Mamdani Predicts Rise in Foreign Interventions in Africa Post-Gaddafi

In an article for Al Jazeera, Mahmood Mamdani argues that the conditions that prompt foreign intervention in Africa are worsening. According to Mamdani, the fall of Gaddafi would not have been possible without the fire-power of Western military organisations:

“Kampala ‘mute’ as Gaddafi falls,” is how the opposition paper summed up the mood of this capital the morning after. Whether they mourn or celebrate, an unmistakable sense of trauma marks the African response to the fall of Gaddafi.

Both in the longevity of his rule and in his style of governance, Gaddafi may have been extreme. But he was not exceptional. The longer they stay in power, the more African presidents seek to personalise power. Their success erodes the institutional basis of the state. The Carribean thinker C L R James once remarked on the contrast between Nyerere and Nkrumah, analysing why the former survived until he resigned but the latter did not: “Dr Julius Nyerere in theory and practice laid the basis of an African state, which Nkrumah failed to do.”

• Complete article at Al Jazeera

Book details

• Saviours and Survivors: Darfur, Politics and the War on Terror by Mahmood Mamdani
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780796922526
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

• Scholars in the Marketplace: The dilemmas of neo-liberal reform at Makerere University 1989-2005 by Mahmood Mamdani
  Book homepage
  EAN: 9780796922144
  Find this book with BOOK Finder!

Did you like this article?

Share it

Print this article

Email this article