The State in Africa

The State in Africa

Relationships and Power
1. Common to talk about politics in terms of food
  1. politics of the belly
  2. how big is yours slice of cake?
  3. Asking for money
    1. Nigeria - money for chai
    2. South Africa - money for bread/coke
2. Decentralization
  1. pushing power down through the classes
  2. local govt officials always at higher levels than should be
3. Relationships vital
  1. how elites maintain support
    1. Economy of Affection
      1. Hyden (80s)
      2. domestic SSA societies rents<social relations
        not strange but logical
        how you raise money
4. high level not interested in local level
  1. local level are interested in higher level
    1. pays to have power
    2. need to be in state
    3. bribe others to give them a uniform
      1. worthwhile investment
5. State power
  1. Western World associate state with welfare
  2. post colonial countries
    1. associate with control over your life
  3. power over who belongs to country
Main Authors
1. Bayart
  1. despite huge amount of knowledge
    1. still little understanding of African societies - ordinaryness
  2. Extraversion
    1. logic of elite
      1. main objective - accumulate wealth
      2. don't manage economy but relationships
        provide main income for political elite
    2. lasted from pre-colonial to post-colonialism
      1. throughout African history
        historicity
    3. Implications for Aid Industry
      1. Corruption
        aid is encouraged as brings income
      2. Attempts to Avoid
        Donors impose conditions
        corrupt leaders get round this by using money for specified use and taking money they would have spent on that for themselves
        Direct assistance popular
        send text books
        pay school fees etc
        avoids corruption problem
    4. Logic in Post-Colonial Period
      1. reflects weak economies and state structures
      2. more powerful than reforms
  3. Historicity
    2. Past Dependence
      1. past important in making sense of present
        reforms don't replace but add to what's already there
        whether reforms work depends on what happened in past
      2. certain logics, structures etc embedded in African politics
        African politics rooted in longer duree
    3. easy to adopt chronology of country
      1. power doesn't fit countries as easily as it should
  4. "the goat eats where it is tethered"
    1. individuals consume as much as possible while they can
      1. what/who tethered to?
  5. Politics of the Belly
    1. Corruption
      1. not just object but look at mechanisms through which it is achieved
        Schatzeberg
        Father, Family, Food
        Father
        authority figures
        Family
        supporters
        Food
        role of system is to get food to trickle down
      2. power used to gain rents
        extraverted position
2. Mamdani
  1. dislikes
    1. Patrimonialism
      1. Patrimony
        embodied in particular leaders in form of personal rule
        uncertainty
        suspicion
        fear
      2. makes sense of how presidents in weak state can stay in power
      3. Neo-Patrimonialism
        still important concept
        common way to describe African politics in literature
        Bates
        Bratton
    2. History by analogy
      1. Africa history compared to Europe
        not taken seriously in own right
        Africa often seen as lots of ethnic conflict
        Europe - lots more death - 2 WWs, breakup of Yugoslavia
  2. Colonial Legacy
    1. Racism
      1. Bifurcated State
        one entity facing in two directions
        Citizens and Subjects
        Citizens
        treated well under laws of state
        rights
        state = responsive to them
        mainly non-Africans in urban areas
        Subjects
        not protected by govt institutions
        own customary law
        administered by chiefs
        lack rights
        rural areas
        Janus Faced
      2. Peter Pan Children
        need looking after but never allowed to grow up
      3. went with independence but legacy remains
      4. "colonialism is what made ethnicity so culturally powerful"
        Violence
        lasting character
        Rupture
        imposed hierarchies where there were none
        violence persisted
  3. Decentralised Despotism
    1. Despot = nasty ruler
      1. not always at the top
        middlemen
        e.g. priest, chief, tax collector
        force people to do stuff
    2. Institutional segragation
      1. indirect rule, association, customary law
      2. pushes coercive aspects of state to lower administrative levels
        shifting of how power organised
        many previous attempts at decentralization
        way for elites to govern rural areas
      3. post colonialism has reformed but not erased this

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