Table Of Contentalao.mech.2 5/23/07 1:42 PM Page 1
“Here is another important work from one of Africa’s finest scholars on Conflict and Security
NATURAL RESOURCES
Studies. Natural Resources and Conflict in Africais a treasure of scholarship and insight,
with great depth and thoroughness, and it will put us in Abiodun Alao’s debt for quite some
time to come.”
AND CONFLICT
—Amos Sawyer, Co-director,
Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis, Indiana University
IN AFRICA
“As extensive in information as it is rich in analysis, Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa
should help this generation of scholars appreciate the enormity and complexity of Africa’s
conflicts and provide the next generation with a methodology that breaks down disciplinary
boundaries.”
—Akanmu G. Adebayo, Executive Director, THE TRAGEDY
Institute for Global Initiatives, Kennesaw State University
“Abiodun Alao has provided us with an effulgent book on a timely topic. This work transcends OF ENDOWMENT
the perfunctory analyses that exist on natural resources and their role in African conflicts.”
—Abdul Karim Bangura, Researcher-In-Residence at the Center for Global Peace,
and professor of International Relations and Islamic Studies,
School of International Service, American University
Conflict over natural resources has made Africa the focus of international attention, Abiodun Alao
particularly during the last decade. From oil in Nigeria and diamonds in the Democra-
tic Republic of Congo, to land in Zimbabwe and water in the Horn of Africa, the poli-
tics surrounding ownership, management, and control of natural resources has disrupted
communities and increased external intervention in these countries. Such conflict has the
potential to impact natural resource supply globally, with both local and wide-reaching con-
sequences. The United States, for example, estimates that a quarter of its oil supply will
come from Africa by 2015.
Natural Resources and Conflict in Africais the first book to offer a detailed look at conflict
over various natural resources in several African countries. Abiodun Alao undertakes this
broad survey by categorizing natural resources into four groups: land (including agricultural
practices and animal stock), solid minerals, oil, and water. Themes linking these resources
to governance and conflict are then identified and examined with numerous examples drawn
from specific African countries. Alao’s approach offers considered conclusions based on
comparative discussions and analysis, thus providing the first comprehensive account of the
linkage between natural resources and political and social conflict in Africa.
Abiodun Alao is a Senior Research Fellow at the Conflict, Security, and Development Group,
School of Social Science and Public Policy, King’s College, University of London.
Photograph issued by Niger Delta militants. Published in the The Daily Sun, Lagos, Nigeria, 2006.
Photographer unknown. Used by permission of The Daily Sun.
Cover design by Adam B. Bohannon. ™xHSLFSAy462679zv*:+:!:+:!
university of rochester press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620-2731
P.O. Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK
ISBN-10: 1-58046-267-7
www.urpress.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-267-9
NATURAL RESOURCES AND CONFLICT IN AFRICA
Toyin Falola, Senior Editor
The Frances Higginbotham Nalle Centennial Professor in History
University of Texas at Austin
(ISSN: 1092–5228)
A complete list of titles in the Rochester Studies in African History and the
Diaspora, in order of publication, may be found at the end of this book.
NATURAL RESOURCES AND
CONFLICT IN AFRICA
THE TRAGEDY OF ENDOWMENT
Abiodun Alao
UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER PRESS
Copyright © 2007 Abiodun Alao
All rights reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation, no part of this work may
be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system, published, performed in public, adapted,
broadcast, transmitted, recorded, or reproduced in any form or by any means, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
First published 2007
University of Rochester Press
668 Mt. Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
www.urpress.com
and Boydell & Brewer Limited
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
ISBN-13: 978–1–58046–267–9
ISBN-10: 1–58046–267–7
ISSN: 1092–5228
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Alao, Abiodun.
Natural resources and conflict in Africa : the tragedy of endowment /
Abiodun Alao.
p. cm. — (Rochester studies in African history and the
Diaspora, ISSN 1092-5228 ; v. 29)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-1-58046-267-9 (hardcover : alk. paper)
ISBN-10: 1-58046-267-7
1. Natural resources—Africa. 2. Natural resources—Political
aspects—Africa. 3. Conflict management—Africa. I. Title.
