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This course will offer historical, theoretical and empirical perspectives on the impact of conflict on social and economic development in eastern Africa over the past century. The region will be defined broadly to include Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, and eastern CDR (Zaire) - the Kasai and Kivu provinces. The purpose of the course is to give a comprehensive explanation of the historical origins of violence and war, focusing upon a wider theoretical and comparative literature in relation to case studies from the region.

Students will begin the course with a selection of readings on explanations of warfare and violence, including models that apply social, cultural, materialist and instrumental theories of causation. In the second part of the course, students will select case studies from eastern Africa. Students will be encouraged to define themes within each case, and to develop their work beyond the initial readings.

The choice of cases will include the Rwandan genocides of 1960, 1973 and 1994; brigandage and predation in eastern Congo, 1994-99; Amin's Uganda and the war of liberation; the southern Sudanese wars, since 1958; Somali irredentism, and the subsequent collapse of the Somali state; civil wars in Ethiopia, including the successful Eritrean secessionist campaign; banditry in northern Kenya; the Mau Mau conflict; religious cults and violence in northern Uganda; vigilante violence, in Kenya and Tanzania; urban violence and street gangs, through a variety of examples; the Zanzibar revolution and its aftermath.

In each case, students will be encouraged to consider the means of violence employed, the causes and motivations of conflict (including rational choice explanations and political economy factors), the relevance of political systems (including 'imposed' democratization) and political instrumentalism, issues of gender, youth, religion and ethnicity, and questions of culpability, ethics and moralities. The economic aspects of each conflict (`the costs of war') will also be tackled. International dimensions will be treated in relation to relief aid, development aid, reconstruction, and conflict resolution. The course will also include discussion of reparations, reconciliation and atonement.

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