A PAPER ABOUT AN ANALYSIS OF MAJOR CAUSES AND IMPACT OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL CONFLICTS IN AFRICA AND TANZANIA IN PARTICULAR

CHAPTER ONE: Introduction
1.1 Background information of conflicts in Africa
This paper is about the analysis of the major causes and impacts of political, economic and social conflicts in Africa and Tanzania in particular. This paper hopes to stimulate discussion on conflict issues in Africa and Tanzania in particular. The past two decades have seen violent conflicts take an increasing toll on the hopes for Africa’s development. Almost half of all African countries, and over one in three African people, are affected directly or indirectly by conflicts. Unless major progress is made to address conflict, Africa is unlikely to reach the International Development Goals by 2015 development.

CHAPTER TWO: Theoretical Review
2.1 Understanding Conflict Resolution concept
Conflict is defined as a disagreement through which the parties involved perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns. According to Galtung (1996) conflict could be viewed as a triangle with structure, attitude, and behavior as its vertices. By structure, he means conflict is situation, the parties, and the conflict of interest among them. Conflict arises where the parties come to have incompatible interests, values or goals. He uses the term attitudes to refer to the tendency for the parties to see conflict from their own point of view, to identify with own side, and to diminish the concerns of others. Behavior includes gestures and communications, which can convey either a hostile or a conciliatory intent (source: http://www.parlrent.cat cited 15/08/08).

Conflict in Africa has dramatically increased in level and scale throughout the 1990s. In January 2000 over half of African countries were affected. Conflict is caused by inequality, economic decline, and state collapse. The legacies of European colonialism and the Cold War have changed in nature; wars are now predominantly regional. This has resulted in increasingly affected non-combatants over the past decade as a result of increasing factional fighting and violent action against the civilian population. Also has caused as many deaths each year as are caused by epidemic diseases, and has uprooted millions of people. This also resulted in a marked reduction in food production and serious losses of infrastructure.

The resolution of conflict is essential, both to reduce human suffering, and to remove the barrier conflict imposes to economic development on the continent. The record of international peacekeeping in Africa has been weak and the international community must determine to do better. The international community is committed to play its part. But effective and enduring solutions will only come from Africa’s own commitment, with Africans leading the effort to address the causes of conflict.

2.2 Root Causes of conflict in Africa
Understanding the causes of conflicts is critical to stopping and preventing war. The causes may be complex and country specific, including long-term and short-term issues. And new factors tend to emerge during conflict (for example, grievances of those who have lost the most), adding to the initial causes. Each situation demands a detailed and specific conflict analysis. Political corruption, lack of respect for rule of law, human rights violations are all common reasons heard for some of the causes of Africa’s problems. Also countries which their economies depend on a few export commodities, conflicts happen more frequently and countries which are rich in mineral resources, such as diamonds, gold, tanzanite and oil, where greed may cause and fuel conflict last longer. But below are some of reasons discussed in details as the cause conflict in Africa:-

Inequality
Inequality between groups is probably the foremost cause of conflict in Africa. It is inequality between groups - rather than individuals - that increases the prospects of violent conflict. It exists on three mutually reinforcing levels: economic, social and political. In countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda, political power and its benefits were monopolized by one group. Unequal access to power perpetuated a similar lack of access to resources and revenue. Where group inequality occurs there is also differential access to education (as has notably been the case in Burundi).This plays a key role in sustaining inequalities. Where a society is divided into two pre-dominant groups, growing inequality between them often leads to conflict.

State collapse
The collapse of state institutions has caused internal and regional conflict. Collapse is rarely sudden, but arises out of a long degenerative process that is characterized by predatory government operating through coercion, corruption and personality politics to secure political power and control of resources. The state finds unable any longer to provide basic services or security to its people and loses its legitimacy. The collapse of infrastructure completes the break up of the state. The combination of breakdown of institutions and physical infrastructure coupled with the use of ethnic violence creates the conditions in which violence becomes self-sustaining and factional warfare develops, as has happened in Liberia and Sierra Leone.

Economic decline and economic shock
Economic decline plays a major part in conflict. Economic shock is a more direct and potent cause of conflict. This can take various forms ranging from natural catastrophe to sudden large shifts in terms of trade. The Ethiopian famine of 1974 was the main factor in the overthrow of Haile Selasse’s government and the violence that ensued.

History
Many conflicts occur where there is a tradition of resolving problems by violent means. Political violence is entrenched and the instruments of the state such as the army, the police and the judiciary sustain the process. Other historical processes may provoke violence. History in places such as the DRC, Rwanda and Burundi created a state model based on the artificial creation and abuse of ethnicity to maintain power. A past pattern of conflict is one of the best predictors of future conflict. Deeply entrenched historical patterns of violence are amongst the most difficult to resolve as they require major societal and political change.

