- Docente: Mario Zamponi
- Credits: 10
- SSD: SPS/13
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: In-person learning (entirely or partially)
- Campus: Bologna
- Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS (cod. 8046)
Course contents
The course will discuss in a comparative way the political and economic development of sub-Saharan Africa countries in the post Cold War period. The attention will be concentrated on the transformations of the political systems (and of the process of democratization) since the 1990s, and on some cases of conflict. Moreover some contemporary relevant topics about development policies, international relations, and practices of political, economic and social development will be analyzed.
Important notice
In order to enhance students' participation and interaction, students attending classes must read preliminarily the following book:
A.M. Gentili, Il leone e il cacciatore. Storia dell'Africa subsahariana, Carocci, Roma, nuova edizione aggiornata 2008
Moreover, students are suggested to read:
the dossier "Percorsi della democrazia in Africa", in Afriche e Orienti, n. 1-2, 2012
A. Pallotti, Alla ricerca della democrazia. L'africa sub-sahariana tra autoritarismo e sviluppo, Rubbettino 2013
Students are requested to attend classes regularly and to be present during the first week when all information about the programme and the materials concerning seminars will be provided.
Compulsory text book:
A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa sub-sahariana nella politica internazionale, Le Monnier, Firenze 2010
The course will be organized as follows:
FIRST PART:
Transitions to democracy. Characteristics of institutional and political systems, and of the power relationships in sub-Saharan Africa contemporary state. Democratization processes in the 1990s: international conditions, mobilization of civil society, authoritarians restorations. Analysis of the relations between political democratization and structural adjustment policies, also in relation with the globalization process. This part will be composed by some lectures and some seminars; during seminars some case-studies will be presented.
Reading list:
O. van Cranenburgh, Democracy promotion in Africa: the institutional context, in Democratization, 18, 2, 2011
C. Peiffer, P. Englebert, Extraversion, vulnerability to donors, and political liberalization in Africa, in African Affairs, 111/444, 2012
F. Cheru, Democracy and People Power in Africa: still searching for the ‘political kingdom' Third World Quarterly, 33, 2, 2012
Z. Wai, Neo-patrimonialism and the discourse of state failure in Africa, in Review of African Political Economy, 39, 131, 2012
Reading list for seminars on democratization. Students will be requested to present some articles during classes:
A. R. Mustafa, L. Whitfield, Turning points in African democracy, James Currey, Woodbridge, 2009, cap. 2, 4, 6, 8, 9
C. Obi, Taking back our democracy? The trials and travails of Nigerian elections since 1999, in Democratization, 18, 2, 2011
L. Rakner Institutionalizing the pro-democracy movements: the case of Zambia's Movement for Multiparty Democracy, in Democratization, 18, 5, 2011
E. A. Albaugh, An autocrat's toolkit: adaptation and manipulation in ‘democratic' Cameroon, in Democratization, 18, 2, 2011
E. Green, Decentralization and political opposition in contemporary Africa: evidence from Sudan and Ethiopia, in Democratization, 18, 5, 2011
M. F. Keating, Can democratization undermine democracy? Economic and political reform in Uganda, in Democratization, 18, 2, 2011
L. L. Hinthorne, Democratic crisis or crisis of confidence? What local perceptual lenses tell us about Madagascar's 2009 political crisis, in Democratization, 18, 2, 2011
E. Hillbom, Botswana: a development-oriented gape-keeping state, in African Affairs, 111/442, 2012
S. A. Bezabeh, Citizenship and the logic of sovereignty in Djibouti, in African Affairs, 110/441, 2011R. Lefort, Free market economy, ‘developmental state' and partystatehegemony in Ethiopia: the case of the ‘model farmers', in Journal of Modern African Studies, 50, 4, 2012
D. Branch, N. Cheeseman, Democratization, Sequencing, and State Failure in Africa: Lessons from Kenya, in African Affairs, 108/430, 2008D. Booth, F. Golooba-Mutebi, Developmental patrimonialism? The case of Rwanda, in African Affairs, 111/444, 2012
V. Adefemi Isumonah, Imperial Presidency and Democratic Consolidation in Nigeria, in Africa Today, 59, 1, 2012
