Leadership and ethnicity in the making of African state models: Botswana versus Somalia

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 18, Issue 4, 1997, Pages 687-708

  Samatar, Abdi Ismail ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMPARATIVE STUDY; ELITE POLITICS; ETHNICITY; LEADERSHIP;

BOTSWANA; SOMALIA;

EID: 0031429636     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/01436599714713     Document Type: Article

References (41)

1. Richard Schultz, 'State disintegration and ethnic conflict: a framework for analysis', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 541, 1995, pp 75-88; I M Lewis, Blood and Bone: The Calling of Kinship in Somali Society, Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1994; and Donald L Horowitz, Ethnic Communities in Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
2. Richard Schultz, 'State disintegration and ethnic conflict: a framework for analysis', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 541, 1995, pp 75-88; I M Lewis, Blood and Bone: The Calling of Kinship in Somali Society, Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1994; and Donald L Horowitz, Ethnic Communities in Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
3. Richard Schultz, 'State disintegration and ethnic conflict: a framework for analysis', Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 541, 1995, pp 75-88; I M Lewis, Blood and Bone: The Calling of Kinship in Somali Society, Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press, 1994; and Donald L Horowitz, Ethnic Communities in Conflict, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
4. United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 1994, New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
5. Even Ambassador Sahnoun's celebrated thesis about reconciliation is rooted in the tribalist origins of the Somali calamity. See Mohamed Sahnoun, Somalia: The Missed Opportunity, Washington DC: United States Peace Institute, 1994.
6. Ahmed Samatar (ed), The Somali Challenge: From Crisis to Renewal?, Boulder, co: Lynne Rienner, 1994; René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Jean-François Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, New York: Longman, 1993; and Vail Leroy, The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
7. Ahmed Samatar (ed), The Somali Challenge: From Crisis to Renewal?, Boulder, co: Lynne Rienner, 1994; René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Jean-François Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, New York: Longman, 1993; and Vail Leroy, The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
8. Ahmed Samatar (ed), The Somali Challenge: From Crisis to Renewal?, Boulder, co: Lynne Rienner, 1994; René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Jean-François Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, New York: Longman, 1993; and Vail Leroy, The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
9. Ahmed Samatar (ed), The Somali Challenge: From Crisis to Renewal?, Boulder, co: Lynne Rienner, 1994; René Lemarchand, Burundi: Ethnic Conflict and Genocide, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994; Jean-François Bayart, The State in Africa: The Politics of the Belly, New York: Longman, 1993; and Vail Leroy, The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
10. Samatar Ahmed, The Somali Challenge; Lidwien Kapteiin, 'Women and the crisis of communal identity: the cultural construction of gender in Somali history' in Samatar, The Somali Challenge, pp 211-232. Abdi Samatar, 'The destruction of state and society in Somalia: beyond the tribal convention', Journal of Modern African Studies, 30(4), 1992, pp 625-641.
11. Samatar Ahmed, The Somali Challenge; Lidwien Kapteiin, 'Women and the crisis of communal identity: the cultural construction of gender in Somali history' in Samatar, The Somali Challenge, pp 211-232. Abdi Samatar, 'The destruction of state and society in Somalia: beyond the tribal convention', Journal of Modern African Studies, 30(4), 1992, pp 625-641.
12. Samatar Ahmed, The Somali Challenge; Lidwien Kapteiin, 'Women and the crisis of communal identity: the cultural construction of gender in Somali history' in Samatar, The Somali Challenge, pp 211-232. Abdi Samatar, 'The destruction of state and society in Somalia: beyond the tribal convention', Journal of Modern African Studies, 30(4), 1992, pp 625-641.
13. This description of traditional Botswana social structure is based on Thmoas Tlou, 'The nature of Botswana states: towards a theory of Botswana traditional government - The Batwana case', Botswana Notes and Records, 5, 1972, pp 63-79.
14. The Kgotla was the traditional venue where the affairs of the nation were publically discussed.
15. For a discussion of the landmark case where the chiefs, under the leadership of Tshekedi Khama, challenged the creation of an advisory, body see Michael Crowder, The Flogging of Phineas McIntosh: A Tale of Colonial Folly, Bechuanaland 1993, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988.
