May 31, 2005

AFRICA AT IAGS 2005

William F.S. Miles
Department of Political Science
Northeastern University, Boston

Africa is a continent unfortunately too well represented at conferences on genocide. IAGS 2005 in Boca Raton bore this out. In papers, discussions, speeches and films, Darfur/Sudan, Rwanda/Burundi, Ethiopia and Nigeria all garnered spirited attention. As is proper for a scholarly gathering, panelists went beyond lamentation to propose measures of prevention.

Perhaps the greatest value provided by the IAGS meeting lay in the range of perspectives afforded, from mission headquarters to grass roots. Yes, we heard from Major Brent Beardsley, former deputy to UN Assistance Mission for Rwanda (UNAMIR) commander Rom̩o Dallaire (indeed, via the film Shaking Hands With the Devil, we indirectly heard from Dallaire himself); from former US ambassador to Rwanda during the genocide, David Rawson; from David Scheffer, former Clinton-era ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues. We were indeed privileged to hear these bird��s-eye views of policy-implementation (and paralysis) during African genocidal crises. (Reflecting on his review of State Department communiqu̩s relating to Rwanda, Ambassador Rawson nevertheless shared his disappointment at realizing ��how low on the totem pole�� even an ambassador can be during a genocide! Christian DesRoches�� and William Ferroggiaro��s archival digging into US Government policy during the Burundi and Rwanda genocides bears out Rawson��s reflection.) But we also heard from scholars who labor less glamorously in the post-genocidal killing fields, eliciting richly documented (if profoundly depressing) case studies to which the more insulated, for higher-ranking, diplomats and officers rarely have the access or time to assemble and synthesize. Dr. Reva Adler, Cy Anne Loyle and Lea Anne Fujii shared the results of their casework and fieldwork in Rwanda at one panel. (The public health framework applied by Reva Adler, a medical doctor, remains a compelling contribution to the field. It parallels Laurie Pearlman and Ervin Staubman��s public education activity in Rwanda.) At an early session, Omar McDoom identified demographic and regional differences from surveys with Rwandan perpetrators and non-perpetrators. Pre-genocidal planning (e.g., the compilation of lists) came up in Conerly Casey��s paper on Nigeria. With the post-Cold War downsizing of the U.S. diplomatic presence in Africa, the kind of information elicited by scholars such as Casey (who has spent most of a decade at Bayero University in Kano) becomes all the more invaluable. This combination of micro-level study by long-term fieldworkers and macro-perspective by high-ranking military and foreign service officials greatly enhances our understanding of genocide in Africa. Bringing them together face-to-face is one of the most important features of an IAGS meeting.

This is not to slight the ��middle-level�� Africanist contributions that Boca Raton also richly illuminated. Jerry Fowler of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Eric Markusen of the Danish Institute for International Studies (DIIS) presented the results of field interviews from the ongoing crisis in Darfur. (The significance of labeling Darfur ��genocide�� was hotly debated between this contributor and Martin Mennecke and Elisabeth Moltke of DIIS, with Professor Howard Adelman �� who himself had presented on the problematics of labels, ethics and U.S. politics with respect to Sudan - mediating ever so philosophically. Similarly, Helen Fein shed light on the otherwise unfathomable refusal by human rights and other non-governmental organizations to characterize the violence in Darfur as genocide.) Gregory Stanton zeroed in on the denial phenomenon, as applied to the Sudanese government and Darfur. Recognition of sexual violence as a genocidal crime was advanced in papers by Lorrie King and Fiona de Londras of Dublin. Scholars have often brought a useful distancing and objectivity, even to such emotionally compelling (and draining) a subject as genocide. The counterside to its genocidal curse is that Africa also attracts top quality academics.

In short, from all perspectives, IAGS 2005 incontrovertibly enriched our understanding of the genocidal plague in Africa. Our petitions and recommendations for its proscription (from no flight patrols to mass hunger strikes, such as mooted by Jim Fussell) will also hopefully move our efforts from beyond contemplation to actual intervention.