Abstract
In Katangese Peoples’ Congress v. Zaire (1992), the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ruled that self-determination under the ACHPR (the Banjul Charter) may be achieved only in a manner that is consistent with the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Building on this quasi-judicial enjoinment, this chapter assembles small-steps-to-peace blueprints, aimed at harmonizing sovereignty and self-determination, the two complementary doctrines of International Law at issue in this book, in postcolonial Africa, by midcentury, guided by the “auxiliary precautions” of an aiming target. Three entities to whom the blueprints are addressed are groups everywhere striving to use the right to self-determination, aloof central governments everywhere bent on impeding such usages, and a variegated international community, including UN institutions, former colonizers, and other major powers, caught in the crossfire of the gladiation between national governments and agitators for self-determination.
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Notes
- 1.
Holy Bible, Romans 12:18.
- 2.
Holy Bible, Philippians 2:4.
- 3.
Katangese Peoples’ Congress v. Zaire, African Comm’n on Human & Peoples’ Rights, 1995 Comm. 75/92, Eighth Annual Activity Report, 1994–95, 31st Session (1995). The decision has immense normative value because it is the Commission’s first decision directly addressing the right to autonomy in the postcolonial context since it began operations in 1987.
- 4.
Quasi-judicial enjoinment because the African Commission is a quasi-judicial body, rather than a court. See Organization of African Unity (OAU), African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Banjul Charter), CAB/LEG/67/3 rev. 5, 21 I.L.M. 58 (June 27, 1981), art. 45, https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b3630.html (laying out the mandates of the Commission).
- 5.
A blueprint is a coherent plan that explains how to do or develop something. “Blueprint,” Cambridge Dictionary, https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/blueprint.
- 6.
The expression comes from the US founding father James Madison. See James Madison, “Federalist Paper No. 51,” Bill of Rights Institute (1788), https://billofrightsinstitute.org/primary-sources/federalist-no-51.
- 7.
See Chapter 1, note 23, and accompanying text.
- 8.
See Chapter 1, note 32, and accompanying text.
- 9.
See Chapter 2, note 176, and accompanying text.
- 10.
See Chapter 1, note 36, and accompanying text.
- 11.
See Chapter 2, note 200, and accompanying text (citing Woodrow Wilson).
- 12.
See Chapter 2, notes 80–82, and accompanying texts.
- 13.
See Chapter 1, note 127, and accompanying text.
- 14.
These scholars include Gleider I. Hernández, Victor Tsilonis, Alex Veit, and **-Hyun Paik. Hernandez wrote that there is no consensus among international lawyers regarding its actual meaning. Gleider I. Hernández, The International Court of Justice and the Judicial Function (New York and London: Oxford University Press, 2014), 194. For him, from a doctrinal standpoint, the term remains a constructive abstraction in need of proper definition. Ibid. Tsilonis views the term as “nebulous” and “misty.” Victor Tsilonis, The Jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court (New York: Springer Nature, 2019), 23, 173. He believes that the term “does not have the meaning one would expect, i.e., the representation of the majority of States; on the contrary, the term skillfully implies the representation of the interests of the most powerful states.” Ibid., p. 7. In the light of the nebulousness he complained about, Tsilonis advised analysts to refrain from using this and related terms when their subject or point of reference is “all the recognized States in the world,” rather than “simply the seven to ten” most powerful countries in the world. Ibid., p. 173. Veit observed that “[t]hrough the expansion of peacebuilding and related practices, the term international community has been modified.” Alex Veit, Intervention as Indirect Rule: Civil War and Statebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo (Frankfurt, Germany: Campus Verlag, 2010), 50. While it still essentially designates “the collection of states,” “[m]ore recently, it is often used to describe world society.” Ibid. But as world society “cannot constitute an actor, the latter meaning seems to serve mainly as a legitimating term for the former. […] The international community is a group of actors that claims to employ a common consensual perspective.” Ibid. Last but not least is Paik and his coeditors who consider the term “vague.” **-Hyun Paik et al., Asian Approaches to International Law and the Legacy of Colonialism: The Law of the Sea, Territorial Disputes and International Dispute Settlement (New York: Routledge, 2013), 145. For them, usage of the term “amounts to failure to take due account of the basic Charter principle. […] While it is clear that the term […] does not comprise all States, or even a majority of them, there is no indication to which States that term […] is intended to refer.” Ibid.
- 15.
