About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

15 Police Stud.: Int'l Rev. Police Dev. 90 (1992)
The Resilience of the British Colonial Police Legacies in East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa

handle is hein.journals/polic15 and id is 100 raw text is: The Resilience of the British Colonial Police Legacies in East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa* James S. E. Opolot, Texas Southern University, U.S.A. Abstract Attainment of independence in the 1960's by former British colonies, possessions, or ter- ritories in East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa meant, among other things, oppor- tunity to try new ideas in policing. Unfor- tunately, the new indigenous police policy makers and administrators did not have the training nor the experience police innovations; even if the political climate was right, rather they relied upon existing colonial policies and practices, tendencies which continued well into the early 1990's. INTRODUCTION Questions about the colonial legacies, what has been left of colonial policies and practices, con- tinue to be raised in the early 1990s in the former British colonies, protectorates, and possessions in, for example, East Africa, Southern Africa, and West Africa. These ques- tions have been focused on agriculture, eco- nomics, education, law, commerce and in- dustry, etc. For those interested in police forces, their questions have centered upon pur- poses of policing, legitimacy of the police forces, problems in the police forces, and lessons to be learned from past and current ex- periences in police work, especially in the face of what appears to be strong competition be- tween attributes of the colonial police model and those of the amalgam elements of policing in the one-party state and/or military regimes. The increased attention to those questions is linked to the realization of the wind of change relative to political pluralism or multi-party elections as evidenced in the former East Euro- pean countries during the late 1980s. In an effort to account for the persistence of colonial legacies, including the police model or 90 policies and practices in the parts of Africa in question, I have chosen to focus on five themes. First, I attempt to stress the impor- tance of the political frameworks within which police forces were developed and continue to exist. Here it is essential to understand how the theory and practice of successive govern- ments influenced the nature, successes, and problems of the police forces. The interface or lack thereof between policy analysis and social science relative to the evolution and the continuing existence of the police forces is the second theme. Here atten- tion has to be paid to the role of the community of social scientists in policy analysis or in the creation of paradigms of policing, at least dur- ing the colonial era. The key elements of the British colonial police model constitute the third theme. Such elements include administration and civil ser- vice and bureaucracy. Transition between the colonial era and the post-colonial era constitutes the fourth theme. Here it is important to note that political in- dicators for the end of the former era were in the making although patterns differed from one British colony protectorate or possession to another in East Africa, Southern Africa and West Africa. Policing in decolonized political frameworks forms the fifth theme. This is a subject which is less understood than policing during the co- lonial era even though it requires more atten- tion than ever before, expecially now that Africa is experiencing political revolution dur- ing the early 1990s. Particular attention needs to be paid to renewed calls for new models of government including policing. Each of these themes is treated within a broad chronological context which surveys

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most