K. Y. Dionne, B. Dulani, Constitutional provisions and executive succession: Malawi's 2012 transition in comparative perspective, in African Affairs, 112/446, 2013
Jacqueline M. Klopp, Can Moral Ethnicity Trump Political Tribalism? The Struggle for Land and Nation in Kenya, in African Studies, 61, 2, 2002
SECOND PART
The conflicts in post Cold War sub-Saharan Africa. The major issues concerning the conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa will be discussed. Some case studies will be presented. The political crisis in Zimbabwe will be also presented. This part will be composed by some lectures presenting historical and political elements of conflicts in sub-saharan Africa and some seminars; during seminars some case-studies will be presented
Recommended reading
S. Strauss, Wars do end! Changing patterns of political violence in sub-Saharan Africa, in African Affairs, 111/443, 2012
R. B. Lloyd, Conflict in Africa, Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 1, 2010
Recommended reading on Zimbabwe
L. Sachikonye, When a state turns on its citizens. Violence in Zimbabwe, Jacana Media, Johannesburg 2011
Reading list for seminars on conflicts. Students will be requested to present some articles during classes:
J. Pottier, Representations of Ethnicity in the Search for Peace: Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo, in African Affairs, 109 (434) 2010
M. van Leeuwen, Imagining the Great Lakes Region: discourses and practices of civil society regional approaches for peacebuilding in Rwanda, Burundi and DR Congo, in Journal of Modern African Studies 46, 3, 2008
L. C. Huening, Making use of the past: the Rwandophone question and the ‘Balkanisation of the Congo', in Review of African Political Economy, 40, 135, 2013
A. Laudati, Beyond minerals: broadening ‘economies of violence' in easternDemocratic Republic of Congo, in Review of African Political Economy, 40, 135, 2013
J. Verweijen, Military business and the business of the military in the Kivus, in Review of African Political Economy, 40, 135, 2013
L. Patey, Crude Days Ahead? Oil and the Resource Curse in Sudan, in African Affairs, 109 (437), 2010
D. H. Johnson, Why Abyei Matters. The Breaking Point of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement?, in African Affairs 107 (426), 2008
T. Lyons, The Ethiopia-Eritrea Conflict and the Search for Peace in the Horn of Africa, in Review of African Political Economy, 36, 120, 2009
K. Menkhaus, Somalia: They Created a Desert and Called It Peace(building), in Review of African Political Economy 36, 120, 2009
M. Walls, The Emergence of a Somali State: Building Peace from Civil War in Somaliland, in African Affairs, 108 (432), 2009
Mohamed Ibrahim, Somalia and global terrorism: A growing connection?, in Journal of Contemporary African Studies, 28, 3, 2010
A. Bakarr Bah, Democracy and civil war: Citizenship and peacemaking in Côte d'Ivoire, in African Affairs, 109 (437): 2010
A. Cutolo, Modernity, Autochthony and the Ivorian Nation: the End of a Century in Côte d'Ivoire, in Africa, 80, 4, 2010
D. Curtis, The international peacebuilding paradox: Power sharing and post-conflict governance in Burundi, in African Affairs, 112/446, 2013
K. Nwajiaku-Dahou, The political economy of oil and ‘rebellion' in Nigeria's Niger Delta, in Review of African Political Economy, 39, 132, 2012
S. Lindemann, Another change of guard? Broad-based politics and civil war in Museveni's Uganda, in African Affairs, 110/440, 2011
Ø. H. Rolandsen, A quick fix? A retrospective analysis of the Sudan Comprehensive Peace Agreement, in Review of African Political Economy, 38,130, 2011
D. Woods, The tragedy of the cocoa pod: rent-seeking, land and ethnic conflict in Ivory Coast, in Journal of Modern African Studies, 41, 4, 2003
M. V. Hohne, Political identity, emerging state structures and conflict in northern Somalia, in Journal of Modern African Studies, 44, 3, 2006
M. Gabrielsen Jumbert, D. Lanz, Globalised rebellion: the Darfur insurgents and the world, in Journal of Modern African Studies, 51, 2, 2013
S.Hagberg, G. Körling, Socio-political Turmoil in Mali: The Public Debate Following the Coup d'État on 22 March 2012, in Africa Spectrum, 47, 2-3, 2012
THIRD PART
Issues of development in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s. Analysis of the major topics and of the debate. The following specific issues will be discussed: China's economic and political role in Africa, the post Cotonou relationships between European Union and Africa, the programmes of decentralization and of community-based natural resource management.
General Issues.
