Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gvvz8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T06:20:53.905Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The National Conferences in Benin and Togo Revisited

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Kathryn Nwajiaku
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As many as seven Conférences nationales (CNs) took place in French-speaking Africa between February 1990 and January 1993, all against the background of the apparent ‘wind of change’ which is sweeping across the continent where democratic governance is eventually to replace authoritarian rule. In Benin, the assembly of delegates that met during 19–28 February 1990 was supposed to be representative of all social, religious, professional, and political interest groups whose aim was to introduce a constitutional liberal democracy. This CN managed to gain acceptance of the sovereignty which it had declared on the second day — namely, that all its decisions would be legal and binding. The authority of President Matthieu Kérékou was thus effectively emasculated, whilst the elections which were timetabled and held a year later, finally unseated him after 20 years in power. In Togo, General Gnassingbe Eyadéma was able to reject the sovereignty claimed. by the CN, held from 8 July to 28 August 1991, as the balance of power was firmly in his favour.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 32 , Issue 3 , September 1994 , pp. 429 - 447
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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

1 Benin and Congo, February 1990; Gabon, March 1990; Zaïre, February 1991; Togo, July/August 1991; Niger, July 1992; and Chad, January 1993.

2 See Diamond, Larry, ‘Ex Africa… A New Spirit Has Loosened the Grip of African Dictatorial Rule’, in Times Literary Supplement (London), 2 07 1993, p. 3.Google Scholar

3 Heilbrunn, John R., ‘Social Origins of National Conferences in Benin and Togo’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 31, 2, 06 1993, pp. 277–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Ibid. p. 298. Heilbrunn continues on p. 299: ‘Democracy requires that the party out of power today perceives that it may obtain power tomorrow. This concept was foreign to the Togolese opposition, which demanded power immediately… Mutual hostilities and dissension characterised political relations within the Togolese opposition, thereby gravely impairing its ability to create democratic institutions.’Google Scholar

5 See Bratton, Michael and van de Walle, Nicolas, ‘Popular Protest and Political Reform in Africa’, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 4 December 1990Google Scholar, and Chabal, Patrick (ed.), Political Domination in Africa: reflections on the limits of power (Cambridge, 1986).CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Bayart, Jean-François, ‘La Revanche des sociétés africaines’, in Bayart, , Mbembe, Achille, and Toulabor, Comi M. (eds.), Le Politique par le bas en Afrique noire: contributions à une problematique de la démocratie (Paris, 1992), especially pp. 9–23, since this author is more self-questioning and less categoric about the existence of ‘civil society’ in Africa.Google Scholar

6 See Toulabor, Comi M., Le Togo sous Eyadéma (Paris, 1986).Google ScholarAside from continuing allegations that the French supported the overthrow of Sylvanus Olympio in January 1967, there is no doubt that Eyadéma had subsequently promoted French interests on the African stage and at OAU summits, and that in spite of his anti-colonial rhetoric about authenticité à la Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaïre, the French reciprocated his gestures materially and politically in return for preferential treatment in sales of mineral and phosphate exports.Google Scholar

7 Heilbrunn, loc. cit. p. 298.

8 Kpatindé, Francis, ‘Mathieu Kérékou au pied du mur’, in Jeune Afrique (Paris), 1521, 26 02 1990.Google Scholar

9 The Conférence nationale in Mali was convened and granted sovereignty by the armed forces once they had overthrown the political incumbent, and without their support the opposition would have been ineffective.Google Scholar

10 See Pollard, Robert, ‘La Démocratie ambiguë’, in Année africaine, 1992–1993 (Paris, 1993), pp. 17–57, and Marchés tropicaux et mediterranéens (Paris). Togo's gross revenue rose from 974,000 million CFA francs in 1987 to 114,700 million in 1990, with a 74 per cent increase in gift aid from 8,200 million to 14,300 million CFA francs.Google Scholar

11 See Mbongo, Pierre Moukoko, ‘Régimes militaires et transitions démocratiques en Afrique: à la recherche d'un cadre d'analyse théorique’, in Afrique 2000: revue africaine de la politique internationale (Geneva), 13, 05 1993, pp. 39–60, for claims that potential civilian opponents must not openly antagonise the interests of the army as a necessary precondition for the successful realisation of a change in political leadership.Google Scholar

