Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T10:26:21.680Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Well-Oiled Protest: Adding Fuel to Political Conflicts in Niger

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 August 2018

Jannik Schritt
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

The article focuses on disputes and protests around the inauguration of Niger’s first oil refinery in late 2011. Drawing on theory of the resource curse and the literature on African politics and the state, it analyzes the transformative potential of oil in Nigerien politics and society, showing how oil was received in an already well-structured political arena, sparking political conflicts rather than conflicts about oil. With the start of oil production adding fuel to these conflicts, it argues that in oil’s immediate presence, historically sedimented politics were played out through the idiom of oil, through which not only is oil-age Niger made a social and political reality, but political difference is also reconstructed, and patterns of domination are reinforced.

Résumé:

Cet article se penche sur les conflits et les protestations à propos de l’inauguration de la première raffinerie de pétrole du Niger à la fin de 2011. Il s’inspire de la théorie de la malédiction des ressources et de la littérature sur la politique et l’état en Afrique et analyse ainsi le potentiel de transformation généré par le pétrole dans la politique et la société nigérienne, montrant comment le pétrole a été accueilli sur une scène politique déjà bien structurée et engendrant avant tout des conflits politiques plutôt que des conflits à propos du pétrole. Avec le début de la production pétrolière qui a ajouté du carburant à ces conflits, nous faisons valoir qu’avec la proximité directe du pétrole, des politiques historiquement sédimentées se sont réglées à travers l’idiome du pétrole. Non seulement le Niger de l’ère du pétrole devient une réalité sociale et politique définie à travers cet idiome, mais la différence politique est également reconstruite, et les schémas de domination sont renforcés.

Resumo:

Este artigo trata das disputas e dos protestos em torno da abertura da primeira refinaria de petróleo do Níger, no final de 2011. Partindo da teoria da maldição deste recurso natural e da literatura sobre a política e o Estado africanos, analisa-se o potencial do petróleo enquanto fator de transformação política e social do Níger; tendo o petróleo sido recebido num cenário político que já se encontrava bem estruturado, os conflitos que então se geraram foram mais de caráter político do que especificamente sobre o petróleo. Segundo o autor, o arranque da produção de petróleo exacerbou estes conflitos políticos e, perante a disponibilidade imediata de petróleo, a política – historicamente sedimentada – passou a ser discutida no idioma do petróleo. Através deste idioma, ergueu-se no Níger a realidade social e política da era do petróleo, mas também se reconstruiu a divergência política e se reforçaram os padrões de dominação.

