Regionalism in Africa: A Short Study of the Record
| Author | David Fasholé Luke |
| Published date | 01 December 1986 |
| Date | 01 December 1986 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070208604100407 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
DAVID
FASHOLE
LUKE
Regionalism
in
Africa:
a
short
study
of
the
record
With
the
end
of
the
198os
as
well
as
the
third
decade
of
the
post-colonial
era
in
view,
the
contours
of
the
African
predica-
ment
are not
hard
to
decipher.
The
facts
and
figures
on
high
rates
of
population
growth,
urbanization,
un- and
under-
employment,
inflation,
debt
servicing
and
interest
payments,
and
low
levels
of
food
supply,
productivity,
research
and
de-
velopment, and
foreign exchange are,
by
now,
quite
familiar.
Environmental
vicissitudes
-
desertification,
soil
runoffs,
silting,
and
denudation
of
forest
belts
-
cast
a
long
shadow
over
an
already
gloomy
landscape.
The
political
horizon
-
neo-patri-
monialism
and
personal
rule,
tenuous
institutional
and
admin-
istrative
capacity,
short-term
quick
fixes
ranging
from
military
putschs
and
socialism
by
decree
to
the
desperation
of
ubiquitous
stabilization
programmes
-
is
no
less
depressing.
The
viability
of
the
region's
largely
undiversified
economies
based
on
one
or
more
commodities
whose
terms
of
trade
have
shown
a
con-
sistent tendency
to
decline
is
doubtful.
As
the
region's
disap-
pointing
performance
continues
to
give
cause
for
concern,
descriptions
of
its
precarious
state
and
predictions
couched
in
such
terms
as
a
'paralysis
of
multiple
debilitating
crises'
cannot
be
simply
dismissed
as
mere
hyperbole.,
We
cannot
ignore,
however, the pervasiveness
of
ideological
Dr
Luke
comes
from
Sierra
Leone
and
is
an Assistant
Professor
of
Political
Sci-
ence
at
Dalhousie
University
where
he
is
also
associated
with
the
Centres
for
African
and
for Foreign
Policy
Studies.
1
Cf
Adebayo
Adedeji,
The
African
Development
Crisis:
The
Paralysis
of Multiple
Debilitating
Crises
(Addis
Ababa:
United
Nations Economic
Commission
for
Africa
1985.)
International
Journal
XLI
autumn
1986
854
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
responses
to
both the
more
general
'African
condition'2
(arising
out
of
African
-
and
black
-
experience
and
consciousness)
and
the
current
crisis.
As
a
solution
to
deeply
rooted
historical
and
complex
contemporary
problems,
regionalism
may
be
seen
as
an
example
of
such
a
response.
But
as
a
phenomenon
of
politics
and
international
relations,
regionalism's
tissues
and
cells
are
composed
of
a
delicate
mixture
of
idealism,
symbolism,
ideo-
logy,
and
pragmatism.
3
This
article
examines
this
delicate
mix-
ture
in
the
record
of
African regionalism.
'Regionalism'
is
used
to
refer
both
to
the
'hard'
type
of
regional
integration,
that
is,
the
process
and
substance
of
shared
decision-making
by
indi-
vidual
states
and
an
emerging
international
organization,
and
to
the
'soft'
type
of
regional co-operation,
that
is,
activity
be-
tween
states
-
not
necessarily
on
a
universal
basis
-
designed
to
meet
some
common
objectives.
The
article examines
both
types,
and
the
conclusion
focusses
on
the
question
of
which
has
best
served
(and
has
the
greater
potential
for
serving)
the
de-
velopment
needs
of
the
continent.
THE
AFRICAN
CONDITION
AND
THE
APPEAL
OF
REGIONALISM
In
his
1979
BBC
Reith
Lectures,4
Ali
Mazrui
gave
a
pithy and
incisive
diagnosis
of
the
'African
condition'
which
helps
to
put
in
perspective the
emotive
and
ideological
reflexes
supporting
the appeal
of
both
types
of
African
regionalism.
Mazrui
identified
six
paradoxes
which
may
be
said
to con-
stitute
a
subterranean
layer
of
Africa's
multiple debilitating
crises.
The
paradox
of
habitation
postulates
that
Africa
is
the
earliest
habitat
of
humankind
and
yet
the
last
continent
to
become
truly
habitable.
The
paradox
of
humiliation
arises
from
the
proposition
2
Cf
Ali
A.
Mazrui,
The
African
Condition:
A
Political
Diagnosis
(New
York:
Cam-
bridge
University
Press
198o).
3
Cf
Inis
L.
Claude
Jr,
Swords
into
Plowshares:
The
Problems
and
Progress
of Interna-
tional
Organization
(3rd
ed;
New
York:
Random
House
1964);
and
Ernst
B.
Haas,
'Turbulent
fields
and
the
theory
of
regional
integration,'
International
Or-
ganization
30
(spring
1976).
4
Mazrui,
The
African
Condition.
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