This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Quasi-Armies: Obstacles to, or Vehicle for, State-building in Central Africa Bachmann, Olaf Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 05. Oct. 2021 This electronic theses or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ Quasi-Armies: Obstacles to, or Vehicle for, State-building in Central Africa Title: Author: Olaf Bachmann The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/ You are free to: Share: to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). Non Commercial: You may not use this work for commercial purposes. No Derivative Works - You may not alter, transform, or build upon this work. Any of these conditions can be waived if you receive permission from the author. Your fair dealings and other rights are in no way affected by the above. Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact [email protected] providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Quasi-Armies: Obstacles to, or Vehicle for, State-building in Central Africa Olaf Bachmann King’s College London submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2013 2 Abstract The object of inquiry of this thesis is the military as a constitutive component of state institutions in the Central African sub region. Its aim is to identify whether and to what extent the military has been and can be instrumental to the process of state- building and state formation in the region, and whether and under which conditions it is an obstacle to that process. This thesis is built upon two assumptions: the key conceptual differentiation between the state formation process and the state-building project, and the relevance of political culture in explaining military development and the military relationship to the state. A shaping parameter of the analysis is whether, and in which conditions, it is possible to “accelerate” state-building in the context of a given political culture. Lessons for Africa are drawn from historical analogy and the limits of classic civil-military theory in interpreting Africa’s experience analysed on the basis of the example of three states, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Rwanda. Each national situation and each period is examined from a dual historical and sociological perspective so as to pin down the articulation between political decisions and cultural constraints, and the positioning of the military at key turns in those countries development. Clarity is cast from this analysis on the degree and characteristics of “quasi-ness” of each state, and correspondingly, the level of “quasi-ness” of its armed forces 2 For Catherine 3 Acknowledgements To express gratitude to every person who has allowed me to further my personal and intellectual development through this thesis is impossible. First of all I want to thank my wife Catherine from the depth of my heart, who provided me with invaluable emotional support that helped me maintain the course during my weakest moments, at the same time as she kept challenging me intellectually. As our small family’s main breadwinner she also worked for two when I travelled the world to complete this project, and secured all the funding without which this thesis would never have seen the light of the day. Academic support and friendship was provided relentlessly by my supervisors, Professor Andrew James William Gow and Dr ‘Funmi Olonisakin. Among the scholars who fostered my understanding were Belgian, Cameroonian, Congolese, and Rwandan academics; to name but a few, Professor Coppieters; Professors Mabiala, Mavungu, Biyoya, Lumengo Neso; Professors Titi Nwel, Ntuda Ebodé, Mvie Meka; Professors Kagabo and Balibutsa. Much help came from other scholars and friends who repeatedly read earlier drafts and commented industriously, in particular Dr Carlos Alfaro Zaforteza and Dr Matthew Ford. No less is my gratitude felt for the support received from the military world, with my special thanks going to Belgian Colonel Claude Lambert for sharing his invaluable personal archives, and to soldiers both retired and on duty of the armed forces of Angola, Belgium, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Germany, France, Rwanda, the United Kingdom, and the United States, including Generals Aguru, Mulubi, Mukobo; General Semengue; Generals Rusagara, Karenzi, Rwarakabire, and Major Nyirimandzi. I am also indebted to the helpful librarians and personnel of the national, academic, private, and military archives and libraries, including the Africa archive of the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Centre for Historical Documentation of the Armed Forces in Brussels, and knowledgeable persons like Jean-Marie Deheyn; the Archive of the French Land Armed Forces, and the National Archive of France; the University Library of Butare Rwanda and of Yaoundé II University; the national Archive of the DRC, and libraries of Kinshasa and Lubumbashi Universities; the Centre for Historical Research and Documentation on War CEGES, the library of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda in Arusha, and the libraries and archives of the Tervuren 4 Congo Museum with special thanks to Professor Theodore Trefon. The diplomatic services of all countries involved excelled in helpfulness, and international political foundations, including the Cameroonian Fondation Paul Ango Ela and the Centre d’Etudes pour l’Action Sociale in Kinshasa provided much appreciated good services, and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung branches of Cameroon and Congo facilitated access where this author came to a halt. All this support was as indispensable to the pursuit of this project as was the logistic help received during months and years of living and traveling in the Central African region from friends like Jeannot Letamba, Justin Mabouth, Charles Maphasi, and Jacques and Sandra Hervé. The vast majority of contacts during this research opted to remain anonymous. I wish to thank all participants for exhaustive conversations and, in several cases, the provision of relevant documents. Those among them who read those lines know how much I appreciated their help. Finally, my thanks go to all the authors who, unknown to them, inspired me through this long intellectual route. 5 Contents Abstract 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................ 4 Contents 6 List of abbreviations ................................................................................... 9 Chapter One: Introduction ............................................................................... 11 1 Key Concepts: The State and the Military ........................................ 15 1.1 Forms of States ............................................................................... 15 1.2 State Formation Versus State-building .......................................... 199 1.3 The Army and the State .................................................................. 22 1.4 Civil-military Relations Theory and its Relevance to Africa ............... 24 2 Methodology.................................................................................. 344 2.1 Case Studies ................................................................................... 34 2.2 A Two-pillar Approach ..................................................................... 35 2.3 Epistemological Boundaries ............................................................ 38 2.4 Access to and Interpretation of Sources ........................................... 43 3 Dissertation Outline ...................................................................... 488 4 Value Added by the Research .........................................................