16. Diane Wylie, A Little God: The Twilight of Patriarchy in a Southern African Chiefdom, Johannesburg: Witswatersrand University Press, 1990.
17. Pauline Peters, Dividing the Commons: Politics, Policy, and Culture in Botswana, Charlottesville, VA: Virginia University Press, 1994.
18. Abdi Samatar, An African Miracle: State and Class Leadership and Colonial Legacy in Botswana (forthcoming).
19. The vice-president was brought into parliament as a specially-elected (selected) member and retained his post until he was elected from another constituency in the next general election.
20. P Molutsi & J Holm, 'Developing democracy when civil society is weak: the Botswana case', African Affairs, 89 (356), 1990, pp 323-340.
21. For the history of Botswana's precarious budgetary situation before 1974 see Quill Hermans, 'Towards budgetary independence: a review of Botswana's financial history, 1900-1973', Botswana Notes and Records, 6, 1974, pp 89-115.
22. David Finlay, interview, Ramotswa, 22 November 1993. Mr Finlay was the Director of Public Personnel under President Khama.
23. For more details on the development and professional operations of this apparatus see Samatar, An African Miracle, ch. 4.
24. Kenneth Good, 'Corruption and mismanagement in Botswana: a best-case example?', Journal of Modern African Studies, 32 (3), 1994, pp 499-52.
25. The relationship between politicians and the professional civil service was misconstrued as if the latter were running the show. On this, see G L Gunderson, 'Nation building and the administrative state: the case of Botswana', unpublished PhD dissertation, Berkeleys, University of California, 1970. For a more accurate picture of this relationship, see Jan Isaksen, Macro-Economic Management and Bureaucracy: The Case of Botswana, Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1981.
26. The relationship between politicians and the professional civil service was misconstrued as if the latter were running the show. On this, see G L Gunderson, 'Nation building and the administrative state: the case of Botswana', unpublished PhD dissertation, Berkeleys, University of California, 1970. For a more accurate picture of this relationship, see Jan Isaksen, Macro-Economic Management and Bureaucracy: The Case of Botswana, Uppsala: Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, 1981.
27. Quoted in Charles Harvey & Steven Lewis, Jr Policy Choice and Development Performance in Botswana, London: Macmillan, 1990, p 119.
28. Samatar, An African Miracle, ch. 4. See also Charles Gossett, 'The civil services in Botswana: personnel policies in comparative perspective', PhD dissertation, Stanford: Stanford University, 1986.
29. Samatar, An African Miracle, ch. 4. See also Charles Gossett, 'The civil services in Botswana: personnel policies in comparative perspective', PhD dissertation, Stanford: Stanford University, 1986.
30. See President Khama's speech to the civil servants.
31. H C L Hermans, Governor of the Bank of Botswana, interview, Gaborone, 6 July 1994.
32. As of 1994, only one student out of the hundreds sponsored to study overseas had not returned to the country after completing his training. Thus Botswana has not suffered from brain drain.
33. Nimrod Raphaeli, Jacques Roumani & A C Mackellar, Public Sector Management in Botswana: Lessons in Pragmatism, Washington DC: World Bank, Staff Working Paper No 709, 1984, p 10.
34. Samatar Ahmed, "The curse of Allah: civic disembowelment and the collapse of the state, in Samatar, The Somali Challenge.
35. Ibid.
36. For the commercialisation of livestock, see Abdi I Samatar, The State and Rural Transformation in Northern Somalia 1884-1986, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989.
37. Hashi Abib, interview, Ottawa, 11-12 October 1996. Mr Abib was Secretary of the Somali Cabinet from 1967-1976.
38. Two exceptions in this regard were former President Osman and Prime Minister Hussein.
39. For the institutional importance of bureaucratisation see Peter Evans, Embedded Autonomy: States and Industrial Transformation, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995.
40. Former President Osman, a life-time member of parliament, was the other individual MP who did not cross party lines.
41. The worst case may be that of Rwanda, where settlement patterns were thoroughly integrated. Consequently, neighbours informed on or murdered neighbours. Major cities of most civil war-torn countries suffered from the same tragedies. For an analysis of the Rwanda conflict see Mahmood Mamdani, 'From conquest to consent as the basis of state formation: reflections on Rwanda', New Left Review, 216, 1996, pp 3-36. In Somalia, the killing of tens of thousands of unarmed civilians in cities like Mogadishu are etched in the annals of Somali oral history.