Natural resource wealth
Africa accommodates two types of resource based conflict: wars of resource scarcity and wars of abundance. The most common conflicts of scarcity relate to the control of grazing and water rights for nomadic people. Countries, whose economies are dependent on natural resources such as oil and minerals, face a very high risk of conflict. In these wars of abundance, groups compete for control of these resources, which become the “prize” for controlling the state and can lead to coups, as in Sierra Leone and the DRC. Unfair exploitation of resource rich regions can lead to secession. Abundant resources can also attract external intervention. The role of the private sector is critical in wars of abundance, as belligerents rely on its capacity to exploit and commercialize the resources. Frequently, the military have become involved in developing their own commercial companies. Such wars become self-financing, self-sustaining, and therefore less open to mediation.

Unemployment, lack of education and population pressure
Countries with high levels of unemployment among young men and where male educational levels are low face a far higher risk of conflict. Throughout Africa, factional conflict has drawn on a pool of marginalized or socially excluded young men. Increasing insecurity of land tenure in Rwanda and the high levels of rural unemployment provided a ready group of participants in the genocide there. The conflict in Liberia was fought by socially marginalized young men.

The abuse of ethnicity
Political leaders and belligerents in Africa have made increasing use of ethnic hatred. Such abuse prolongs conflict, creates long term divisions that reduce the effectiveness of peace building efforts. The war in the DRC provides a ready example of the abuse of ethnicity. Elements of the DRC government have openly provoked ethnic tensions in the Kivus with the intention of destabilizing areas under Rwandan influence. Equally elements of the Ugandan armed forces have exploited ethnic differences in order to benefit commercially from the conflict. In both instances community divisions have been deepened and there have been a greater number of fatalities and injury than are experienced in more conventional fighting.

Availability of arms
The ready availability of small arms in Africa is a major factor in sustaining and fuelling conflict. Considerable supplies of small arms are in circulation from previous wars. For example, between 1972 and 1990, Ethiopia and Somalia imported $8billion worth of small arms and light weapons. In 1992, the Angolan government distributed an estimated 700,000 rifles to the population for their defense against UNITA. Caches of arms exist throughout the continent and Africa has active trading networks that move arms between countries. However imports of arms, primarily from former Soviet Bloc countries, continue to grow and to sustain conflict. The increasing capacity within Africa to manufacture ammunition has removed yet another constraint on the use of small arms. The ready availability and relatively low cost of small arms has been coupled with the emergence of a network of both local and international dealers who trade arms for minerals or other resources. This has been a major factor in prolonging African conflicts, which have become self-sustaining conflicts and consequently less amenable to external mediation or intervention.

2.3 The impact of conflict in Africa
Refugees and internal displacement
During the last two decades, sub-Saharan Africa has been the most conflict-affected region in the world. Ten of the 24 most war-affected countries between 1980 and 1994 were African, and four of these (Liberia, Angola, Mozambique and Somalia) were ranked within the five most severely affected countries in the world. Conflict has been responsible for more death and displacement than famine or flood. The scale and nature of warfare have directly affected the lives of many millions of Africans. The main elements of this tragedy are the millions of uprooted people who have lost their homes and livelihood, the increasing numbers of direct civilian casualties and increased levels of violence, abuse and mutilation suffered by non-combatants. Internal displacement and refugee flows have a serious effect on the economy and the environment. The denial of access to the land by military factions has led displaced people to congregate in cities and surrounding areas. Uprooted populations lose access to any means of production and put enormous pressure on government services. Refugees and the internally displaced put pressure on fuel and water resources. The World Bank estimates that in Africa the total direct costs of refugees to their hosts are in the region of $530 million per year.


Child soldiers
Children have become one of the main targets of violence and in turn are being used to perpetuate it. Children are deliberately indoctrinated into a culture of violence and used as a specific instrument of war. Militia groups and irregular armed forces such as the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda, the Interahamwe in Rwanda / DRC, the RUF in Sierra Leone, UNITA in Angola, and formerly Renamo in Mozambique, have made a practice of forcibly recruiting children and initiating them through acts of violence against their own community. The intention is to create a fighting force that is separate, reckless towards others and has a tactical advantage over adult conventional forces. There are now approximately 350,000 child soldiers worldwide, of whom some 200,000 are in Africa.

Civilian casualties
War in Africa causes increasing suffering for civilians. They suffer death and injuries and the indirect consequences of famine and epidemic disease that have followed in the wake of war. Since 1960 over eight million people have died either directly or indirectly as a result of war in Africa, of whom five and a half million were civilians.

