
Studies. Max Planck Research Library for the History and Development of Knowledge / The Nation-State
A Wrong Model for the Horn of Africa
epubli (Publisher)
1st Edition
Published on 19. March 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
184 pages
978-3-945561-56-0 (ISBN)
Description
This book analyses recent political developments in the Horn of Africa in light of actual identifications and alliances. The nation state-the normative framework for politics-is often shown as a non-relevant unit of identification and beneficiary of political decisions. The authors have spent their professional lifetimes studying the politics and development in Sub-Saharan Africa since its emergence from colonial rule. The Horn of Africa, their special focus of interest, represents a striking paradigm of the enduring crisis of the western nation-state model adopted in Africa.
Questions concerning this model have seldom been raised in African studies. A notable exception is Basil Davidson (1992) who called the nation-state model the "Black Man's Burden." Francophone Africanists were pioneers in economic anthropology and prolific critics of orthodox development theory but had little to say about the state which they regarded as a dependent variable. This omission therefore challenges the epistemological integrity of African studies. Where is the science this discipline is based on?
Founded in the West and dominated by western scholars, African studies thrive on modes of analysis that privilege European categories, or ascribe greater rationality and capacity for agency to Western rather than all other historical actors. This book explores this logic and shows that the decisions made by these actors are determined by identifications and interests that have little to do with the nation state.
Questions concerning this model have seldom been raised in African studies. A notable exception is Basil Davidson (1992) who called the nation-state model the "Black Man's Burden." Francophone Africanists were pioneers in economic anthropology and prolific critics of orthodox development theory but had little to say about the state which they regarded as a dependent variable. This omission therefore challenges the epistemological integrity of African studies. Where is the science this discipline is based on?
Founded in the West and dominated by western scholars, African studies thrive on modes of analysis that privilege European categories, or ascribe greater rationality and capacity for agency to Western rather than all other historical actors. This book explores this logic and shows that the decisions made by these actors are determined by identifications and interests that have little to do with the nation state.
More details
Series
Language
English
Dimensions
Height: 24 cm
Width: 17 cm
Weight
376 gr
ISBN-13
978-3-945561-56-0 (9783945561560)
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Author
John Markakis is retired professor of African studies in the University of Crete. He has devoted a professional lifetime of over five decades to the study of political development in the Horn of Africa, and has published several books and many articles on the region. He has taught in universities in Ethiopia, Zambia, Lesotho, Swaziland, US, UK and the Netherlands.
Günther Schlee retired in 2019 as a director of the Max Planck Institute of Social Anthropology at Halle. Until 1999 he was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Bielefeld. He received his doctorate at Hamburg university for research on the social and belief system of the Rendille, an ethnic group in northern Kenya. and his Habilitation from Bayreuth University for a thesis published as 'Identities on the Move: Clanship and pastoralism in northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia'.
John Young has a PhD in Political Science from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and has worked in the Horn of Africa since 1986 as a teacher of technical English in Sudan, journalist with the Sudan Times in Khartoum, lecturer in Political Science at Addis Ababa University, consultant for the Canadian government on federalism in Ethiopia and the Sudan peace process, advisor to IGAD, a monitor of the conflict in South Sudan, and political advisor to the Carter Center.