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Drugs in Southern Africa: Business As Usual
Author(s) -
Laniel Laurent
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
international social science journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.237
H-Index - 43
eISSN - 1468-2451
pISSN - 0020-8701
DOI - 10.1111/1468-2451.00328
Subject(s) - boom , phenomenon , politics , political economy , racism , development economics , political science , economics , sociology , law , physics , quantum mechanics , environmental engineering , engineering
When a more peaceful Southern Africa opened up to the world in the 1990s, it became a transit hub and consumer market for international flows of illegal drugs. This seems paradoxical, for the drug phenomenon, especially in developing regions, is frequently depicted as a consequence of exceptional circumstances ‐ war, the absence of the rule of law, or conversely, the rule of some dictatorial or oppressive regime. How can we explain this boom in drug activities after “normalisation” allowed Southern Africa to linkwith global movements, and not when it was prey to institutionalised racism and war? This article attempts to provide elements for an answer, by suggesting that, at present, drug activities are one of the modes in which substantial, historical, political, social, and economic arrangements are expressed and reproduced within Southern Africa and between it and the rest of the world.