In this issue of the Journal of African Foreign Affairs, the reader will find analyses ranging from non-state actors, sub-state actors, sovereign state policies, and state-to-state relationships ...particularly with China.
While Chapter 6 points out the dire humanitarian conditions of displaced people in the Lake Chad Basin, Chapter 7 sees a way forward: "Coupled with research on the importance of female inclusion for ...social stability and durable peace, it becomes clear that Nigeria's future must be female if it is to be peaceful. ...Chapter 8 focuses on best practices such as what works for post-conflict demobilization and reintegration, and policies pertaining to female political empowerment, transitional justice, and legal reforms addressing gender-based violence to curb the structural violence that is the source of recurrent actual violence. Marcel Kitissou Cornell University Marcel Kitissou Marcel Kitissou is a retired professor of history and political science, currently Visiting Fellow with the Institute for African Development at Cornell University, Adjunct Lecturer at the Africana Studies Department at the University at Albany, Contributing Faculty in the Ph.D.
In his introduction of the journal Jeune Afrique’s issue of July 2021, Marwane Ben Yamed, raised a question that, I have no doubt, is in many minds. Is the African continent condemned to suffer, ad ...vitam aeternam, from political leaders that lack vision? I would answer no! Africa is moving forward: from the “Conferences Nationmales Soureraines” challenging old regimes in the 1990s and resulting in multi-party political systems to the food riots in the 2008-2011 period followed by the “Arab Spring” that affected some North African countries. The push for change, as Ben Yamed noted, continues such as in Burkina Faso (2014), The Gambia (2016), Zimbabwe (2017), South Africa (2018), Algeria and Sudan (2019), Mali (2020-2021), Senegal (2021), and ongoing protests in Tunisia (July-August 2021).
This issue of the Journal of African Foreign Affairs focuses on dimensions of internal as well as external relations of the African continent. It explores models of municipal and provincial diplomacy ...where local international relations evolve in parallel with official national foreign policy. Articles explore the reality and myth of continental policies of post-apartheid South Africa. They discuss the presence of China, with focus on the challenges and opportunities of bilateral cooperation such as with Ethiopia, Egypt, and with South Africa where practices that consist of, as one author put it, “dumping” cheap Chinese products on local markets, are destroying the fabric of these local economies. The various analyses featured in this issue show the growing complexity of African foreign affairs.
