The Privatisation of Violence and Security Sector Reform in Africa : Nigeria and South Africa Examined

The creation of stronger states in Africa is central to the success of conceiving, designing and implementing agendas that seek to enhance peace and human security. Most states in Africa exhibit chronic privatisation of violence by informal security actors, and this is symptomatic of the difficulties of state building more generally. Security sector reform (SSR) as a tool for peacebuilding and human security on the continent must therefore be part of a wider effort to address the problem of state weakness as well as respond to the crucial (in)security that is presented by informal actors such as militias and vigilante groups. This has become crucial in the light of the human security predicaments that informal security actors represent. This article uses the cases of Nigeria and South Africa to show how the current institutional approach to SSR ignores the critical importance of the nature of the state and the structural conditions that undermine the state-making process in Africa in both analysis and practice. It argues that the governance of privatised violence is central to the need for SSR in Africa and that the enhancement of state capacity is the key to the success of that governance.