the outside world. However, these new that time including Mauritania) was estimated axes did not lead to the disappearance of the pre- to be 224 million, or 28 percent of the population colonial trading routes which adapted in parallel of Africa.

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