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Local Identities and Transnational Conflict: the Katangese Gendarmes and Central-Southern Africa's Forty-years war, 1960-1999

地方身份和跨国冲突：加丹加宪兵和中南部非洲的四十年战争，1960-1999

基本信息

批准号：
AH/I014594/1
负责人：
Miles Larmer
金额：
$ 8.45万
依托单位：
University of Sheffield
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Fellowship
财政年份：
2011
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2011 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=AH%2FI014594%2F1
关键词：
Local Identities Transnational Conflict Katangese

项目摘要

Central Africa has experienced virtually continuous military conflict for the last forty years. Analysts and policy-makers seeking to resolve these conflicts have applied territorial and ideological frames of analysis which do not address the underlying causes of the conflict, from the perspective of the forces and movements involved. Although these conflicts had their roots in decolonisation, a number of factors (including the artificial nature of post-colonial states, unresolved questions of ethnic identity and uneven development within national borders) led to continued conflict after the achievement of independence. Ideological (left-right) frameworks of analysis ascribed to movements in a Cold War context is a limited guide to their causes. Similarly, attempts to understand and resolve these conflicts through national and inter-national frameworks overlook both the transnational nature of the movements concerned, and the local identities which inform them. Conflicts are interpreted as either civil wars within states, or conventional wars between states, without taking into account the mutable but powerful cross-border identities and communities (ethnic, social and economic) which have formed the basis of military and political movements. Analysing such factors enables new historically informed understandings of movements and conflicts which are simultaneously local, national and trans-national. This project will therefore examine how the participants in a number of the interrelated conflicts that have affected Central Africa since the 1960s have understood their role in those conflicts. Improved comprehension of the recent history of such conflicts and movements will enable those seeking to resolve contemporary conflicts in Central Africa to better comprehend the motivations of combatants. This research explores these questions through a case study of the Katangese gendarmes, one of the most important but least studied military and political movements in post-colonial Africa, which has been neglected by researchers because it acted and defined itself against conventional frameworks: across ideological Cold War boundaries; the fragile borders of post-colonial states; and conventional definitions of 'war'. The gendarmes were seen in the 1960s as 'neo-colonial' tools of mining capital in the secession of Katanga from the newly independent Congo (DRC). They later crossed the porous border into Portuguese-ruled Angola, where their ethnic Lunda cousins resided; there, they fought with Portuguese colonialists against Angolan nationalists. With Angolan independence in 1975, the gendarmes, now politically constituted as the National Front for the Liberation of Congo (FNLC), allied with the Marxist government against Congolese-backed rebels. In 1977-78, the gendarmes launched two (unsuccessful) invasions of Zaire, perceived by western observers as the actions of Marxist rebels. In 1980, gendarmes participated in a coup attempt in Zambia. Seventeen years later, they were part of the forces of Laurent Kabila which ousted President Mobutu. Investigating the gendarmes' understanding of their apparently contradictory actions requires an interrogation of the meaning of the post-colonial Congolese state and the ideological basis of nationalism and state formation in Africa. We also need to understand the salience of 'Lunda' as an ethno-linguistic category and its capacity to transgress the post-colonial borders of Angola, Zambia and the DRC. This research builds on work carried out by Dr Larmer since 2008, supported by a British Academy Small Grant in 2007-08. It argues that the gendarmes' identification with 'Katanga' as a place remains central, notwithstanding its non-existence as a state since 1963. Indeed, the extinguishing of that identity strengthened aspiration to a statehood that was powerful because it was denied. For these reasons, 'Katanga' was and remains a malleable but potent local-transnational identity.

中非在过去40年中经历了几乎持续不断的军事冲突。寻求解决这些冲突的分析家和决策者采用了领土和意识形态的分析框架，而没有从所涉势力和运动的角度探讨冲突的根本原因。虽然这些冲突的根源在于非殖民化，但一些因素（包括后殖民国家的人为性质、未解决的族裔身份问题和国家边界内的不平衡发展）导致实现独立后冲突持续不断。冷战背景下归因于运动的意识形态（左右）分析框架是对其原因的有限指导。同样，试图通过国家和国际框架来理解和解决这些冲突，忽视了有关运动的跨国性质和影响这些运动的地方特性。冲突被解释为国家内部的内战或国家之间的常规战争，而没有考虑到可变但强大的跨界身份和社区（种族，社会和经济），这些身份和社区构成了军事和政治运动的基础。分析这些因素，使人们能够对同时具有地方性、国家性和跨国性的运动和冲突有新的历史认识。因此，本项目将审查自1960年代以来影响中部非洲的一些相互关联的冲突的参与者如何理解他们在这些冲突中的作用。如果能更好地了解这些冲突和运动的近期历史，将使那些寻求解决中部非洲当代冲突的人能够更好地了解战斗人员的动机。本研究探讨这些问题，通过案例研究的加丹加宪兵，最重要的，但最少研究的军事和政治运动在后殖民非洲，这一直被研究人员忽视，因为它采取行动，并定义自己对传统的框架：跨越意识形态冷战的边界;后殖民国家的脆弱边界;和传统的定义“战争”。在20世纪60年代，宪兵被视为加丹加从新独立的刚果（DRC）分离的“新殖民主义”采矿资本工具。后来，他们越过漏洞百出的边境进入葡萄牙统治的安哥拉，他们的伦达族堂兄弟居住在那里;在那里，他们与葡萄牙殖民者一起对抗安哥拉民族主义者。1975年安哥拉独立后，宪兵队（现政治组成为解放刚果民族阵线（FNLC））与马克思主义政府结盟，打击刚果支持的叛乱分子。1977年至1978年，宪兵对扎伊尔发动了两次（不成功的）入侵，西方观察家认为这是马克思主义叛乱分子的行动。1980年，宪兵参与了赞比亚的一次未遂政变。17年后，他们成为推翻蒙博托总统的洛朗·卡比拉部队的一部分。调查宪兵对他们显然自相矛盾的行动的理解，需要询问后殖民刚果国家的含义以及非洲民族主义和国家形成的意识形态基础。我们还需要了解“隆达”作为一个民族语言类别的突出性，以及它跨越安哥拉、赞比亚和刚果民主共和国的后殖民边界的能力。这项研究建立在Larmer博士自2008年以来开展的工作基础上，并在2007-08年获得英国科学院小额资助。缔约国辩称，宪兵对“加丹加”作为一个地方的认同仍然至关重要，尽管该地区自1963年以来就不存在国家。事实上，这一身份的消失加强了对一个国家的渴望，而这个国家之所以强大，是因为它被剥夺了。由于这些原因，“加丹加”过去是，现在仍然是一个可塑性强，但有力的地方跨国身份。