12 According to Heilbrunn, John R., ‘The National Conference as a Democratising Process: a comparison of Benin and Togo’, Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association’, Chicago, September 1992, pp. 14–15, during the elections between August 1990 and February 1991, coalitions were formed between parties that represented formerly antagonistic regions.Google Scholar However, as pointed out by Allen, Chris, ‘Restructuring an Authoritarian State: the limits of democratic renewal in Benin’, Political Association Conference,Edinburgh,June 1991, pp. 10–15, voting patterns in Benin during these elections were highly localised, with few of the political parties showing any support in more than one region.Google Scholar

13 Given the restriction of developmental opportunities in the North of both Togo and Benin during the colonial era, the leaders of both countries had exploited the facilities afforded by the army as the main, if not only, outlet for social mobility there. This factor helps to explain the respective predominance of Ewe- and Fon-speaking peoples of the South amongst indigenous élites.Google Scholar

14 See Zepka, Laurent and Dossou, Antonin, ‘L'Impact du contre-choc pétrolier au Nigeria sur l'économie béninoise’, in Revue tiers-monde (Paris), 120, 10—11 1989, pp. 893–905.Google Scholar

15 See Vittin, T. E., ‘Bénin: du systeme Kérékou au renouveau démocratique’, in Médard, Jean-François (ed.), États d'Afrique noire: formations, méchanismes et crises (Paris, 1992), pp. 93–115. Traders could avoid direct taxation, easily by-passing the state; peasants could augment their household income through the sale of food produce, in addition to the cash-crop quotas purchased by the state; and officials employed by the régime could engage in speculative activities, facilitated by their access to prebendal bonuses within the state apparatus.Google Scholar

16 Kpor, Cudjoe, ‘Festive Moment?’, in West Africa (London), 23–29 04 1990, p. 666.Google Scholar

17 See Niandou-Souley, Abdoulaye, ‘Crise des authoritarianismes militaires et renouveau politique en Afrique de l'ouest. Étude comparative: Bénin, Mali, Niger, Togo’, Doctoral thesis, Institut d'études politiques, Centre d'étude d'Afrique noire, Bordeaux I, 1991–1992, Tome 1, pp. 184–5.Google Scholar

18 See Toulabor, Comi M., ‘Jeu de mots, jeu de vilains: léxique de la dérision politique au Togo’, in Bayart, Mbembe, and Toulabor (eds.), op. cit. pp. 101–31, for the importance of the political derision that characterised many published tracts and cartoons.Google Scholar

19 See Vittin, T. E., ‘Crise renouveau et mutations du paysage médiatique au Bénin’, in Afrique 2000, May 1992, pp. 37–59.Google Scholar

20 Heilbrunn, ‘The National Conference as a Democratising Process’, pp. 7–11.

21 Ibid. p. 5.

22 See Bayart, Jean-François, The State in Africa: the politics of the belly (London, 1993 edn.), p. 240Google Scholar: ‘The social frustratïons caused by the economy of survival force many “little men” to make radical choices: either allow oneself to sink into dementia, like the unemployed man in Douala who cut off his penis because he “never had enough money to merit a woman” — according to La Gazette de la nation (Douala), 2 08 1984— ‘or to seize by force that which society denies them.’Google Scholar

23 Toulabor, op. cit. p. 12.

24 See Mbembe, Achille, ‘Pouvoir, violence et accumulation’, in Bayart, , Mbembe, , and Toulabor, (eds.), op. cit. pp. 233–56.Google Scholar

25 See Niandou-Souley, op. cit. Tome II, ‘La Pyrocratie’, pp. 302–6. See also Toulabor, Comi M., ‘La Dérision politique en liberte è Lomé’, in Politique africaine (Paris), 43, 10 1991, pp. 136–41;Google ScholarMbembe, Achille, ‘Diagnostiques sur le dérapages de La transition démocratique en Afrique noire’, in Afrique 2000, 12, February 1993, pp. 57–65;Google Scholar and Bigo, Didier, ‘La Délégitimation des pouvoirs: entre politique du ventre et démocratic’, in Conac, Gérard (ed.), L'Afrique en transition vers le pluralisme politique (Paris, 1993), pp. 155–63.Google Scholar