“How Self-Determination Shaped the Modern World,” Council for Foreign Relations, https://world101.cfr.org/how-world-works-and-sometimes-doesnt/building-blocks/how-self-determination-shaped-modern-world.
- 16.
Ibid.
- 17.
For one definition of “anarchy” in International Relations, see James C. Roberts, “Anarchy,” Internet Encyclopedia of International Relations, https://web.archive.org/web/20150511160306/http://www.towson.edu/polsci/irencyc/anarchy.htm.
- 18.
See David F. Gordon et al., The United States and Africa: A Post-Cold War Perspective (New York and London: W. W. Norton, 1998), 15 (observing that for four decades, what primarily shaped US policy was its instrumentalist rivalry with the Soviet Union within the context of the cold war).
- 19.
- 20.
United Nations, Charter of the United Nations and Statute of the International Court of Justice (1945) [hereinafter UN Charter], art. 1(1)–(4), https://treaties.un.org/doc/publication/ctc/uncharter.pdf.
- 21.
Ibid., art. 7.
- 22.
See, for example, Patrick Worsnip, “U.N. Council Recommends 2nd Term for Ban ki-moon,” Reuters (June 17, 2011), https://www.reuters.com/article/us-un-election-idUSTRE75G42820110617; and Bryan Walsh, “Can This Guy Run the U.N.?” Time Magazine (October 8, 2006), http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0%2C9171%2C1543932%2C00.html (“Inoffensiveness is Ban’s outstanding quality. He has spent 36 years as a diplomat, almost all of them outside the spotlight”).
- 23.
“Speakers in Security Council Urge Balance between UN Role in State Sovereignty, Human Rights Protection, But Differ over Interpretation of Charter Principles,” United Nations (February 15, 2016) [hereinafter “Speakers in Security Council Urge Balance”], https://www.un.org/press/en/2016/sc12241.doc.htm.
- 24.
See ibid.
- 25.
See Chapter 1, notes 44–47, and accompanying texts.
- 26.
Ibid.
- 27.
Dekha Ibrahim Abdi and Simon J. A. Mason, Mediation and Governance in Fragile Contexts: Small Steps to Peace (Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2019).
- 28.
“Jonathan Orders Release of Uwazurike, MASSOB Members from Detention,” Nigerian Voice (August 30, 2011), https://www.thenigerianvoice.com/news/59371/jonathan-orders-release-of-uwazuruike-massob-members-from-d.html.
- 29.
Allen Buchanan, Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce from Fort Sumter to Lithuania and Quebec (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991), 174.
- 30.
See Chapter 6, item No. 6 (explaining why cracking down on free exercise of self-determination is counterproductive).
- 31.
Benjamin Maiangwa, “What Drives the Indigenous People of Biafra’s Relentless Efforts for Secession,” Conversation (July 12, 2021), https://theconversation.com/what-drives-the-indigenous-people-of-biafras-relentless-efforts-for-secession-163984.
- 32.
Jideofor Adibe, “Separatist Agitations in Nigeria: The Way Forward,” Brookings (Blog) (July 17, 2017), https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2017/07/17/separatist-agitations-in-nigeria-the-way-forward/.
- 33.
See Segun Olugbile and Tunde Odesola, “Pro-Biafra Agitators Are Miscreants—Ex-President Obasanjo,” Sahara Reporters (October 30, 2015), https://saharareporters.com/2015/10/30/pro-biafra-agitators-are-miscreants-%E2%80%93-ex-president-obasanjo.
- 34.
Maya Jasanoff, “Mourn the Queen, Not Her Empire,” New York Times (September 8, 2022), https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/08/opinion/queen-empire-decolonization.html. This news story predicted that “[t]he queen’s death could also aid a fresh campaign for Scottish independence.”
- 35.
See Chapter 3, note 57, and accompanying text.
- 36.
See Ibrahim A. Gambari, Party Politics and Foreign Policy: Nigeria under the First Republic (Zaria, Nigeria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1980), 145–146.
- 37.
See Richard R. Beeman, “Perspectives on the Constitution: A Republic, If You Can Keep It,” National Constitution Center, https://constitutioncenter.org/education/classroom-resource-library/classroom/perspectives-on-the-constitution-a-republic-if-you-can-keep-it.
- 38.
