Scarcity and surfeit : the ecology of Africa's conflicts

(Michael S) #1

94 Scarcity and Surfeit


were the structwing principle of political and economic power, but where wealth
circulated within the system and there was a measure of mutual benefit between
rulers and ruled. The colonial state was set up to divide the rulers from the
ruled, so as to encourage arbitrary rather than accountable rule. As in so many
African states, this fundamental state structure was not changed with inde-
pendence in Burundi, in spite of revolutionary nationalist rhetoric, but was
merely taken over by a new set of elite and used to further their own pwpo~es.~~

Post-independence
Since independence in 1962, Burundi has experienced four episodes of pro-
longed violence - in 1965, 1972, 1988, and 1993 to date. These are briefly
outlined below. There are four recurring themes which weave through this
account and which shape the form of violence in Burundi. First is the cycli-
cal nature of the violence, in which each episode creates the conditions for
the next. One of these conditions, born of the experience of violence itself, is
the fear of ethnic genocide by both Hutus and Tutsis. The second underlying
theme, concerning not only the fact but also the cause of violence, is the fun-
damental and long-term repression and exploitation of the majority by a
minority, which is stronger due to control over a centralised state adminis-
tration and especially the army. This is not a conflict of equals. Third, there
are various external and internal triggering factors that serve to spark off vio-
lence at a particular time. These might be political or economic, as will be
discussed below. Fourth, impunity for the killing of civilians, especially by
the army, has undermined any cross-community respect for the rule of law.
Ngaruku and NkurunzizaZg call post-independence Burundi a 'trap' in that
each new episode of violence has its roots in the previous one. They explain
the structure and nature of conflict in Burundi using a predation model,
which is built around three elements. Firstly, the bureaucracy acts as a pred-
ator on the rents of the state machinery; secondly, the victims of predation
rebel and thirdly, the army acts as part of the elite bureaucracy to repress and
deter further rebellion, that is to protect the interests of the bureaucracy and
their control over the state. This model will also be followed here, adding
that, in addition to predation, the exclusion of Hutus from positions of power
is a cause of rebellion.
Another image reflecting the cyclical nature of violence in Burundi shows
that violence breaks out at certain intervals if there has been no resolution of
the underlying conflict causes in the interim. This image reminds us to focus
on the continued structural violence, rather than only on the episodic out-
breaks of violence. We will see that the underlying causes of predation,
repression and impunity for killing have often increased rather than
decreased over time and between violent episodes.

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