Keywords

OilAfrican statepoliticsresource curseNiger
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 62 , Issue 2 , June 2019 , pp. 49 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdoul Azizou, Garba. 2010. “Niger: la société civile face au « Tazarce ».” In État des résistances dans le Sud: Afrique, edited by Polet, François, 119–128. Louvain-la-Neuve, Paris: Centre Tricontinental; Éditions Syllepse.Google Scholar
Auty, Richard M. 1993. Sustaining development in mineral economies: The resource curse thesis. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Baudais, Virgine, and Chauzal, Grégory. 2011. “The 2010 Coup d’État in Niger: A Praetorian Regulation of Politics?” African Affairs 110 (439): 295–304.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayart, Jean-François. 1986. “Civil Society in Africa.” In Political domination in Africa: Reflections on the limits of power, edited by Chabal, Patrick, 109–25. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayart, Jean-François. 1989. L’Etat en Afrique: La politique du ventre. Paris: Fayard.Google Scholar
Bierschenk, Thomas. 2014. “Sedimentation, Fragmentation and Normative Double-Binds in (West) African Public Services.”In States at work: Dynamics of African bureaucracies, edited by Bierschenk, Thomas and Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre, 221–45. Africa-Europe Group for Interdisciplinary Studies volume 12. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bierschenk, Thomas, and Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 1998. “Les arènes locales face à la décentralisation et à la démocratisation.” In Les pouvoirs au village: Le Bénin rural entre démocratisation et décentralisation, edited by Bierschenk, Thomas and Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre, 11–56. Paris: Éd. Karthala.Google Scholar
Burawoy, Michael. 1998. “The Extended Case Method.” Sociological Theory 16 (1): 4–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carbone, Giovanni M. 2006. “Comprendre les partis et les systèmes de partis africains.” Politique Africaine 104 (4): 18–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chabal, Patrick, and Daloz, Jean-Pascal. 1999. Africa works: Disorder as political instrument. [London], Bloomington: International African Institute in association with James Currey, Oxford; Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Danda, Mahamadou. 23 Novembre 2004. Politique de decentralisation, developpement regional et identites locales au Niger: Le cas du Damagaram. Bordeaux.Google Scholar
De Waal, Alex, and Ibreck, Rachel. 2013. “Hybrid social movements in Africa.” Journal of Contemporary African Studies 31 (2): 303–324.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eifert, Benn, Miguel, Edward, and Posner, Daniel N.. 2010. “Political Competition and Ethnic Identification in Africa.” American Journal of Political Science 54 (2): 494–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elischer, Sebastian. 2013. “Contingency Democrats in Action: Organized Labor and Regime Change in the Republic of Niger.” GIGA working paper No 231, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies.Google Scholar
Elischer, Sebastian. 2015. “Autocratic legacies and state management of Islamic activism in Niger.” African Affairs 114 (457): 577–597.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fraser, Nancy. 1990. “Rethinking the Public Sphere: A Contribution to the Critique of Actually Existing Democracy.” Social Text (25/26): 56–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuglestad, Finn. 1983. A history of Niger, 1850–1960. African studies series 41. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Gervais, Myriam. 1997. “Niger: Regime Change, Economic Crisis, and Perpetuation of Privilege.” In Political reform in Francophone Africa, edited by Clark, John F. and Gardinier, David E., 86–108. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.Google Scholar
Goffman, Erving. 1959. The presentation of self in everyday life. London: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Göpfert, Mirco. 2012. “Security in Niamey: an anthropological perspective on policing and an act of terrorism in Niger.” Journal of Modern African Studies 50 (1): 53–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henquinet, Kari B. 2007. “The Rise of Wife Seclusion in Rural South-Central Niger.” Ethnology 46 (1): 57–80.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Daniel. 2011. “Violence, Just in Time: War and Work in Contemporary West Africa.” Cultural Anthropology 26 (1): 34–57.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Honwana, Alcinda. 2012. The time of youth: Work, social change, and politics in Africa. Sterling, Virginia: Kumarian Press.Google Scholar
Humphreys, Macartan. 2005. “Natural Resources, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution: Uncovering the Mechanisms.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 49 (4): 508–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibrahim, Jibrin. 1994. “Political Exclusion, Democratisation and Dynamics of Ethnicity in Niger.” Africa Today 41 (3): 15–39.Google Scholar