Violence
The most disturbing aspect of conflict in Africa is the increasing use of extreme violence, especially over the last ten years. Violence is now deliberately targeted at civilians rather than armed groups, and at entire groups rather than individuals.5 In the conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Mozambique, Northern Uganda, Sudan and Angola, violence has taken appalling forms.

Effects on economic
Africa’s development is threatened by conflict. Armed conflict has become one of the most important causes of poverty in Africa, leading to displacement of people, and the destruction of communities’ livelihoods. The effects of war cut across all levels of the economy down to the level of the household. War has a direct and immediate economic impact through the physical disruption it creates, denying access to land, key resources or markets. Some of the effects of conflict are less tangible. Insecurity is the least conducive climate for domestic savings and internal or external investment. Nor is the impact of war limited to the area of conflict. War damages regional infrastructure, markets and investment confidence across a wider region. The regional spread of conflict jeopardizes stable and successful countries. The World Bank estimates that conflict in Africa is causing a loss of 2% annual economic growth across the continent. Conflict in Africa has also created a substantial loss of opportunity. Lost either through the inability of states to invest in their own populations or through high military spending which has squeezed out effective investment in the economy. The continent as a whole is seen as a high risk by potential external investors because of armed conflicts.

Loss of infrastructure
War has seriously damaged Africa’s infrastructure. Roads, rail, ports, airports, electricity, water supply, sewers and telecommunications have all been affected. During war there has been a dearth of investment in and maintenance of infrastructure. Over the past twenty years Africa has lost over fifty per cent of its transport infrastructure, many of the losses due to conflict. This loss has both an immediate and a long-term impact on African economies. In immediate terms, it increases impoverishment. For example, South Sudan has almost no viable road network as a result of years of civil war. This severely harms the livelihood of the population, who are dependent on trading cattle for cereals as their means of survival. Countries such as Angola and DRC are now totally dependent on air transport because of the collapse of infrastructure and insecurity. Countries affected by war also suffer from weak, fragmented and highly unstable markets. This in turn contributes to another characteristic of war-affected economies: hyperinflation and a volatile currency.

National impact on production and livelihoods
In the majority of African economies the most direct impact of war is on production and household livelihoods. War can deny people access to their land at critical growing or planting periods, increase the costs of agricultural inputs, disrupt markets and restrict sales of produce. The use of landmines for example, in countries like Angola has severely limited access to land for the long term. Agricultural production and family livelihoods have suffered dramatically as a result.

CHAPTER THREE: Empirical review
3.1 Overview of conflict in Tanzania
Tanzania is a country which is considered to be peacefully and stable country in Africa. The country is known to be an “oasis of peace” (Hofmeier 1997) on the troubled African continent. Although the country is among the few African states that have experienced a “classical” war – a war between two independent states (Matthies 1998) – the East African country can look back on 40 years of relative internal peace and stability. No civil wars, no military coups, no state-collapse, no warlords, neither ethnic nor religious, neither political nor social clashes have tormented the country and its people. However, when looking the definition of conflict one is obliged to say, Tanzania has never been a country without conflicts. As in any society, conflict between different interests, identities, opinions and demands occurred. They were fought out along the lines of ethnic and regional affiliation, religion and ideology, gender and generation, and many others. Conflicts in Tanzania are caused by poverty which result to big gap between rich and poor, poor policy formulation and implementation, poor governance, misuse of resources, unequal distribution of resources and culture and belief differences.
Most of time Tanzania experiences conflict between Farmers and Pastoralists (example Wachoka and Wancholi in mara region, Wakwavi and Masai in Kilosa District in Morogoro region, ), Employees and Employers (example Tanzania Railway Limited), Small business men(Machinga) and Government in Kariakoo market in Dar es salaam, residents along road side and Government in case of expansion of roads example Kurasini road in Dar es salaam, land residence conflict between community and government (example Tabata residence in Dar es salaam and government), investors and villagers example Buhemba, Merelani, Bulialikulu, Mwadui mining Co, political parties example CCM and CUF during national election, University students and University management or loan board in the issue of students rights and privileges. Religious concflic eg KKKT, Christians and muslims, National parks and community around national parks eg Loliondo in Arusha.

