African Arguments

About the authors

Title page

Copyright

Introduction

Why Africa? Why now?

The global war on drugs

Africa and the drugs war

1 | Africa’s drug habit

Sources for African drug consumption

Understanding drug use

Key substances

Table 1.1 Drug seizures in Africa (kilograms), 2005–09

Consumption and crisis

2 | Drugs and development: a new threat or opportunity?

Received wisdom

‘Green gold’ and the ‘cow of the ground’: Africa’s drug crops

Productive consumption

3 | Drug barons, traffickers and mules: Africa as entrepôt

Africa in the history of the drug trade

The emerging heroin and cocaine connection

Figure 3.1 Annual cocaine seizures in West Africa (kilograms), 2000–07

Barons, traffickers and mules

Figure 3.2 Distribution of global cocaine seizures by region (tonnes and percentage of total), 2009

A future Colombia?

4 | African states and drugs: complicity, neglect and repression

‘Weak African states’ and drugs

The complicit state – Guinea-Bissau

The neglectful state – Lesotho

The repressive state – Nigeria

Implications of the global war on drugs

Conclusion: alternatives to the drug war?

What is the historical depth to African drug production, trade, consumption and policy?

What is the extent of drug consumption in Africa? What sub­stances are consumed in what socio-cultural settings? And how fearful should we be?

How damaging to development are the production, trade and use of drugs in Africa?

Will Africa’s role as entrepôt in the trade of heroin and cocaine further expand and lead to the emergence of ‘narco-states’?

How has the war on drugs manifested itself in different African countries? And how have different states actualized ­inter­national drug policy?

What room is there in Africa for alternative perspectives and policies that diverge from the received wisdom of prohibition?

Notes

Introduction

1 Africa’s drug habit

2 Drugs and development

3 Africa as entrepôt

4 African states and drugs

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index