See Gerauds Wilfried Obangome, “Gabon Officers Declare Military Coup, President Ali Bongo Detained,” Reuters (August 30, 2023), https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/gabonese-military-officers-announce-they-have-seized-power-2023-08-30/; and Kathryn Armstrong et al., “Gabon Coup: Army Seizes Power from Ali Bongo and Puts Him in House Arrest,” BBC News (August 30, 2023), https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66654965. Seven countries under military rule, as of this book, chronologically, are Mali (since August 2020), Chad (since April 2021), Guinea (since September 2021), Sudan (since October 2021), Burkina Faso (since January 2022), Niger (since July 2023), and Gabon (since August 2023).
- 39.
See Elliot Smith, “Nigerian Ruling Party Candidate Declared Winner in Highly Disputed Election,” CNBC (March 1, 2023), https://www.cnbc.com/2023/03/01/bola-tinubu-nigerian-ruling-party-candidate-declared-winner-in-disputed-election.html; and Eromo Egbejule, “Bola Tinubu Wins Controversial Nigerian Presidential election,” Alja Zeera (March 1, 2023), https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/3/1/bola-tinubu-wins-controversial-nigerian-presidential-election.
- 40.
Kelechi A. Kalu and George Klay Kieh Jr., eds., Civil Wars in Africa (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022) (pointing up this factor as responsible for many of the intrastate conflicts in the region).
- 41.
Samuel Fury Childs Daly, “Unfinished Business: Biafran Activism in Nigeria Today,” Georgetown Journal of International Affairs (April 7, 2021), https://gjia.georgetown.edu/2021/04/07/unfinished-business-biafran-activism-in-nigeria-today/.
- 42.
Punch Editorial Board, “Before the South-East Descends into Chaos,” Punch (Lagos) (November 27, 2022), http://punchng.com/before-the-south-east-descends-into-chaos/.
- 43.
Ibid.
- 44.
Maiangwa, note 31 (advising against the use of armed tactics or strategies in exercise of self-determination).
- 45.
Onder Bakircioglu, “The Right to Self-Defense in National and International Law: The Role of the Imminence Requirement,” Indiana International & Comparative Law Review, 19(1) (2009), 1–48.
- 46.
See American Historical Association, “Defining Propaganda II,” https://www.historians.org/about-aha-and-membership/aha-history-and-archives/gi-roundtable-series/pamphlets/em-2-what-is-propaganda-(1944)/defining-propaganda-ii (“Experts have plenty of trouble in agreeing upon a satisfactory definition of propaganda, but they are agreed that the term can’t be limited to the type of propaganda that seeks to achieve bad ends or to the form that makes use of deceitful methods”).
- 47.
Jideofor Adibe, “Separatist Agitations in Nigeria: Causes and Trajectories,” Brookings (Blog) (July 12, 2017), https://www.brookings.edu/blog/africa-in-focus/2017/07/12/separatist-agitations-in-nigeria-causes-and-trajectories/.
- 48.
Christopher Brucker, “Finding Foreign Friends: National Self-Determination and Related Norms as Strategic Resources during the Biafran War for Independence, 1967–1970,” New England Journal of Public Policy, 31(2), article 6 (2019), 1–23, https://scholarworks.umb.edu/nejpp/vol31/iss2/6.
- 49.
See Philip C. Aka, “Prospects for Igbo Human Rights in the New Century,” Howard Law Journal, 48(1) (Fall 2004), 266 (arguing for a separate state on the ground that Nigeria lacks a political structure for safeguard of Igbo human rights; instead, in the Nigerian situation, as the article posited, “only a government of the Igbo people, for the Igbo people, and by the Igbo people can protect Igbo human rights”).
- 50.
Obviously, this is the idea that drives the African American doctrine of “black nationality,” the notion that, in opposition to European colonization and neo-colonialism, African Americans “should encourage the U.S. government to help create, protect, and defend black nation-states in Africa and the Caribbean,” as part of their contribution to US foreign policy in the Black quest for universal freedom. Hanes Walton Jr. and Robert C. Smith, American Politics and the African American Quest for Universal Freedom, 6th Ed. (New York: Longman, 2012), 327, n. 7. For Professor Walton and Smith, the quest for universal freedom which animates this text deals with the notion that “[i]n their quest for their own freedom in the United States,” signified by their opposition to slavery and racial subordination, “blacks have sought to universalize the idea of freedom […] not only for themselves but also for all Americans.” Ibid., p. xiii.
- 51.
