Conflict of Securities: Reflections on State and Human Security in Africa

Security' has become a buzzword in political discourses in Africa and elsewhere, especially since the terrorist attacks on America on 9/11 2001, and America's global responses to threat of terrorism. Yet, there persists a fundamental 'conflict of securities' in Africa - the security of the state and its governing elites versus the security of the people from a human and societal security point of view. African elites and the general populace appear to have divergent notions of security. For the governing elites, security seems to be mainly about territorial sovereignty, protection and patrimonialization of the state largesse while for the majority of the under-privileged and middle class Africans, security appears to be more about access to basic livelihood and farmland, human capital improvement, employment and wage matters, protection from violence, functional development infrastructures (transport networks, electricity, clean water, education, etc), as well as availability and affordability of essential services and amenities. Africa's security contradictions and dilemma raise a number of urgent and compelling questions: whose security matters most? How has security been historically constructed and provided in Africa? How have those who are alienated from the dominant security agendas responded to their conditions of insecurity? What nexus of factors and interests influence security governance and politics in various African states and why? And what are the domestic, regional and international implications of the politics of security for Africa?