A Current Bibliography on African Affairs - Baywood Publishing

420 / A CURRENT BIBLIOGRAPHY ON AFRICAN AFFAIRS
the movement and its opponents, and the attempts of both sides to site their arguments
within the broader master-frames of liberation or tradition.
1413. Throup, D. W. THE COUNT. Journal of Eastern African Studies. 2008, 2(2):
290-304.
The drama of Kenya’s election reached its climax on Sunday 30 December 2007 with the
announcement by Samuel Kivuitu, chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, that
Mwai Kibaki had won the presidential vote to secure a second term in office. Within 24
hours, violence had broken out over many parts of Kenya, and neither local nor international
observer teams had been able to endorse the result amid claims by the opposition that
the presidential election had been ‘stolen’. This article examines the story of the count
itself, considering the role of the Kenya press and the observer groups in shaping our
perceptions of what happened, to conclude that while it is clear that there were many
irregularities in the election process, the veracity of the result remains obscure.
1414. Titeca, K. THE ‘MASAI’ AND MIRAA: PUBLIC AUTHORITY, VIGILANCE
AND CRIMINALITY IN A UGANDAN BORDER TOWN. Journal of Modern African
Studies. 2009, 47(2):291-317.
Recent studies on vigilante groups show how they often begin as popular schemes for
imposing order, before degenerating into violent militias which contribute in turn to social
and political disorder. The Masai, a group of khat sellers and consumers in the Ugandan
border town of Bwera, represent a more complex case. By using vigilance tactics in the
provision of security, the Masai actually help to shape public authority within Bwera town
instead of creating institutional chaos. They also provide a range of services, imposing a
degree of order on illegal cross-border activities in the area.
1415. Uche, C. OIL, BRITISH INTERESTS AND THE NIGERIAN CIVIL WAR.
Journal of African History. 2008, 49:111-135.
Using newly available evidence, mainly from the Public Records Office (now the
National Archive) in London, this article attempts to unravel the true extent of the role that
British oil interests played in the decision of the British government to insist on a ‘One
Nigeria’ solution in the Nigeria/Biafra conflict. While the official position of the British
government was that its main interest in the Nigeria conflict was to prevent the break-up of
the country along tribal lines, the true position was more complex. Evidence in this paper
suggests that British oil interests played a much more important role in the determination of
the British attitude to the war than is usually conceded.
1416. Utas, M., and Jörgel, M. THE WEST SIDE BOYS: MILITARY NAVIGATION IN
THE SIERRA LEONE CIVIL WAR. Journal of Modern African Studies. 2008, 46(3):487-511.
This article is grounded in the politics of a military economy. The WSB was one of
several military actors in the Sierra Leonean civil war (1991–2002). A splinter group of the
army, and then more specifically of the AFRC, it emerged as a key player in 1999–2000. In
most Western media accounts, it appeared as nothing more than renegade, anarchistic
bandits, chronically drugged or intoxicated, cross-dressers, devoid of any trace of
long-term goals. By contrast, we aim, in this article, to explain how the WSB used
well-devised military techniques in the field; how their history and military training within
the SLA shaped their notion of themselves and their view of what they were trying to