Philip C. Aka, “A Republic, If You Can Keep It: Promoting Social Justice in Biafra through the Agency and Instrumentality of an Economic Bill of Rights Embedded in an Economic Democracy Act,” Paper Presented at the Conference on the Economic Democracy Act, Held April 29, 2023, at the Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, CT. See also Philip C. Aka, The Imperatives of Socioeconomic Justice in an Interdependent World, Keynote Address to the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA), on the Event Marking the 50th Anniversary of the PWPA’s Founding (June 13, 2023).
- 52.
Chinua Achebe, The Trouble with Nigeria (Oxford and New York: Heinemann, 1984), 19 (Nigeria “is a country where it would be difficult to point to one important job held by the most competent person …”).
- 53.
Ibid.
- 54.
Martin Luther King Jr., “I Have a Dream” (August 28, 1963), reprinted in NPR (January 16, 2023), https://www.npr.org/2010/01/18/122701268/i-have-a-dream-speech-in-its-entirety.
- 55.
Holy Bible, King James Version, Matt. 25: 1–13.
- 56.
Holy Bible, New International Version, Luke 12: 36–48.
- 57.
Brucker, note 48 (abstract).
- 58.
See Bridget Coggins, “Friends in High Places: International Politics and the Emergence of States from Secessionism,” International Organization, 65(3) (2011), 437–438.
- 59.
Kenny Rogers, “The Gabler Lyrics,” https://genius.com/Kenny-rogers-the-gambler-lyrics.
- 60.
“Biafra: Memorandum on Proposed Future Association” (August 29, 1967), reprinted in A.H.M. Kirk-Greene, Crisis and Conflict in Nigeria: A Documentary Sourcebook, 1966–1969, Vol. 2 (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), 163.
- 61.
Ibid.
- 62.
See note 9 and accompanying text.
- 63.
See note 24 and accompanying text.
- 64.
UN Charter, note 20, art. 2(7).
- 65.
Ibid.
- 66.
Francis M. Deng, et al., Sovereignty as Responsibility: Conflict Management in Africa (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 1996), xviii; and U. Oji Umozurike, The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Alpehn aan den Rijn, Netherlands: Kluwer, 1997), 7.
- 67.
See Jasanoff, note 34, and accompanying text.
- 68.
Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, “The Igbo Genocide, Britain and the United States, Part 2,” Pambazuka News (July 15, 2015), https://www.pambazuka.org/human-security/igbo-genocide-britain-and-united-states-pt2.
- 69.
Ibid.
- 70.
Frederick Forsyth, “Buried for 50 Years: Britain’s Shameful Role in the Biafran War,” Guardian (London) (January 21, 2020), https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jan/21/buried-50-years-britain-shamesful-role-biafran-war-frederick-forsyth.
- 71.
Ibid. (“with neutrality and diplomacy from London [the war in Nigeria] could all have been avoided”). Queen Elizabeth’s death in September 2022 renewed debates about the legacy of the British empire in Africa and elsewhere. See Edwin Rios, “Queen’s Death Intensifies Criticism of British Empire’s Violent Atrocities,” Guardian (London) (September 10, 2022), https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/10/queen-death-colonies-atrocities-british-empire (commenting on how academics and other analysts are engaging in reassessment regarding the lasting influences of the British monarchy); Tim Cocks and Ayenat Mersie, “Mixed Feelings among Some in Africa for Queen Elizabeth,” Reuters (September 9, 2022), https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/mixed-feelings-among-some-africa-queen-elizabeth-2022-09-09/ (describing how many persons in Africa “were less enthusiastic about celebrating the life of a monarch whose country has a checkered history in” the continent); and “In Africa, the Queen’s Death Renews a Debate about the Legacy of the British Empire,” Politpost (September 9, 2022), https://politpost.com/2022/09/09/in-africa-the-queens-death-renews-a-debate-about-the-legacy-of-the-british-empire/.
- 72.
See Martin Luther King, Jr., Beyond Vietnam—A Time to Break Silence, Speech Delivered at Riverside Church, New York City, on April 4, 1967, in American Rhetoric Online Speech Bank, https://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/mlkatimetobreaksilence.htm.
- 73.
Nancy Spannaus, “Remembering Lincoln’s ‘House Divided’ Speech,” American System Now (June 17, 2019), https://americansystemnow.com/remembering-lincolns-house-divided-speech/; and Andrew Glass, “Lincoln Laments ‘A House Divided,’ June 16, 1858,” Politico (June 16, 2018), https://www.politico.com/story/2018/06/16/lincoln-laments-a-house-divided-june-16-1858-644493.
