Product Description

Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. In his groundbreaking book, Jeffrey Herbst places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective, examining the problem of state consolidation from the precolonial period, through the short but intense interlude of European colonialism, to the modern era of independent states. Herbst's bold contention--that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long before European penetration of the continent--is sure to provoke controversy, for it runs counter to the prevailing assumption that colonialism changed everything.

In identifying how the African state-building process differs from the European experience, Herbst addresses the fundamental problem confronting African leaders: how to extend authority over sparsely settled lands. Indeed, efforts to exert control over vast, inhospitable territories of low population density and varied environmental and geographical zones have resulted in devastating wars, millions of refugees, and dysfunctional governments perpetrating destructive policies.

Detailing the precise political calculations of distinct African leaders, Herbst isolates the basic dynamics of African state development. In analyzing how these leaders have attempted to consolidate power, he is able to evaluate a variety of policy alternatives for dealing with the fundamental political challenges facing African states today.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #291802 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-06
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 248 pages

Review
This ambitious and original book turns a comparative historical lens on state-building in Africa. . . . A brave effort to rethink some outdated approaches to fundamental problems.
(Foreign Affairs )

Review
An original and intriguing book, which I read with the greatest interest. Herbst's argument is provocative and lucidly presented. This book will be read and debated not only by Africanists but also by others in the political science community. It is the most important and successful contribution to the literature on African politics since Jackson and Rosberg's Personal Rule in Black Africa.
(Robert H. Bates, Harvard University, author of "Open-Economy Politics: The Political Economy of the World Coffee Trade" )

Synopsis
Theories of international relations, assumed to be universally applicable, have failed to explain the creation of states in Africa. There, the interaction of power and space is dramatically different from what occurred in Europe. In his ground-breaking book, Jeffrey Herbst places the African state-building process in a truly comparative perspective, examining the problem of state consolidation from the precolonial period, through the short but intense interlude of European colonialism, to the modern era of independent states. Herbst's bold contention - that the conditions now facing African state-builders existed long before European penetration of the continent - is sure to provoke controversy, for it runs counter to the prevailing assumption that colonialism changed everything. In identifying how the African state-building process differs from the European experience, Herbst addresses the fundamental problem confronting African leaders: how to extend authority over sparsely settled lands.

Indeed, efforts to exert control over vast, inhospitable territories of low population density and varied environmental and geographical zones have resulted in devastating wars, millions of refugees, and dysfunctional governments perpetrating destructive policies. Detailing the precise political calculations of distinct African leaders, Herbst isolates the basic dynamics of African state development. In analyzing how these leaders have attempted to consolidate power, he is able to evaluate a variety of policy alternatives for dealing with the fundamental political challenges facing African states today.

Customer Reviews

Africa's problems in better perspective.
This is a well written account of Africa's pre-colonial social and political underpinnings as determined by its geography and the scale of its population, and how the comparative abundance of land per head of population positively impacted on inter-tribal conflict resolution, but helped to fuel the trade in people for such activity as slavery, etc, since people were more valued than land, as was more the case in Europe, the creator of the nation-state and their hard boundaries.

It was also valuable to read about how little the European colonialists actually impacted Africa beyond the bare necessity of securing rights with respect to the most valuable of commercial activity, it deemed hopelessly uneconomical to administer such vast and inhospitable to human life territories in the face of very uncertain gains. Which helps to better understand why Africa as an entity, is so difficult to develop beyond its seemingly insurmountable state of comparative poverty.

The bulk of Africa's current difficulties are rooted in a combination of an international desire to see Africa as a continent of nation-states based on the convenient boundaries agreed upon in Berlin, the desire for African leaders to avail themselves of the power derived from such recognition, and the persistence of the international community to keep funding an arrangement which cannot ever be viable. This does not mean that Africans must inevitably be doomed to suffer in comparison to other peoples, but Africans must be allowed to develop along alternative lines to those of contemporary Europe.

As per Kenyan economist James Shikwati: 'For God's sake, stop helping Africa.'