African Agency - A Paradox At the Heart of Governance: Africa
A security meeting between the head of the MONUSCO sub-office in Uvira, senior United Nations police officers and FARDC on October 21, 2019 at the MONUSCO operational base in Minembwe, South Kivu. The objective was to review the security situation in the area.Discussion of 'African agency' must distinguish between the continent and specific groups of Africans, and can manifest as resistance to totalitarian power.
It values robust institutions, participatory democracy, accountability, the rule of law, and human rights - universal 'good things' in the eyes of many of Africa's external partners, and foundational for state-building, stability, and pro-growth. In others, alternative visions of how a state should function can mean decision-making is centralized, discipline is enforced over plurality, and results prioritized over individual liberties.
But to reformers, decentralization is a mechanism for moving power closer to marginalized communities in Africa's vast peripheries, improving accountability, service delivery, and development outcomes - a technical and a-political refinement of government structures.
Not only has decentralization failed, it may have worsened the situation for the DRC's most marginalized by exacerbating violence and division. Long denied the formal recognition of a customary chieftaincy - which is vital to making claims to a land title under the DRC's complex land ownership structure - the Banyamulenge have been targeted and exploited by all sides in the DRC's long-running conflicts.
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