The Illusion of the Post-Colonial State: Governance and Security Challenges in Africa [Hardcover]

This book challenges the long-held conventional wisdom that Africa is a post-colonial society of sovereign nation-states despite the outward attributes of statehood: demarcated territories, permanent populations, governments, national currencies, police, and armed forces. While it is true that African nation-states have been gifted flag independence by their respective colonial masters, few have reached fully developed status as a secure nation-state. Most African nation-states have, since independence, been grappling with the crisis of state-building, nation-building, governance, and myriad security challenges which have been chronically exacerbated by the dynamics of the post-Cold War era. To focus merely on the agency of the African political elite and their inability to sustain functional modern nation-states misses the point. The central argument of the book is that an understanding of Africas contemporary governance and security challenges requires us to historicize the discourse surrounding nation-building and state-building throughout Africa.W. Alade Fawole is professor in the Department of International Relations, Obafemi Awolowo University.

In The Illusion of the Post-Colonial State, William Fawole artfully and intelligently rewrites the political science rulebook on the African postcolonial state. Taking a distinctive multi-disciplinary and multi-country approach, Fawole takes the reader on an illuminating tour of the discursive milestones in the evolution of a much-contested institution. The result is a bracing and historically grounded analysis that will appeal equally to students of Africas international relations, postcolonial history, state-society relations, foreign policy, and democratization. Ebenezer Obadare, University of Kansas

The Illusion of the Post-Colonial State is an excellent, engaging, and illuminating book. With significant examples from different regions of Africa, Fawole challenges the dominant approach to the analyseslS: