Democracy & Development: Journal of West African Affairs
Volume 5, Number 2

Call for Papers: Special Issue on Transitional Justice
Guest Editor: Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

The story of West Africa’s transition from colonial to accountable government, as in many other parts of the world, has been long, slow, fraught, and bloody. Far from nearing completion, it is still work in progress. The course of this transition has been characterized by several unconstitutional changes in government, political assassinations and other forms of extra-judicial executions, forced displacement of communities and vast settlements, many rigged elections, large scale corruption, and many wars.

Together, the regional picture is arguably more than the sum of its individual country chapters. Each country of the sub-region has an interesting tale of its own transition. The current wave of transitions taking place in West Africa is not, however, the first of its kind since independence. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, many West African countries, including Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, and neighbouring Cameroun in Central Africa, undertook different forms of transition. The promise of those transitions was short-lived. Those transitions failed arguably because they were not informed by a candid appraisal and acknowledgement of the wrongs that preceded them.

Recent transitions in West Africa have instituted different mechanisms of transitional justice with varying degrees of popular credibility. The declared objective of these mechanisms in each case was to address historical wrongs and provide sustainable foundations for legitimate governance. Some of these processes, as in Sierra Leone and Liberia, are taking place under international supervision; others, as in Ghana and Nigeria, have taken place ostensibly under the impetus of domestic leadership. The Conferences Nationale in Benin Republic and Togo in the early 1990s are radically different from the more recent transitional justice processes in their English-speaking neighbours. It is arguable that these processes are comparable as much for the differences in their mechanics, as for what may be mixed perceptions about their outcomes. The fact that these mechanisms of transitional justice and Conferences Nationale can be mentioned in the same breath calls into question the meaning and content of transitional justice in itself. It also necessitates an investigation into and assessment of the various experiences of transitional justice in West Africa so far.

Against this background, the Board of Editors of Democracy and Development has authorized this call for papers for a Special Issue on Transitional Justice in West Africa. Articles in this Special Issue will:

• provide the context and meaning – both theoretical and experiential - of transitional justice in West Africa;
• provide regional perspective for understanding transitional justice in West Africa;
• describe and analyze specific processes and mechanisms of transitional justice researched by or known to the authors and their outcomes;
• describe and analyze the interplay of national and international factors in instituting or conducting processes of transitional justice in West African countries;
• How these processes affected or addressed violations affecting women, transnational communities, and other vulnerable groups or communities;
• investigate the social, legal, political, and anthropological significance or impact (if any) of these processes in their immediate milieu and beyond;
• indicate any unique contributions or notable regional trends specific to West African processes of transitional justice;
• analyze the engagement of West Africa’s citizens and institutions with transitional justice in West Africa as survivors, citizens, activists, actors, communities and organizations; and
• address any other aspects or features of transitional justice in West Africa.

Articles to be considered for publication in this Special Issue will be between 6,500 and 8,000 words long. Submissions (preferably by e-mail as MS Word attachment) should be accompanied by abstracts of not more than 250 words. Inter-disciplinary submissions and joint authorships are encouraged. Selected papers will be peer reviewed and authors will be asked to make corrections where necessary. While notes should be at the foot of pages, references should appear on a separate page at the end of the article in the following format:

For books: Clark, A.F. 2000. ‘From Military Dictatorship to Democracy: The Democratisation Process in Mali’, in R.J. Bingen et al. (eds.) Democracy and Development in Mali. East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University Press.

For journals: Hentz, J. 2000. ‘The Two Faces of Privatisation: Political and Economic Logics in Transitional South Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 203-223.

Deadline for submission of papers: 30 August 2005

Please direct all submissions and enquiries to Ebenezer Obadare at: [email protected] [2] or Dauda Garuba at: [email protected] [3] or visit the CDD home page at www.cdd.org.uk [4]