ABSTRACT
Images of savagery have long constituted the Western stereotype of sub-Saharan Africa, and tales of continuing violence, along with the popularly reported exploits of individuals like Amin and Bokassa, certainly serve to reinforce such images. Africa, therefore, probably strikes most Westerners as fertile ground for the study of terrorism. Popular images can be deceiving, however. E. V. Walter has warned us not to accept
The old prejudice that still insinuates in subtle ways that rule by violence and fear is alien to the Western political tradition but natural to people who, according to some moral or technical standard of comparison, may be called “barbarians.” Inspection of the evidence reveals that such an attitude has no rational ground. [1969, p. 10]
