Nation-State Trajectories in Africa

Richard Joseph

A half-century ago, the mounting agitation for independent statehood in sub-Saharan Africa eventually forced colonial regimes to transfer sovereignty to local governments. Overthrowing the colonial order has since proven much easier than replacing it with viable nation-states. In the evocative phrase of Sam Nolutshungu, "out of the debris of failed colonialisms, unitary states and nations were summoned to emerge." In much of Africa, nationhood has lost ground to ethnic and sectional identities. The capacity of states has also been eroded by prolonged fiscal crises, corruption, ethno-clientelist politics, and the autocratic manipulation of democratic transitions.

Anthony Smith has argued that there is an "intricate relationship between state and nation which the misleading omnibus term 'nation-state' is liable to obscure." Many scholars have pondered the likely nature of this relationship in multiethnic African territories. State-nations seemed to be the most appropriate trajectory in which, according to Otto Pflanze, the "idea of nation" develops within "the chrysalis of the state." Such an outcome in Africa implied replicating the dominant West European and North American pattern where "common sovereignty provided common institutions and a common political tradition from which emerged a sense of nationhood which transcended cultural differences." In other words, the new nations would follow the building of states.

However, as most African countries enter their fifth decade of political independence, the state-nation model is not the only one that has been followed. It is important to recognize the actual state/nation models that have been forged. In general, Africa displays what Alfred Cobban terms the "new medievalism" characterized by cultural and political units existing in a multiplicity of forms and combinations. Will the new global order permit Africa to forego emulating the "singular model" of the nation-state? Or would African peoples continue to be severely disadvantaged by the failure to establish the "political kingdom" advocated by independence leader Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana? A sampling of cases demonstrates the persistence of the modernist ideal of the nation-state in Africa despite the medievalist reality of multiple, overlapping political forms.

The Idea of the Nation-State and its Paradoxical Persistence.

With the end of colonial rule, the African country that seemed to have the most unobstructed path in consolidating nationhood and statehood was Somalia. Somalis overwhelmingly shared the same language, religion, and cultural practices. After the Somali state collapsed in 1991, the country's clans and sub-clans increasingly assumed the attributes of territorial political organizations. Paradoxically, in the midst of this disintegration, a model "nation-state" has emerged in the former British colony of Somaliland in the north of the territory. Economic development, law and justice, and even a peaceful transition of government leaders in this proto-republic can be favorably compared with governance in most recognized African countries.

Rwanda and Burundi exemplify Smith's concerns about the mirage of the nation-state.10 Hutu and Tutsi are not divided by language or culture, and intermarriage over several decades has attenuated racial demarcations. Yet these communities remain locked in mortal combat within the same territorial grid. . .

Richard Joseph is John Evans Professor of Political Science and Director of the Program of African Studies at Northwestern University.