George Ngwane

Silencing the Guns and Summoning the Talks

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

In a 2015 publication by The Africa Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes (ACCORD), Durban, South Africa, titled “Silencing the guns, owning the future”, the authors question the paradox that is Africa in terms of unprecedented levels of economic growth on one hand, and rising instability and insecurity in a number of particularly concerning regions and member states on the other. Recognizing this, and building on references to Agenda 2063 and African Union vision of ending all wars in Africa by 2020, the publication further engages collective multistakeholder deliberations on existing and emerging peace and security threats to the continent and the responses required to address these and achieve a war-free continent by 2020. Practitioners and policy-makers are well aware that Vision 2020 is immensely ambitious.

Mainstreaming Moral Cultural Policies into Democratic Governance in Africa

The purpose of this essay is to find a nexus between democracy and governance as inspired by cultural values in Africa. It is to find explanations as to how traditional core African values; indigenous knowledge and indigenous institutions have impacted on or can shape political systems and democratic institutions in the continent. It shall be necessary to explore those cultural values especially within a pre-colonial Africa, their relevance to the Afrocentric and Eurocentric definition of democracy and governance and their limitations in contemporary nation-building efforts within the continent.

It must be understood that Africa’s political governance architecture and democratic perceptions do not spring from a mystical or mythical source. It is arguably the result of a long process of cultural elaboration. It comes from this reality that every people of the world have developed throughout their history, particular forms of social, economic and political organisations as well as particular forms of thought, beliefs, attitudes, symbols, images, etc. It is this set of values which confer on them specificity, an identity and a personality. It can be said that all what constitutes our cultural past and present affect our outlook and condition our political development. Rather than being prescriptive, the conclusion aims at leaving the choice of democratic models with the people. Yet, there is room to strongly affirm that if other countries have developed their governance structure from a cultural imprint, Africa cannot be an exception.

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STV Debate: George Ngwane Discusses the "United States of Africa"

Can the United States of Africa become a reality or is it wishful thinking? George Ngwane and other panelists debate this controversial topic on STV (Spectrum Television) with host Jessie Bawak.

 

Preventing Renewed Violence Through Peace Building in the Bakassi Peninsula

By George Ngwane

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This paper examines a conceptual framework of international conflict dynamics and resolution surrounding the Bakassi peninsula dispute between Cameroon and Nigeria and outlines intra-community tensions after its peaceful resolution through the International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict in 2002 and handing over of the Bakassi peninsula to Cameroon in 2008.

Although this peace initiative and pacific settlement has reduced armed conflict, it has unwittingly and paradoxically become a trigger factor for simmering tensions which threaten renewed violence as non-confrontational actors have now shifted conflict issues to primordialism (identity-based), resources (interest-based) and refusal to abide by the ICJ decision (values-based).  The latest violence of 13th February 2015 in which pirates attacked a police boat at sea in the peninsula killing a Police Inspector and kidnapping a Police Commissioner is a core indicator that renewed armed violence cannot be ruled out in the peninsula.

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Africa: "When will this Independence End?"

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Today 6th March 2015 marks the 58th anniversary of the Independence of Ghana. Ghana being the first African country to have gained Independence is still like her other African countries tottering on the trajectory of positive peace.

And the words of Kwame Nkrumah still resonate with this reality today. "Besides, political independence, though worthwhile in itself, is still only a means to the fuller redemption and realization of a people. When independence has been gained, positive action requires a new orientation away from the sheer destruction of colonialism and towards national reconstruction. It is indeed in this address to national reconstruction that positive action faces its gravest dangers”.

Mandela South Africa

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Today, July 18, 2011 marks the ninety-third birthday of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Happy birthday Madiba. Clearly the Mandela moment is still to fizzle out. 
 
Frail, fragile and discreet, Nelson Mandela's towering presence and aura still invade the privacy of South Africa's life and, by extension, the corridors of global attention.

Election-related Conflicts in Africa

By Mwalimu George Ngwane

Conflicts during elections, especially at the Presidential level in Africa, have become a special trademark. 
 

Because of the centralized systems of governance where power, perks and prestige are accumulated at the helm of state, conflicts may occur before, during and after elections depending on the content and context against which they are held.

The Liberation of Libya

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

The magnitude of mayhem meted out on Libya by the Western Allied Forces under the mask of an emasculated United Nations and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) for the last three months has been unprecedented in recent times. 
 

Pulling the wool over the eyes of the world into believing that Libya is undergoing a homegrown liberation catharsis akin to the genuine pro-democracy revolution in Tunisia and Egypt, NATO has succeeded in massacring innocent civilians and in shelling the towers of Tripoli into ruin and rubble. 

From Positive War to Positive Peace: Africa’s Independence Journey

Mwalimu George Ngwane

Positive War
A war of Independence was fought by 17 sub-Saharan African countries in 1960 ostensibly with the flagship objective of overthrowing the colonial yoke that was foisted on them during the 1884-1885 Berlinisation.  It was a war that culminated in 1994 in South Africa with the symbolic erosion of the institutional structures of apartheid.  Any war that goes against the grain of structural prebendalism, any war that resonates with the legitimate aspiration of the oppressed, any war that buys into the liberation theology of self-governance and people-driven ownership is positive.

The ethnicisation of the Oil conflict in the Niger Delta

Mwalimu George Ngwane*

Introduction
Most scholarly publications on the Niger Delta conflict in Nigeria attest to the fact that the proximate and structural factors are related to natural resources (oil), environmental degradation and political governance.

Yet since 1900 what is now known as the Niger Delta and which is today home to thirty-one million people, 70.000 square kms and more than forty ethnic groups presents a case on how the major conflict factors can be ethnicised hence the term ‘extra-oil’ conflict.
This essay seeks to provide the historical background of the inter-ethnic conflict, the conflict stages, the challenges faced in resolving this conflict in tandem with other conflicts and the recommendations for identity-based conflicts in the Niger Delta region.