Product Description

Basil Davidson on the nation-state in Africa and its huge disappointments, its relationship to the colonial years and the parallels with events in Eastern Europe. North America: Times/Random House

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #376247 in Books
• Published on: 1992-09-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 368 pages

Review
...truly a tour de force, a bold and stimulating work. With skill and sympathy, Basil Davidson sets up the lines of a debate that has long been waiting to be born. - Ivor Wilks, author of Asante in the Nineteenth Century Few people know sub-Saharan Africa better than Basil Davidson. Few people know more about its history. None has analysed its heritage and its dramatic predicament today with greater perceptiveness and passion. This is a book of major importance. The Black Man's Burden is not only about Africa, but about ethnicity, nations, and the problem of living together in society everywhere. - Eric Hobsbawm, author of Nations & Nationalism Basil Davidson gives us an informed and concerned reflection on Africa's current deep disappointments with the nation-state. His exploration of its relation to the wasted years of colonialism and also its parallel with the dramatic developments of Eastern Europe offer a clear and illuminating explanation. This is exciting reading. - Immanuel Wallerstein It is a great read. His attacking power springs from lucidity, humanity and dramatic artistry...Of the recent general books on nationalism this is the most useful one to recommend to undergraduate historians - John Lonsdale in JOURNAL OF AFRICAN HISTORY In this sustained attack upon nation-statism and its oppressive tendencies, Davidson brings to bear his vast knowledge of both Africa and the Balkans. This is a knowledge born not only of study, but of tramping through the bush with the guerrillas of Vojvodina and Angola. Davidson's admiration for the democratizing effects of grass-roots mobilization goes right back to his youthful years with Tito's partisans; and his attack upon rampant nationalism in Africa is equally relevant, as he demonstrates, to the bloody disintegration of Tito's federation... - Gerald Moore in LE MONDE DIPLOMATIQUE

Customer Reviews

strikingly different and refreshing analysis of the plight of modern Africa
Basil Davidson has committed his life to understanding and telling the truths, as he sees them, about Africa. In this work he examines the formation of modern African states. He argues that, contrary to popular opinion, pre-colonial African states existed which had the capacity to integrate themselves into the global order on their own terms. He dwells extensively on the Asante nation-state to illustrate the vibrancy of these states. This organic process would have led to a much more positive end (as it did in Japan following the Meiji reforms of the 1870s) but it was aborted by the invasion of Africa by Imperial powers (driven partly by greed and partly by a racist worldview) and the subsequent imposition of "alien" political structures, completely divorced from, and hostile towards, "traditional" African institutions and society.

Davidson further argues that the later nationalist campaign for independence was led mostly by descendants of recaptive Africans (i.e returned slaves) and other similarly Westernized Africans who, though fighting for "freedom", shared the colonizers core socio-political values and hence attitude towards pre-colonial African institutions. Independence, therefore, did not change the fundamental nature of the African state. It remained primarily a tool for expropriating resorces and executing the "top-down" modernization agenda of the ruling elite.

Tribalism, David continues, was a defensive strategy adopted by society in the face of the hostility of the state. He suggests that it developed in response to the rise of the slave trading state prior to colonialism and was maintained during colonial rule as part of a "divide-and-rule" policy. It turned particularly virulent after independence as the modern African state further developed the exploitative and oppressive nature of its colonial predecessor.

Davidson relies extensively on historical sources and scholarly research. He makes extensive comparisons between the history of nation-statism in Africa and in Eastern Europe. He succeeeds in providing a strikingly different and refreshing explanation for the plight of modern Africa. While he mostly focuses on analyzing the issue, in conclusion, Davidson suggests that dealing with Africa's problems would require the building of a more organic and genuinely participatory state, which is sincere in its devotion to its people.

This is an excellent book.

The African Nation-state: Poisoned Chalice.
The Black Man's Burden is an account of the nation-state. Davidson's main concern is the African nation-state.

Davidson shows that Africans were experimenting with various forms of governance before European imperialism interrupted the process. Some African societies had recognisable nation-states on the European model. They had a monarch, a nobility, a judiciary, a military and a police force. An example of this is the Asante Kingdom. Davidson goes into great detail of the Asante Kingdom.

Other African societies had a republican or commonwealth model of governance. The European colonial powers were unfamiliar with these models of governance. They concluded that the Africans in these societies had no government.

The Europeans created new states which took no account of African history, tribal loyalties, or trading relationships. These new states served the purposes of the colonialists. The colonial subjects were made to provide free or nearly free labour to the new state. As a result, most colonial subjects tried their best to avoid any contact with the state.

After gaining independence the artificially created states were retained. Some African independence leaders were aware of the dangers inherent in these artificial states. These new states were inherently unstable. They did not command the loyalty of the majority of the rural population.

The newly independent nation-states just carried on where the colonial powers had left off. They continued to exhtort surpluses from the rural population to satisfy the needs of the urban population. As a result, the rural population continued to avoid any contact with the state. The majority of people continued to see the state as a predator.

Davidson compares the post-colonial nation-states of Central and Eastern Europe and those of Africa. The experiences and behaviours of the two sets of nation-states are uncannily similar.

Basil Davidson has studied African history since the end of World War 2. He has written extensively on African history.

Some readers may find the language rather antiquated.

The book provides one explanation for Africa's plight.

Gripping history, well written
This is a classic history by the great historian of Africa Basil Davidson. 'The Black Man's Burden' explores the legacy of nation statism in Africa. Reading sub-saharan African history with references to Eastern European history, Davidson explores the ambiguities of nationalism in Africa's late colonial and independence era experience. As relevant now as when it originally appeared, 'The Black Man's Burden' serves as an example of a historical text that went on to define a whole approach to its subject area.