Chapter 1 - The (Pre-)History and Evolution of African Peacekeeping

Summary

The main aim of this chapter is to give readers an overview of the evolution of African peacekeeping over time, delineating two somewhat distinct histories of the phenomenon. The chapter first examines the orthodox version of the evolution of African peacekeeping. Here, the focus is on the change from the OAU’s principle of non-intervention to the African Union’s notion of non-indifference. The authors trace this normative shift to the period after the Rwandan genocide, and to the broader security concept including the notion of human security. In line with this development, the chapter gives a brief overview of how the African Peace and Security Architecture represent this normative change in its structure and principles. In addition the chapter underlines the longer (pre-)history of African peacekeeping and the links that can be drawn between today’s peacekeeping, the creation of colonial police forces and armies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and European colonial powers’ deployment of African troops for regional 'pacification' military campaigns. The case of Ghana – and the Ghanaian Police Force – is explored as a case study in developing this argument.