| Why Comrades Go to War: Liberation Politics and the Outbreak of Africa's Deadliest Conflict Contributor(s): Roessler, Philip (Author), Verhoeven, Harry (Author) |
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ISBN: 0190864559 ISBN-13: 9780190864552 Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA OUR PRICE: $26.13 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: December 2017 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Africa - Central - History | Revolutionary - History | Military - Wars & Conflicts (other) |
| Dewey: 967.510 |
| LCCN: 2017287329 |
| Physical Information: 1.2" H x 5.5" W x 8.4" (1.40 lbs) 512 pages |
| Themes: - Chronological Period - 1990's - Chronological Period - 21st Century - Cultural Region - Central Africa |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: In October 1996, a motley crew of ageing Marxists and unemployed youth coalesced to revolt against Mobutu Seso Seko, president of Zaire/Congo since 1965. The rebels of the AFDL marched over 1500km in seven months to crush the dictatorship, heralding liberation as a second independence for Central Africa as a whole. US President Bill Clinton toasted AFDL leader Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his regional allies -- having developed a unique camaraderie and personal trust on the region's battlefronts -- as a 'new generation of African leaders' ushering in an 'African Renaissance.' Within months, however, the Pan-Africanist alliance fell apart. The AFDL's collapse triggered a cataclysmic fratricide between the heroes of liberation that became the deadliest conflict since the Second World War, drawing in eight African countries. This book draws on hundreds of interviews with protagonists from Africa and the international community to offer a novel theoretical and empirical account of Africa's Great War. Bridging the gap between comparative politics and international relations, it argues that the renewed outbreak of calamitous violence in August 1998 was a function of the kind of regime the AFDL was and how its leaders saw Congo, the region and themselves. As a Pan-Africanist liberation movement, the collapse of the AFDL government internally and the unravelling of regional order externally were inextricably linked. |