Date: February 15, 2012
Venue: Inamori Foundation Memorial Bldg. (Inamori Center), Middle-sized Meeting Room, Kyoto University

Program

“Nigeria: The Post-Amnesty Blues and the Future of Insurgency in the Niger Delta”
Dr. Abdul Raufu Mustapha (Oxford University)
“Boko Haram: The Long Road to Islamic Terrorism”
Dr. Charles Ukeje（Obáfẹmi Awólọwọ University）

Abstract

“Nigeria: The Post-Amnesty Blues and the Future of Insurgency in the Niger Delta”
Dr. Charles Ukeje（Obáfẹmi Awólọwọ University）

Despite its huge hydrocarbon resources, popular struggle to draw attention to the myriad developmental challenges facing the oil region of Nigeria entered a ferocious and vicious phase from the mid-1990s with the emergence of a plethora of armed groups with access to sophisticated weapons and the capability to cripple oil production and undermine national security. These groups launched daring attacks on oil installations, kidnapped oil worker (and also notable individuals), and vandalised oil infrastructure. By 2008-2009, their exploits had crippled oil production to about one-thirds of the country’s daily output of 2.4million barrels.

This was the backdrop against which the Yar’Adua administration, only two years in the saddle, announced presidential amnesty to those involved in perpetrating the heinous crimes if they surrendered their weapons and denounced violence within the 60-day grace period stipulated, starting from June 25, 2009. The government also promised to put the ex-militants, as they are popularly known, into rehabilitation and vocational training schemes that would enhance their seemless re-integration into productive community life.

More than two years after the Amnesty Proclamation, there is enough objective basis to evaluate the post-amnesty achievements and shortcomings, if any, along with the prospects for the future. What, for instance, has happened to the ex-militants in the post-amnesty period? What structures of incentive have been put in place by the government to drive what is widely touted to be an ambitious, even grandiose, idea? And, to what extent have the ex-militants taken advantage of the post-amnesty opportunities? Whereas the post-amnesty phase drastically reduced the spate and intensity of insurgent attacks, to what extent can it pave the way for durable peace and sustainable development in the Niger Delta? Is the amnesty, in fact, not another contrived short-cut to peace in Nigeria’s Delta? What is the role of critical stakeholders, including spoilers, vis-a-vis the implementation of the post-amnesty priorities? Finally, what are the alternative futures for the State, oil companies and local communities in the post-amnesty era; especially against the background of recent developments in the still largely impoverished and volatile oil region?

“Boko Haram: The long road to Islamic Terrorism”
Dr. Abdul Raufu Mustapha (Oxford University)

Since 2009, Nigeria has been rocked by a wave of Islamist insurgency, ostensibly led by the Boko Haram group. According to Human Rights Watch, over 260 people were killed in numerous attacks in January 2012 alone. Predictably, numerous arguments and theories have been advanced to explain the phenomenon of Boko Haram. From conspiracy theories to historical reconstructions, we are faced with numerous and conflicting explanations of a phenomenon that continues to extract a toll in lives and limbs. In this presentation, I address three key questions: Who are Boko Haram? What do they want? How best can Nigeria and the international community address the challenge posed by the organization?

Date:21 Oct, 2011 15:00-18:00
Venue: Small Seminar Room, 3F Inamori Bldg.,
Kawabata Campus http://www.asafas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/about/access.html

Program

15:00-15:10 Introduction
15:10-16:30 John Galaty (McGill University)
“Maasai Land Conflicts and Civil Society: Local Struggles and a Global Audience”
16:30-16:40 Coffee break
16:40-18:00 Junko Maruyama (Tsuda College)
“Resettlement, Development and Indigenous Peoples’ Movement: Two Cases from San Communities in Southern Africa”

Abstract

John Galaty (McGill University)
“Maasai Land Conflicts and Civil Society: Local Struggles and a Global Audience”

The ascendency of the state in Africa and the process of privatizing agrarian land has made many rangeland communities vulnerable to having their mobility drastically curtailed and even to losing their land. This paper will examine the opportunistic seizure of pastoral lands by a variety of actors, including smallholder farmers, political class, entrepreneurs, commercial farmers, speculators, conservationists, tour operators, miners, and foreign states, from the colonial period to the present. From small- to large-scale, valuable pastoral lands have been or are being acquired through local incursions, state allocation or purchase, promising to use it for highly efficient commercial agriculture, or by conservation groups and entrepreneurs who vow to protect wildlife and at the same time propagate high-end lucrative tourist ventures. Land displacements have come to represent a major cause of violent conflicts and legal disputes in pastoral regions. In recent decades, organizations of civil society have increasingly sprung up to defend pastoral land rights, often linking their causes to claims of indigeneity anchored in the creation of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. The global audience for indigenous land loss and the advocacy of national and international civil society has both mitigated and stimulated local conflicts. Paradoxically, as indigenous land rights have been recognized, actual land loss has accelerated due to the increasingly aggressive role of the state in large-scale land acquisitions by outside parties. This paper will examine the interaction between land grabbing, land losses, and land conflicts, and role played by civil society and assertions of indigenous rights in Eastern and Southern Africa, with special focus on the experience of the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania.

Junko Maruyama (Tsuda College)
“Resettlement, Development and Indigenous Peoples’ Movement: Two Cases from San Communities in Southern Africa”

The notion that indigenous peoples should have the right to maintain their distinct cultures, lifestyles, and territories has become widely accepted within the international community during the last two decades. While the concept “indigenous peoples” is highly controversial in African context compared with the more consensual situation in nations with white settlers, the San hunter gatherers of Southern Africa also have been involved in global indigenous peoples’ movement, and become one of the best-known “indigenous peoples” in Africa. Indeed, recently some groups of the San have successfully acquired land rights, with the support of the global movement. Of these, two cases from Botswana and South Africa will be highlighted in this presentation; Botswana San won in court the right to return to their land in nature conservation area, and the San in South Africa were handed over land title deeds from President Mandela. Both cases were hailed by NGOs, activists, and the mass media as a landmark for the rights of indigenous peoples in Africa. This presentation will analyze the historical backgrounds and the negotiation process of these two cases, and then elucidate the San’s livelihood and social relationships after they gained land-use rights. Finally, by comparing both cases, dynamics underlying relationships between the San and national and international communities, and positive and negative impacts of the global indigenous peoples’ movement on the San will be discussed.