James Khoury HIST 246 2/8/2012 My Knowledge of Contemporary Africa and its Geopolitical Issues

Due to Africa's size and history, isolating specific issues facing certain countries or groups is a complex task. While issues can be shown geographically via news outlets and the like, these representations do not fully portray the complexity of the issues facing the people living there. That being said, despite the domestic conflicts which many Africans are faced with, currents of international trade and multinational interests manifest themselves on the ground in Africa. Thus, while each issue can be isolated to a particular region in Africa, the issues themselves have far reaching global causes and consequences. The problems facing people in the Niger Delta are some of the most globally relevant problems present in Africa. Nigeria itself produces around 2.2 million barrels of oil per day which is about half the level of Iran's production and slightly more than Libya's production level. [1] The source of conflict in the Delta has been that Royal Dutch Shell and Chevron have capitalized on the resources while Nigeria itself has not seen much profit from the corporations' ventures. As a result, insurgent tactics have been used by groups in the area in order to reclaim the oil and profit which they believe belongs to them. There have been a number of incidents where both companies poor handling of environmental consequences have gone unnoticed by the world at large while internal strife and group conflicts have made rectifying the situation very difficult. Currently, a process to provide amnesty to would-be insurgents is in place while the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta tries to defend Nigerian interests against more Western advances. In the Sudan, after years of conflict between groups in the North and South, a referendum has been passed and South and North Sudan are officially separated. One conflict in particular, the Darfur

conflict was fueled by attempts by Sudanese Arabs to ethnically cleanse the area. The conflict was regarded as an act of genocide on behalf of the Sudanese government under Omar Al-Bashir. Recently, the conflict has been renewed as the South has had difficulty maintaining security within its borders and a recent clash during a peace talk left 78 dead and thousands displaced.[2] One of the problems for the South's security is that their servicemen are not trained soldiers but often either former rebels or militiamen. As a result, there is a need for discipline among the security forces which will provide a safer haven for local peace talks. In Somalia, which has had no central government since the civil war in 1991, attempts are being made between the Kenyan and Somali military to secure the south from Al-Shabab, the Islamist militant group which is currently at the forefront of the country's insurgents.[3] The conflict itself, dating back to 1991, could be attributed to a weak central government losing its grip at the end of the Cold war, as the area became less important for the global conflict. Recently, famine in the country has ended, but not without displacing nearly 1.5 Somalis [4] Finally, in the area of the Congo, mining for resources has not provided wealth for the people of the region but only contributed to internal strife. Groups have exerted control over different areas of the country which are rich in valuable minerals and precious metals but the profit from these operations has not gone to the people but only further established the individual factions which control the areas. Gold and copper are found in large reserves in the country and as the price of these metals climbs, the groups controlling the country's output will become further established. A lack of international attention to the issue has allowed for a number of tech manufacturers to profit from the conflict minerals without losing shareholders on humanitarian issues. [5] While many Africans face issues which are endemic to poor economic growth and internal strife among people groups, many of the issues are intensified by international influence on economic forces in the continent. As groups in the Niger Delta fight over resources and power, the perspective of the groups is clouded by a lack of education and the proliferation of propaganda by opposing groups. While the

Africans themselves may believe that the problems they face are the result of opposing domestic groups, the reality is that the problems are created by unfettered capitalization of the continent itself. In the Sudan and Somalia, the Islamist conflict which has resulted unfathomable death tolls is not a domestic issue, but an international issue manifesting itself in domestic consequences. Islamism itself, which is supported by fundamentalist groups across the middle east, created a conflict in the area which had not been present before. In some areas such as Ghana, Angola and South Africa, the presence of strife is less apparent due to successful economic and diplomatic management, but the countries are not reliant on themselves for this economic stability. Western capitalization has created a space for the countries to function effectively by selling off resources cooperatively rather than independently.

[1]http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=africa+oil+production+by+country [2]http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-southsudan-un-idUSTRE81020O20120201 [3]http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/agriculture/InsidePage.php?id=2000045933&cid=4& [4]http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-16866913 [5]http://www.mbendi.com/indy/ming/af/co/p0005.htm