African Journals Online
The African Anthropologist

JOURNAL OF THE PAN AFRICAN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION

Number 1 Volume 10 March 2003
ABSTRACTS

Tourism Development in Kenya: Constraints and Opportunities

Tom G. Ondicho

Abstract

The increasing numbers of international tourists around the world, especially after the Second World War, raised the interest of many countries in tourism development. Many developing countries, particularly in the African region, are promoting tourism as a key strategy for economic development. This paper examines the present conditions and perspectives of tourism development, with consideration given to tourism resources, tourism policy and the existing tourism plan in Kenya as a case of a developing country in Africa. The problems and recommendations of tourism development found in Kenya are described under three major issues of domestic problems, tourism development, and market promotion. The conclusion of the paper covers several issues which may be expanded and applied to other African countries such as: (a) establishment of sustainable tourism development policy; (b) differentiation from other countries, especially those in the same region; (c) adoption of new tourism concepts; (d) establishment of a tourism master plan at the national level; (e) implementation and revision of existing tourism plans; (f) continuous monitoring of international tourism trends; and (g) continuous collection of data on the profile of tourists and on other aspects of the tourism sector.

Une société aux repères ambigus

Joseph Marie Zambo Belinga

Résumé

L’adoption quasi-permanente des modèles et valeurs exogènes par les populations au Cameroun semble s’inscrire dans le registre d’une mentalité attentive au "modernisme". Dans une société où "être Blanc" confère une notoriété sociale, les populations vivent dans l’illusion selon laquelle mimer l’occident est une étape fondamentale dans le processus de métamorphose qui fait partir de la "barbarie" et de l’ "archaïsme" à la "civilisation". Partant d’un regard sur ce mimétisme culturel, cet article analyse l’entreprise de "strangulation" des cultures autochtones qu’il suscite d’une part et l’évanouissement de la personnalité camerounaise d’autre part. 

Research Reports

Exclusion, Association and Violence: Trends and Triggers in Northern Ghana's Konkomba-Dagomba Wars

Hippolyt A. S. Pul

Abstract

Recurrent ethnic violence is common to many countries. For social scientists,recurrence raises important issues. Why are some locales "riot prone" and othersnot? What triggers riots in places with this tendency? For Varshney, the presence ofintra-ethnic organizations and the absence of inter-ethnic institutions increase thelikelihood of riot outbreaks. For Wilkinson, political factors, particularly the structureof electoral incentives are a key factor. Horowitz takes a catholic view, holding thatonce violence becomes endemic, almost any trigger can set it off.

This paper contributes to the debate by focusing on an important but understudiedcase in northern Ghana. In recent years, Konkombas, Dagombas, and other groups inthe region have fought a series of "wars" that cost thousands of lives - a devastatingtoll in a region with only 1.8 million people, and in a country that has a populationlittle over 18 million. The sporadic fighting has become more frequent, intense andwider in scope since the 1980s and the destruction of life and property morewidespread. By official counts, the Konkomba-Bimoba wars of 1984, 1986 and 1989left 60 people dead, with several hundreds displaced. The Nawuri-Gonja war of 1991left 78 dead and hundreds wounded. Other wars that took heavy tolls on lives in thesame region include the Gonja-Vagla war of 1980; the Konkomba-Nanumba War of1981; the Mamprusi-Kusasi war of 1982; the Komba-Bimoba War of 1986/87; theKonkomba-Nawuri war of 1990; the Gonja-Nawuri War of 1992; the Konkomba andallies against the Gonjas in 1992; the Konkombas and Mossis in 1993. Finally, the1994/95 Guinea Fowl War in which modern weapons such as AK47s were widelyused, resulted in at least 2,000 people killed, 200,000 internally displaced and 441villages completely destroyed.

Based on interviews with ethnic leaders, analysis of primary documents, and reviewof secondary sources, this paper presents the first theoretically informed examinationof violence in northern Ghana. The paper charts how changing state policy hasaffected levels of violence and how state actors themselves have fomented orcondoned war. In addition, the paper examines triggers to violence, in particular therole of civil society organizations. Critical to the intensity and duration of violenceare "ethnic youth associations" among the contending groups. Inter-ethnicorganizations and outside conflict resolution groups have proved ineffective at best inpreventing violence. Finally, we probe the ways in which triggering agents ameliorateor exacerbate the structural issues that undergird violence. We examine, for example,how the cycle of violent conflicts in the Northern Region of Ghana has beenassociated with political changes at the national level. We suggest that recurrentethnic violence can be understood only by linking analyses of historical contexts tocontemporary institutional actors.

Drawing on multiple sources of data, Part I of the paper provides a deeper analysis ofthe historical context within which the present day conflicts between the Konkombasand Dagombas occur. In particular, it examines how wavering state policies onchieftaincy and land ownership rights have fostered and sustained trends in inter-ethnic exclusion from the colonial period to date; illustrating how these factors havebecome the building blocks of the interethnic violence between the Konkombas andDagombas in particular, and other ethnic groups in northern Ghana as a whole.

Part II of this paper takes the analysis of the issues beyond the historical context, toprovide a framework for appreciating the role of emergent interest groups inreinventing the ethnic myths and symbols that have sustained hostilities and/ortriggered the outbreak of violence in our day. Central to the discussion is thecommodification of land, which underscores the politics of inter-ethnic exclusionfrom political participation in the traditional authority structures of the conflict areas;issues that have escaped the attention of researchers to date. Finally, it considers howpopular support for the ethnicized interest group conflicts are secured and sustainedthrough the reinvention of myths and the fetish of ethnic pride, the exploitation ofpolitical incumbency and state power, and the use of Media War in the politics of(mis)information.

In Part III the paper looks at the factors that trigger violence among the Konkombas and Dagombas in particular, and in northern Ghana in general. Within this framework, the paper discusses the impact of political rhetoric and uncritical electoral promises that have created expectations that cannot be met without recourse to some form of violence. The role of ethnic leaders, acting under cover of ethnic youth associations, in fueling the arms race is discussed as well. We also examine the unsuspecting role that civil society organizations have played in the past in creating conditions that heighten awareness of inter-ethnic differences and exacerbate tendencies towards violence. It concludes with a discussion of the prospects forbuilding interethnic peace, using the new found power of CSOs as peacebuilders.

Caféiculture et projet théicole: Complémentarité ou conflit ?

Jean- Emet Nodem

Résumé

La production caféière introduite dans les campagnes de l’ouest Cameroun sous la forme des plantations familiales intéressait toutes les strates sociales. L’abandon quasi-totale de celles-ci par les populations paysannes démontre à suffisance son rôle minable dans le développement rural de cette localité.

L’implantation de la production théicole dans la même zone sous la forme de la grande plantation utilise plutôt les paysans et paysannes physiquement solides. Il se trouve que c’est sur cette couche sociale que les éventuels promoteurs de la caféiculture misaient encore pour relancer celle-ci.

Les salaires minables et précaires ne permettent pas aux paysans ouvriers du projet théicole de renforcer leurs activités agricoles. Ces deux cultures de rente antagonistes ont introduit dans la zone de Djuttista des conflits culturels et culturaux.