Langa, Malose, and Kiguwa, Peace. 2013. “Violent masculinities and service delivery protests in post-apartheid South Africa: A case study of two communities in Mpumalanga.” Agenda: Empowering women for gender equity 27 (1): 20–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leite, Carlos, and Jens, Weidmann. 1999. “Does Mother Nature Corrupt? Natural Resources, Corruption and Economic Growth.” IMF Working paper WP/99/85, IMF. Washington D.C.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, Christian. 2001. “Precarious Democratization and Local Politics in Niger: Micro-politics in Zinder.” Development and Change 32: 846–869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lund, Christian. 2009. “Les dynamiques politiques locales face à une démocratisation fragile (Zinder).” In Les pouvoirs locaux au Niger, edited by Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre and Alou, Mahaman Tidjani, 89–112. Dakar, Paris: CODESRIA; Karthala.Google Scholar
Maccatory, Bénédicte, Oumarou, Makama Bawa, and Poncelet, Marc. 2010. “West African social movements ‘against the high cost of living’: from the economic to the political, from the global to the national.” Review of African Political Economy 37 (125): 345–359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mamdani, Mahmood. 1995. “A Critique of the State and Civil Society Paradigm in Africanist Studies.” In African Studies in Social Movements and Democracy, edited by Mamdani, Mahmood and Wamba-dia-Wamba, Ernest, 602–616. [Dakar]: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Masquelier, Adeline. 2010. “God Made Me a Rapper: Young Men, Islam, and Survival in an Age of Austerity.” In Being and becoming Hausa. Interdisciplinary perspectives, edited by Haour, Anne and Rossi, Benedetta, 235–256. Leiden: Brill.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Masquelier, Adeline. 2013. “Teatime: Boredom and the Temporalities of Young Men in Niger.” Africa 83 (3): 470–491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Médard, Jean F. 1982. “The Underdeveloped State in Africa: Political Clientelism or Neo-patrimonialism?” In Private patronage and public power. Political clientelism in the modern state, edited by Clapham, Christopher S., 162–189. New York: St. Martin’s Press.Google Scholar
Mueller, Lisa. 2016. “Religious Violence and Democracy in Niger.” African Conflict and Peacebuilding Review 6 (1): 89–104.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 1999. “A Moral Economy of Corruption in Africa?” The Journal of Modern African Studies 37 (1): 25–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 25 Janvier 2015. “Sur Charlie Hebdo vu de Niamey.” Cismoc Papers-on-line, CISMOC.Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 2017. “Rivalries of proximity beyond the household in Niger: Political elites and the baab-izey pattern.” Africa 87 (01): 120–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piven, Frances F., and Cloward, Richard A.. 1979. Poor people’s movements. Why they succeed, how they fail. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Robinson, Pearl T. 1991. “Niger: Anatomy of a Neotraditional Corporatist State.” Comparative Politics 24 (1): 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ross, Michael L. 2008. “Oil, Islam, and Women.” The American Political Science Review 102 (01): 107–123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schritt, Jannik. 2015. “The ‘Protests against Charlie Hebdo’ in Niger: A Background Analysis.” Africa Spectrum 50 (1): 49–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schritt, Jannik. 2016. “From Nuclear Imperialism to Petro Democracy? Resource assemblages and the emergence of a new political configuration in Niger.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 50 (2): 229–254.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1969. “Corruption, Machine Politics, and Political Change.” The American Political Science Review 63 (4): 1142–1158.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souley, Aboubacar. Novembre 2012. Étude sur le phénomène de violence en milieu jeunes à Zinder. Unicef.Google Scholar
Sounaye, Abdoulaye. 2016. “Jugend, Politik und Religion in Niger: Die Wahlen im Februar 2016.” inamo 22 (86): 14–18.Google Scholar
Spivak, Gayatri C. 1988. “Can the subaltern speak?” In Marxism and the interpretation of culture, edited by Nelson, Cary and Grossberg, Lawrence, 271–313. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tidjani Alou, Mahaman. 2007. “Niger: Civil society activists reinject politics into public life.” In The state of resistance: Popular struggles in the global south, edited by Polet, Francois, 118–22. London: Zed Books.Google Scholar
van de Walle, Nicolas. 2003. “Presidentialism and clientelism in Africa’s emerging party systems.” The Journal of Modern African Studies 41 (2): 297–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Dijk, Teun A. 1996. “Discourse, Power and Access.” In Readings in critical discourse analysis, edited by Caldas-Coulthard, Carmen R. and Coulthard, Malcom, 84–106. Texts and practices. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
van Walraven, Klaas. 2009. “Decolonization by referendum: The anomaly of Niger and the fall of Sawaba, 1958–1959.” The Journal of African History 50 (2): 269–292.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vigh, Henrik. 2008. “Crisis and chronicity: Anthropological perspectives on continuous conflict and decline.” Ethnos: journal of anthropology 73 (1): 5–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Villalón, Leonardo A., and Idrissa, Abdourahmane. 2005. “Repetitive Breakdowns and a Decade of Experimentation: Institutional Choices and Unstable Democracy in Niger.” In The fate of Africa’s democratic experiments. Elites and institutions, edited by Villalón, Leonardo A. and VonDoepp, Peter, 27–48. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Yates, Douglas A. 1996. The Rentier State in Africa: Oil Rent Dependency and Neocolonialism in the Republic of Gabon. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press.Google Scholar