26 Bayart, ‘La Revanche des sociétés africaines’, and Bayart, Jean-François, ‘La Problématique de la démocratie en Afrique noire: La Baule et après’, in Politique africaine, 43, 10 1991, pp. 5–22.Google Scholar

27 Laloupo, Francis, ‘La Conférence nationale du Bénin: un concept nouveau de changement de régime politique’, in Année africaine, 1992–1993, p. 100.Google Scholar

28 Although the Conférence des cadres of 1978–1979 had aroused the hopes of former critics of the PRPB single-party system, they had been left greatly disappointed that dialogue brought few concrete changes.Google Scholar

29 See Callaghy, Thomas M., ‘Lost Between State and Market: the politics of economic adjustment in Ghana, Zambia, and Nigeria’, in Nelson, Joan M. (ed.), Economic Crisis and Policy Choice (Princeton, 1990), pp. 257–62.Google Scholar

30 The CN in Benin had also been given the task of forwarding proposals for the implementation of the 1989 structural adjustment programme.Google Scholar

31 See Bourmaud, Daniel and Quantin, Patrick, ‘Sur Mesure et pr^t-à-porter: les conférences nationales en Afrique noire, 1990–91’, p. 11, 4ème Congrès, Association française de science politique, Paris, 23–26 September 1992. They note that the shorter the CN, the more likely it was that the ‘victory of the winning team’ was already pre-ordained (because of the unequal power relations), whereas the longer the CN the more complicated it became. Where la politique du ventre also intervened, the likelihood of success was less Certain. In the Congo the CN lasted three months, costing Western governments 3,500 million CFA francs or FF70 million.Google Scholar

32 Agence France Presse, 20 June 1990.

33 See Sada, H., ‘Chaillot n'est pas La Baule’, in Jeune Afrique, 27 November–3 December 1991.Google Scholar

34 Agence France Presse, 25 December 1992. Charles Pasqua is now Minister of the Interior in Edouard Balladur's RPR Government in France.Google Scholar

35 See Pilon, Marc, ‘La Transition togolaise dans l'impasse’, in Politique africaine, 49, 03 1993, pp. 136–41.Google Scholar

36 See Marchés tropicaux et méditetrranéens, 26 June 1992.Google Scholar

37 See Allen, op. cit. pp. 14–15. Adrien Houngbedji was renowned for his ‘pledging practices’.Google Scholar

38 See Marchés tropicaux et méditerranéens, 19 March 1991, and ‘Transition exemplaire au Bénin’, in Jeune Afrique, 1579, 3–9 April 1991. It was reported that all Southern residents had left Parakou, and that two people had been killed and 15 injured.Google Scholar

39 Tomakpleconou, J., ‘Et si M. Kérékou revenait… et la CN?’, in La Croix (Cotonou), 553, 15 03 1991, quoted by Vittin, ‘Benin’, loc. cit. p. 111.Google Scholar

40 Callaghy, Thomas M. comments on the dangers of democracy being viewed as the substance not the form of political life, in ‘Politics and Vision in Africa: the interplay of domination, equality and liberty’, in Chabal (ed.), op. cit. pp. 30–52.Google Scholar

41 See Pollard, loc. cit. p. 17. Democratic formalism and régime stability as envisaged by those within World Bank circles are often at odds with what ‘democrats’ would like. The French Ministry of Co-operation granted Beam FF588 million in 1989 but only FF300 million in 1990, whereas Togo received an increase in aid from FF305 million in 1989 to FF519 million in 1990. This was at a time when Eyadéma was showing most antagonism to the democratic movement and was overtly opposed to multi-partyism.Google Scholar

42 Allen, Chris, ‘“Goodbye to All That”: the short sad story of socialism in Benin’, Conference on ‘Marxism's Retreat from Africa’, University of Birmingham, 1992.Google Scholar

43 Callaghy, , ‘Lost Between State and Market’, pp. 257–319.Google Scholar

44 Vittin, ‘Crise renouveau’, loc. cit. pp. 37–59.