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Baobab Books is a registered charitable association, based in Basel, Switzerland, committed to promoting cultural diversity in children and youth literature.

Barany, Zoltan. “Military Influence in Foreign Policy-Making: Changing Dynamics in North African Regimes.” The Journal of North African Studies 24,no. 4 (July 4, 2019): 579–98. doi:10.1080/13629387.2018.1525004.

The strong political position armed forces enjoy in authoritarian states and the high priority military elites assign to foreign affairs would lead one to believe that in North Africa – a region made up of authoritarian states with the sole, recent, and partial exception of Tunisia – generals had the political standing to exert a major influence on foreign policy decisions. This would not be a correct assumption because in this region the armed forces’ political influence is actually highly variable. Of the five states analyzed in this article (Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia) the military is the dominant political institution only in Algeria and Egypt. In the other three countries, the army plays a marginal political role and, by extension, possesses modest foreign policy influence. Moreover, the political clout of these armies is not constant. Since the Arab Spring the political influence of Egyptian generals has considerably increased, that of their Tunisian colleagues has marginally risen, while the status of Libya’s military leaders has diminished.

Source: article abstract

Bareebe, Gerald, and Moses Khisa. “Rwanda-Uganda Relations: Elites’ Attitudes and Perceptions in Interstate Relations.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, May 14, 2023, 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2023.2200598.

Rwanda and Uganda have had strained relations, oscillating between warm, lukewarm, hostile and outright war. Since the biggest falling out during the Second Congo War (1998–2003), both governments have variously accused each  other  of  wrongdoing,  including  allegations  of  supporting  rebel activities, covert counterintelligence operations and espionage. The most recent escalation in frosty relations saw the closure of Katuna border post. Because the respective ruling parties–the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the National Resistance Movement–at a minimum have shared ideological and historical origins, we would expect relations to be strong and constructive not hostile or tenuous. Yet, it is precisely the shared history and social ties among the politico-military and intelligence elites that shape the suspicion, mistrust and hostility that feed into official policies. This article analyses how shared ideological and historical origins, social relations and kindred ties inform individual attitudes and perceptions of key elites toward each other’s government.

Source: Article's abstract.

Bareebe, Gerald, and Moses Khisa. “Rwanda-Uganda Relations: Elites’ Attitudes and Perceptions in Interstate Relations.” Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 61, no. 2 (2023): 152–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/14662043.2023.2200598.

Rwanda and Uganda have had strained relations, oscillating between warm, lukewarm, hostile and outright war. Since the biggest falling out during the Second Congo War (1998–2003), both governments have variously accused each other of wrongdoing, including allegations of supporting rebel activities, covert counterintelligence operations and espionage. The most recent escalation in frosty relations saw the closure of Katuna border post. Because the respective ruling parties – the Rwandan Patriotic Front and the National Resistance Movement – at a minimum have shared ideological and historical origins, we would expect relations to be strong and constructive not hostile or tenuous. Yet, it is precisely the shared history and social ties among the politico-military and intelligence elites that shape the suspicion, mistrust and hostility that feed into official policies. This article analyses how shared ideological and historical origins, social relations and kindred ties inform individual attitudes and perceptions of key elites toward each other’s government.

Source: Article's abstract

Bareebe, Gerald. “An Army with a State or a State with an Army? The Military and Post-Conflict Governance in Uganda and Rwanda.” ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2020.

This dissertation draws from original qualitative data collected from Uganda and Rwanda to explain strategies used by actors that win civil wars to restructure the authority and reach of the state in a new postwar society. It shows how the postwar regime in Uganda inherited a “residue” social structure, characterised by the persistence of resilient and well-entrenched elite interests. A key finding is that, to gain trust and legitimise his rule, the postwar regime leader in Uganda adopted a strategy involving co-optation of, collaboration with, and concessions to these interests, which ultimately led to the creation of a broad-based system of government designed purposely to accommodate varying interests of these social groups. By contrast, the post-genocide regime in Rwanda inherited a political structure that was completely shattered--without much “residue”. To gain legitimacy, the elites within the RPF (who had won the war) exploited the political vacuum to transform what had been a guerrilla group into a strong centralised military regime, justifying the creation of a strong and cohesive military regime as a buttress against genocide.

Source: extracted from dissertation's abstract

Bargna, Ivan. African Art. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2000

The concept of Africa as an entity is a recent and largely artificial idea. Africa is made up of very diverse cultures, tribes, religions, traditions and geographies and it is constantly changing. In this thought-provoking study of African art, Bargna emphasises the need to connect individual items to ethnographic information with the aesthetic experience. It is important also, not to bring to the study of African art the trappings of the traditional artistic judgements with which Western art is viewed. The rich and varied production of the African continent is viewed and interpreted in terms of its close relationship with the world of the sacred, of myth and of religious ritual practices.

Source: Google Books.

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Bargna, Ivan. African Art. Woodbridge: Antique Collectors’ Club, 2000.

The concept of Africa as an entity is a recent and largely artificial idea. Africa is made up of very diverse cultures, tribes, religions, traditions and geographies and it is constantly changing. In this thought-provoking study of African art, Bargna emphasises the need to connect individual items to ethnographic information with the aesthetic experience. It is important also, not to bring to the study of African art the trappings of the traditional artistic judgements with which Western art is viewed. The rich and varied production of the African continent is viewed and interpreted in terms of its close relationship with the world of the sacred, of myth and of religious ritual practices.

[Source: Google Books].

Olivier Barlet

Critic (Cinema), Africultures

Location: France

facebook.com/barlet.olivier

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