Will new nationalism end corruption and terror in africa?

The resilience of the Ethiopian state was tested last year when Ahmed Abiy was elected by a multi-ethnic coalition as Prime Minister, signifying the resurgence of Abyssinian nationalism. PHOTO | ACHARIAS ABUBEKER | AFP

What you need to know:

  • Both corruption and terrorism are latching onto ethnic nationalism to survive.

  • But the return of civic nationalism in Africa is rekindling hope for emancipatory power of nationalism to drive and win the war against corruption and terror.

Nationalism is experiencing a largely unpredicted rise in the 21st century. In the West, the new nationalism is causing unease. But in Africa, where nationalism drove the struggle for liberation decades ago, its return comes with the promise of galvanizing the ongoing double war against corruption and terrorism, now emerging as the greatest crimes in African history—after slavery and colonialism—and existential threats to the continent.

TABOO

In the recent issue of the Foreign Affairs Journal (March/April 2019), scholars and policy thinkers are grappling with the largely unpredicted and sobering resurgence of nationalism, highlighting the contradictory character of the force and the need to harness it for practical gains.

In the West, the claims of the nation are unclear, and actually come with ugly echoes. Here, nationalism drove some of the greatest crimes in history, turning the 20th century into the age of extremes marked by two world wars, a holocaust and genocides. Not surprisingly, the concept of nationalism became a taboo in many countries in the West.

It did not help matters that Europeans lost their empires in Africa and Asia to anti-colonial nationalism!

With the rise of Donald Trump and far right populist movements, nationalism is now back with a vengeance, and its ugly garb.

The new nationalism is testing American civic nation. Some of America’s scholars have responded by calling for a new nation story to underpin a new Americanism. As Jill Lepore has recently argued in “A New Americanism: Why a Nation Needs a National Story” the solution to the American crisis does not lie in resisting nationalism, but rather in appropriating it (Foreign Affairs, March/April 2019: 10-19).

Nationalism in itself is not a problem. The real threat to democratic order is its populist (racist) variants.

WELFARE

In this regard, scholars are drawing a clear line between good civic nationalism and bad ethnic nationalism. However, this divide, as Andreas Wimmer rightly notes, can be false or unhelpful. Fighting nationalism is not an option. In Africa, we need to promote inclusive versions of nationalism to underpin our mass democracy.

Fueling the crisis of the liberal order is a clash between nationalism and neo-liberal globalism. Nationalists across the world are making a legitimate demand that states intervene to rein in the markets and defend the welfare of their citizens.

Inversely, defenders of capitalism, still stuck to the idea of market as the “hidden hand”, want freer trade and freer movement of people, goods and services. Constitutional reforms are needed to give governments especially in Africa greater freedom to manage the excesses of capitalism.

In Africa, nationalism as a force has always had a Janus-faced character. Here, nationalism paved the way for liberation, freedom and dignity.

But post-colonial Africa has struggled with the reality that the concept of nation-state as a sovereign state where most of the citizens or subjects are united by language or common descent and other factors which define a nation only exists in very few countries.

WEAKNESSES

A nation-state is rare in Africa, unlike Europe. Africa is a continent of states of nations where multiple identities (including ethnic nations) are nested.

For this reason, Africa came into sharp focus during a conference I attended this week (March 20-22) in Brussels, Belgium, convened by the European Institute of Peace (EIP) to share lessons on approaches to prevent and counter violent extremism.

Africa, it was noted, is vulnerable to terrorism because the prototype (Weberian) state enjoying total monopoly over legitimate violence has failed to take roots on the continent. Instead, it is under permanent siege from political tribalism. As such, perpetrators of terror and corruption exploit this weakness of the state and hide behind ethnic nationalism to carry out criminal activities with impunity.

Both corruption and terrorism are latching onto ethnic nationalism to survive. But the return of civic nationalism in Africa is rekindling hope for emancipatory power of nationalism to drive and win the war against corruption and terror.

African nations are melting pots of identities. But the question is raised regarding the future of nationalism in a cosmopolitan and globalised world. Ghanaian-American scholar, Kwame Appiah, attempts to provide an answer. Nationalism and cosmopolitanism, he argues, are compatible. They both rest on the idea of multiple identities nested together in a political space.

However, the state is becoming increasingly resilient. In Kenya, the handshake symbolized the return of the trans-ethnic and pan-Kenyan vision that drove anti-colonial liberation struggle that won Kenya's independence.

UPHEAVALS

The resilience of the Ethiopian state was tested last year when Ahmed Abiy was elected by a multi-ethnic coalition as Prime Minister, signifying the resurgence of Abyssinian nationalism. But fear abounds that segments of the regional elite are likely to sponsor informal militia or vigilante violence in the ensuing struggle for power within regional states.

Clearly, nationalism is the only pathway for Africa to win what the Economist characterised as “the new scramble for Africa”, which involves the American-led West against emerging powerhouses in the global South including China, India and Brazil.

Rising ethnic nationalism has usually led to violent upheavals. Perpetrators of corruption are now turning to ethnic nationalism to shield themselves.

The resurgence of ethno-nationalism is transforming corruption into a new fault line in elections between elite factions fighting corruption and those using it to create war chests and bribe their way into shambolic victories.

Africa urgently needs new coalitions of nationalists to mobilise populations against the two foes of our people: corruption and terror.

Professor Kagwanja is former Government Adviser and Chief Executive of the Africa Policy Institute.