Douma, Pyt; (2006) Poverty, relative deprivation and political exclusion as drivers of violent conflict in Sub Saharan Africa. [Letter]. ISYP Journal on Science and World Affairs , 2 (2) pp. 59-69.

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Abstract

During the post-colonial period, the Sub Saharan region has witnessed a substantial number of violent conflicts, mostly within states between contending ethno-political entities manipulat- ed by rivaling political elite groups. The problems within these so-called fragile or failed states are closely related to a lack of a ‘social contract’ between incumbent elite groups and constituent ethnic communities, which leads to political fragmentation, exacerbated by the interaction of diverse social, ethnic and resource exploitation-related issues. Inter-group violence in Sub Saharan Africa is therefore likely to be the outcome of a political process whereby some local groups take on other groups living in the same region, mostly as a proxy war for conflicts resulting from the uneven impact of state policies concerning resource exploitation. The cases of Niger and Senegal are presented as illustrative examples of this process of intra-state conflict escalation. It is concluded that the state in Sub Saharan Africa needs to reinvent itself; the incumbent state elite hould adopt a long-term perspective based on solidarity.

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