HC800.Z65A43 2007
303.6096—dc22
2007009863
A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
This publication is printed on acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America.
To ’Ronke, Fiyinfolu, and Ajibola, for making coming home the highlight of my day
Political Map of Africa. Reproduced from Africa at a Glance: Facts and Figures 1997/98,
compiled by Pieter Esterhuysen. Pretoria: African Institute of South Africa, 1998.
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations viii
Preface ix
List of Abbreviations xvi
Introduction 1
1 Natural Resources and Conflict in Africa:
Framework for Understanding a Linkage 14
2 Political Geography of Natural Resources in Africa 41
3 Land and Conflict 63
4 The Conflicts over Solid Minerals 112
5 Conflicts Involving Oil 157
6 Water and Conflict 207
7 Governance and Natural Resource Conflicts 242
Conclusion 277
Notes 285
Bibliography 327
Index 337
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
Frontispiece Political Map of Africa vi
1.1 Natural resources and the causes of conflict 27
1.2 Sources of resource governance 33
1.3 Actors in resource governance 34
1.4 Tools of resource governance 35
1.5 Resource governance in the natural resource
and conflict continuum 36
Tables
2.1 Pastoral activity in Africa 52
2.2 Mineral resources in Africa 53
2.3 Major rivers and their connections in Africa 54
2.4 Population figures of African countries, 2000 and 2050 60
4.1 Sierra Leone diamond export data, 2003–5 155
4.2 DRC diamond export data, 1996–2003 155
5.1 African oil production, 2000 and 2010 169
5.2 Breakdown of Angolan GDP by sector percentage 182
5.3 Ethnic community conflicts in the Niger Delta Region 187
5.4 Layers of conflicts and controversies in the Niger Delta 195
6.1 Water stress level in 2000 212
6.2 Envisaged water stress level in 2050 213
6.3 River basins experiencing water stress in 2000 214
6.4 Likely river basins experiencing water stress in 2050 214
6.5 River basins and the riparian states 216
6.6 Major river basins and flow in southern Africa 222
6.7 Displaced population from dam construction 233
6.8 Water privatization in Africa 235
PREFACE
The impetus for this book came from comments made by two people during
the course of almost a decade. The first was in the spring of 1989, when a
friend and colleague, Tajudeen Abdulraheem, noted during a discussion we
had in his apartment at Oxford that natural resource management would be
the key issue during the last decade of the twentieth century and even beyond,
and that efforts should be invested into looking at how the management of
these resources can affect politics in Africa. Tajudeen, then a Rhodes Scholar,
was rounding up his doctoral studies at St. Peter’s College Oxford, while I was
then halfway through mine at King’s College London. The second comment
came in 1996. In an informal discussion that followed a lecture I gave at the
Royal College of Defense Studies, London, one of the course participants
raised a crucial point about the possible impact of natural resource manage-
ment on security in Africa. Like Tajudeen seven years previously, he too
opined that detailed studies into the complexities of resource politics in
Africa would be crucial, if the continent was to be spared some of the conflicts
that have characterized its postindependence existence. By the end of the
1990 decade, these two positions had been clearly vindicated, giving no addi-
tional need to draw anyone’s attention to the obvious linkage between natural
resources and conflict in Africa. What was even more frightening were the
apocalyptic predictions being made in certain quarters that the years ahead
would witness many more such conflicts, to further result in the weakening
and collapse of state institutions in the continent.
It now seems beyond contention that the politics surrounding the manage-
ment of natural resource politics has brought out some of the extremes in
Africa’s security complexities. Among the issues that have been thrown up are
violent ethno-nationalism, acrimonious intergroup relations, youth revolts,
small arms and light weapons proliferation, corruption, money laundering, war-
lordism, cross-border looting, mercenarism, and alleged links with global ter-
rorism. The conflicts have raised an array of questions, most of which have been
answered only rhetorically. Questions such as: How does one reconcile Africa’s
enormous natural resource endowment with its appalling poverty? Why is the
violence associated with natural resources in the continent becoming more
vicious and devastating? What are the indigenous conflict resolution principles
that can help address some of these conflicts? Why have some natural resources
been associated with conflict in some countries and not in others? To what