3.2 Causes of conflict in Tanzania
When looking Tanzania since independence 1961, one is obliged to observe that, violent conflict has increased this is due to changed modes of interaction between state and society and within the society. These changes were the –quite intended-results of the manifold reforms, which Tanzania undergoes since the mid-1980s. For these reasons the root cause of conflict in Tanzania can be classified as political, religious, economic and social patterns which are discussed below as follows:

Governance and Policy
It has been contented that one of the major causes of conflict and insecurity in Tanzania is poor policy formulated by the government that are not well researched and difficulty to implement. There has been top down approach without community involvement. The notable big matter was that of villagelization which most of the community members in a certain areas were displaced. Tanzanians have witnessed political parties’ conflict in the country due to elections from the time of single party to Mult-party. This is due to lack of free and fair election. For instance, Zanzibar issue is a sign of conflict in Tanzania since many years due to nation election between CCM and CUF, and the recent one on whether Zanzibar is a country or not is becoming up very hot. Poor governance in the country led to corruption within the government officials. There has been cry for long time on the corruption which has increased hardship to the citzens for instance the Richmond, EPA, Buswagi and Kiwila coal mining.

Culture, poverty and political isolation
Tribal cultures have come into contact with other cultures, and have slowly evolved to accommodate the impact of such contacts, shedding some of their more foreboding characteristics. For instance, the conflict that revolves around cattle rearing areas with farmers, a good example is the conflict in Mara region between Wanyanchoka and Wanchari and, Wakwavi and Masai in Kilosa District in Morogoro region.

Religious
There have been religious conflict especially between Muslims and Christian from the side of education and to the way people worships. On the side of education, the government privatized government schools as it said it was due to the limited financial resources hence poor educational sector has been put into private hands. When looking the education sector, the Christian churches become active and provided good education, although these schools are usually open for non-Christians too, the Muslim community mostly depends on low standard schools. Thus the already existing educational gap between Muslims and Christians is reinforced (although now days there are few Muslim schools). This dissimilarity in education is translated into competitive disadvantages of Muslims in their efforts to find a good job especially in the government sector, and it results in a perception that government favors Christians. On the other hand, Muslims are not happy to see pork butchery near their place of residents or near to mosque. But also there are conflicts between Christians and Christians or Muslims and Muslims, for example the Mwanga and Arumeru saga which is a conflict between Christians of Lutheran church and others that are emerging day to day. Economic reform introduced private ownership, competition and exclusion into society which is characterized by ideals of state control, unity and inclusion. With the current system which was not used to the citizens, has brought many conflict of interest as there are few benefits from the system and many do suffer.

3.3 Impact of conflict in Tanzania
The conflict in Tanzania has its consequences to the people of Tanzania. The people, societies and economies of Tanzania, has suffered from the economic, environmental and social consequences of conflict. Notable among these are the following negative impact:
Corruptions in the country have reached a point where it brings havoc to the citizen and has been a big factor for conflict in the country between the government and its citizens. Most of the leaders are not bide to the rule of the law hence bring conflict. This can be elaborated by the Richmond issue.

Fighting with poverty in the country has been slow, because of corruption, poor policies and poor governance. For example, most people in Dar es Salaam are living in poor conditions and temporary shelter of squatter/slum areas which is about 60% of Dar es Salaam urban dwellers are to be found in these settlements.Increase of diseases such as HIV/AIDS which is believed emerged from Uganda after the Idd Amin war.Due to free markets in Tanzania, the income gap between the rich and the poor is very wide. This is a time bomb. As a result there have been robbery and people are not at peace.

Environment degradation has increased due to conflict of interest between people, government and private investors on side of mines, forestry, water source and lives stock keepers.
Poor social services- this is mainly caused by corruption in the country. Some of the social services are not provided to the required standards.Drug trafficking has increased and the young people are using them as a way of getting relief from the life hardship increase of orphans and widow due to HIV/AIDS.

CHAPTER FOUR: Conclusion
This paper examines the causes and consequences of conflict in Africa. There is of course no single correct view of the causes of conflict, in Africa or elsewhere. Each conflict has its own unique set of circumstances and causes. But there are patterns of conflict in different regions and historical eras. The challenge is to improve our understanding and to translate this into more effective action to prevent and reduce conflict.

The resolution of conflict is essential, both to reduce human suffering, and to remove the barrier conflict imposes to economic development on the continent. The record of international peacekeeping in Africa has been weak and the international community must determine to do better. The political will and strong international support is required so that internal conflicts can be resolved and sustainable peace restored. Therefore, African leaders and the international community, including the World Bank, must recognize the magnitude of the challenge. But for effective and enduring solutions will only come from Africa’s own commitment, with Africans leading the effort to address the causes of conflict.

This paper concludes that it is important that all stakeholders in conflict prevention, resolution and post-conflict reconstruction work closely together. If we can do this both at a national level and internationally there is a better chance that Africa will be able to take advantage of the benefits of globalization and, that we can achieve the International Development Target of a 50 per cent reduction in the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015.