- 74.
Glass, note 73.
- 75.
Edward Paice, “By 2050, a Quarter of the World’s People Will Be African—This Will Shape Our Future,” Guardian (London) (January 20, 2022), https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jan/20/by-2050-a-quarter-of-the-worlds-people-will-be-african-this-will-shape-our-future.
- 76.
Ibid.
- 77.
Edward Paice, Youthquake: Why African Demography Should Matter to the World (New York: Apollo Publisher, 2021).
- 78.
UN General Assembly, Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (New York: UN, 2015), https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/1654217?ln=en.
- 79.
UN Charter, note 20, art. 1(1).
- 80.
See “Terminology,” United Nations Peacekee**, https://peacekee**.un.org/en/terminology.
- 81.
See ibid.
- 82.
See ibid.
- 83.
See UN Charter, note 20 (Chapter VI).
- 84.
See “Terminology,” note 80.
- 85.
See “Principles of Peacekee**,” United Nations Peacekee**, https://peacekee**.un.org/en/principles-of-peacekee**.
- 86.
“Terminology,” note 80.
- 87.
Ibid.
- 88.
UN Charter, note 20, art. 2(6).
- 89.
Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963), African Studies Center, University of Pennsylvania, https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html. Text of the letter is also available at “(1963) Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1963-martin-luther-king-jr-letter-birmingham-jail/.
- 90.
Matt Rosenberg, “The [Seven] Continents Ranked by Size and Population,” ThoughtCo. (Updated April 11, 2020), https://www.thoughtco.com/continents-ranked-by-size-and-population-4163436.
- 91.
Chapter 2, note 69, and accompanying text.
- 92.
Farah Mohammed, “The Recipe for Secession: What Makes Nations Leave,” Daily (March 23, 2017), https://daily.jstor.org/the-recipe-for-secession-what-makes-nations-leave/.
- 93.
Ibid.
- 94.
Ibid.
- 95.
Mtendeweka Owen Mhango, “Recognizing a Right to Autonomy for Ethnic Groups under the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights: Katangese Peoples’ Congress v. Zaire,” Human Rights Brief, 14(2) (2007), 11–15.
- 96.
See ibid.
- 97.
Joshua Dilk, “Reevaluating Self-Determination in a Post-Colonial World,” Buffalo Human Rights Law Review, 16(2010), 289, 307.
- 98.
Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. 403 (July 22, 2010) [hereinafter Kosovo ICJ Opinion], ¶¶ 83–85.
- 99.
Tom Ginsburg and Mila Versteeg, “From Catalonia to California: Secession in Constitutional Law,” Alabama Law Review, 70(4) (2019), 923, 935.
- 100.
Kosovo ICJ Opinion, note 98.
- 101.
Ibid.
- 102.
Wolfgang Danspeckgruber and Anne-Marie Gardner, “Self-Determination,” Encyclopedia Prencetoniensis, https://pesd.princeton.edu/node/656.
- 103.
Dilk, note 97, p. 308.
- 104.
Danspeckgruber and Gardner, note 102.
- 105.
Dilk, note 97, p. 308.
- 106.
Ibid.
- 107.
Danspeckgruber and Gardner, note 102.
- 108.
Patricia Carley, Self-Determination: Sovereignty, Territorial Integrity, and the Right to Secession, Report from a Roundtable Held in Conjunction with the U.S. Department of State’s Policy Planning Staff (Washington, DC: US Institute of Peace, March 1, 1996), ix, https://www.usip.org/sites/default/files/pwks7.pdf.
- 109.
Dilk, note 97, p. 292.
- 110.
Ibid. (referring to Woodrow Wilson’s concept of self-determination).
- 111.
Ibid., pp. 307–308.
- 112.
Fareed Zakaria, “America’s Foreign Policy Has Lost All Flexibility,” Florida Keys (March 28, 2023), https://www.keysnews.com/opinion/columns/americas-foreign-policy-has-lost-all-flexibility/article_417cfb2c-c7e0-11ed-ba67-6bee648ffda2.html.
- 113.
Ibid.
- 114.
Carley, note 108, p. ix.
- 115.
Ibid.
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Aka, P.C. (2023). Blueprints for the Midcentury. In: Navigating the Tension Between Sovereignty and Self-Determination in Postcolonial Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48131-4_7
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