Recommended readings:
K. R. Cox; R. Negi, The state and the question of development in sub-Saharan Africa, in Review of African Political Economy, 37,123, 2010
W. Brown, Sovereignty matters: Africa, donors and the aid relationship, in African Affairs, 112/447, 2013
K. S. Amanor , South–South Cooperation in Africa: Historical, Geopolitical and Political Economy Dimensions of International Development, in IDS Bulletin, 44, 4, 2013
I. Scoones, L. Cabral, H. Tugendhat, New Development Encounters: China and Brazil in African Agriculture, in IDS Bulletin, 44, 4,
China in Africa
Recommended reading:
C. Alden, China in Africa, London, Zed Books, 2007
European Union in Africa e the Economic Partnership Agreements
Recommended reading:
Unione Europea e Africa, dossier of the journal “Afriche e Orienti”, n. 1-2/2011
Decentralization and Community-based Natural Resources Management Programmes
Reading list:
F. Nelson, Community rights, conservation and contested land: the politics of natural resource governance in Africa, London; Washington, Earthscan, 2010, chap. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10
B. Chinsinga, District Assemblies in a fix: the perils of the politics of capacity in the political and administrative reforms in Malawi, in Development Southern Africa, 22, 4, 2005
U. Kakumba, Local government citizen participation and rural development: reflections on Uganda's decentralization system, in International Review of Administrative Sciences, 76, 1, 2010
Decentralising Power and resource Control in sub-Saharan Africa, journal “Afriche e Orienti” special issue II, year X, 2008 (M. Zamponi ed) , essays by: Arrigo Pallotti, George Owusu, Lorenzo Cotula, Corrado Tornimbeni
Programme for students attending classes:
A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa sub-sahariana nella politica internazionale, Le Monnier, Firenze 2010
O. van Cranenburgh, Democracy promotion in Africa: the institutional context, in Democratization, 18, 2, 2011
C. Peiffer, P. Englebert, Extraversion, vulnerability to donors, and political liberalization in Africa, in African Affairs, 111/444, 2012F. Cheru, Democracy and People Power in Africa: still searching for the ‘political kingdom' Third World Quarterly, 33, 2, 2012
Z. Wai, Neo-patrimonialism and the discourse of state failure in Africa, in Review of African Political Economy, 39, 131, 2012
S. Strauss, Wars do end! Changing patterns of political violence in sub-Saharan Africa, in African Affairs, 111/443, 2012
R. B. Lloyd, Conflict in Africa, Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 1, 2010
L. Sachikonye, When a state turns on its citizens. Violence in Zimbabwe, Jacana Media, Johannesburg 2011
K. R. Cox; R. Negi, The state and the question of development in sub-Saharan Africa, in Review of African Political Economy, 37,123, 2010
William Brown, Sovereignty matters: Africa, donors and the aid relationship, in African Affairs, 112/447, 2013L. Sachikonye, When a state turns on its citizens. Violence in Zimbabwe, Jacana Media, Johannesburg 2011
C. Alden, China in Africa, London, Zed Books, 2007
Unione Europea e Africa, dossier del n. 1-2/2011 della rivista “Afriche e Orienti”
Moreover, two articles chosen by students per the section “Decentralization and Community-based Natural Resources Management Programmes”
Seminars activities will be assessed for the final examination
Programme for students not attending classes:
A. Pallotti, M. Zamponi, L'Africa sub-sahariana nella politica internazionale, Le Monnier, Firenze 2010
G. Harrison, Neoliberal Africa: the impact of global social engineering, London; New York, Zed Books, 2010
R. Southall, H. Melber, A new scramble for Africa? : imperialism, investment and development, Scottsville, South Africa, University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2009
C. Alden, China in Africa, London, Zed Books, 2007
Unione Europea e Africa, dossier del n. 1-2/2011 della rivista “Afriche e Orienti”
F. Nelson, Community rights, conservation and contested land: the politics of natural resource governance in Africa, London; Washington, Earthscan, 2010
Readings/Bibliography
Bibliographical references are indicated jointly with the syllabus.
Teaching methods
Lectures, analysis and discussion of papers and bibliographical references. Some of the lectures will be organized as seminars with discussion of some of the readings indicated in the programme. Students are requested to present and to discuss the readings they have choosen under the teacher supervision. The discussion during classes will be evaluated for the final examination.
Assessment methods
The assessment of students, both for students attending and not attending classes, takes place through an oral examination aiming to evaluate the capacity of analysis and students' knowledge on concepts and debate about the issues of democracy and development in sub-Saharan Africa, in relation to the countries' case-studies discussed during the course as well as in relation to the dynamics of relationships with some actors of international politics.
Teaching tools
Transparencies, maps, newspapers, documents and reports of international organisations.
Power point presentations will be available on the service AMS
Campus - Alma DL of the University of Bologna
Office hours
See the website of Mario Zamponi