Abstract
In 2007, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNOCD) released a report in which it warned against West Africa’s growing role as an intermediary in the cocaine trade between Latin America and Europe. According to the report, one quarter of all cocaine now sold in Europe passes through West African states (UNODC, 2007). While there has been a surge in cocaine trafficking via West Africa to Europe since the mid-2000s, drug trafficking and drug consumption are nothing new to this part of the continent, or to Africa in general, as the book under review Pan-African Issues in Drugs and Drug Control: An International Perspective (Kaluna-Crumpton, Ed.) clearly shows.
A number of reasons can be identified for the remarkable shift in (cocaine) drug trafficking routes, away from the more traditional straight to Europe or via the Caribbean line. Some of these are exogenous to (West) Africa. For instance, there appears to be a saturation of North American cocaine markets, while simultaneously more effective drug interdiction along Caribbean smuggling routes is taking place. Also, there is growing dominance of Mexican drug gangs, frustrating direct access of the Latin American cartels to the North American markets. But there are also important endogenous reasons for Latin American drug cartels (and to a lesser extent Asian heroin smuggling cartels) to divert their trade via Africa. For decades, the continent, including the West African coastal region, has suffered from political instability and armed conflict. Only recently, the continent is moving toward sustainable peace and stability, although some states are still plagued by conflict, while others should be classified as being in a postwar reconstruction phase. Respect for and enforcement of law and order remains weak, and corruption is rampant in many countries and in particular those affected by civil uprisings or armed conflict. Moreover, West African smuggling networks—some specialized in the trafficking of illegal migrants to Southern and Western Europe—are well established, taking advantage of state fragility, the porosity of national borders, and the extensive and unguarded coastline. There are indications that these networks are increasingly used for trafficking narcotics, either directly where large quantities of drugs are transported or indirectly with migrants carrying small quantities of drugs. Moreover, traffickers turn out to be highly flexible in their mode of smuggling and the routes taken, with a crackdown on one hub or method only increasing the use of other places, routes, and modes for trafficking.
If we are to believe the rather alarmist findings of the UNODC and the United States’ ongoing “War on Drugs” rhetoric, some African states are quickly becoming or already have become “Narco states” (Guinea-Bissau comes to mind here). But, do the data support this reading? Data on drug trafficking and drug use are difficult to gather, if not notoriously unreliable. This may be particular true for many African countries. Therefore, any attempt to systematically gather data, analyze, and interpret it should be applauded. Pan-African Issues in Drugs and Drug Control does do this. The various authors of the chapters on Drugs and Drug Control in African countries (respectively, Cameroon, Ghana, Kenya, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Zimbabwe) must have gone to considerable length to find seizure data, user data (often obtained via surveys), data on the use and availability of treatment, in addition to information on countries’ drug laws and policies. A lot can be learned from the facts and figures, even if there is some degree of inaccuracy. But while these chapters capture the latest data, there is a risk in relying so much on facts and figures that they become outdated rather quickly. Moreover, while some of the data are not in the public domain, other data are available publicly, and researchers and policy makers may look up the latest data online rather than using this book. Given that there is so much that we still do not know with regard to drug trafficking, drug use, and drug control on the African continent, I would have favored chapters with a more ethnographic focus, with the option to further study the issues from a more historical, socioeconomic, judicial, or health perspective to name just a few angles of research.
If a more ethnographic approach would have been taken, it would have offered interesting opportunities to explore similarities and differences between those chapters focusing on Africa and those chapters that look at non-African countries with an African diaspora. As stated, Pan-African Issues in Drugs and Drug Control aims to incorporate the experiences of African peoples, both on the continent and in the diaspora, in the actualities of the global drug problems through an examination of drug use, drug trafficking, and drugs control. To this end, in addition to the chapters focusing on African countries, it has chapters on Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, United States, Virgin Island, Britain, and Italy. One example of something that could have been explored across the chapters (or would have come up naturally if a more ethnographic approach was taken) is the role of culture and (the loss of) Africanness. Timi Osidipe, in his chapter on Drug and Drug Control in Britain, concludes that “the loss of Africanness and the imbibing of Western behavior by Africans living in Britain constitute the main reason for the involvement of some Africans in drugs use in the first instance.” It would be interesting to know if this observation is true for the other non-African countries under scrutiny and if it would be a relevant explanatory framework to better understand increasing drug use on the African continent itself, where, as a result of urbanization and globalization, more traditional African values have come under threat.
In short, Pan-African Issues is a useful contribution as long as one keeps the above caveat in mind. Particularly for those who are interested in one or more of the 16 countries discussed, this book could be of valuable help and a good starting point.