Abstract
This well-written book cuts across several disciplines such as history, sociology, political science, anthropology, and international relations when exploring the process of state formation and the exercise of power in the Voltaic region. The Voltaic region is located in West Africa and the book spefically focusses on the Mossi, Mamprugu, Dagbon, Nanun, and decentralised societies such as the Kasena, Dagara, and Kusasi. Political analysts, sociologists, historians, anthropologists, and international relations experts will find it very useful because all aspects of these fields are interwoven in the text to present a coherent and analytical document.
The research question focusses on what the state was built against or what social forms the advent of the centralised state displaced. This is a question about both the reason for the longevity of the centralised state and the nature of the disconnect centralised rule instituted across a region that was characterised by a variety of political forms and experiences.
The main argument of the book is that the state in African contexts – whether pre-colonial, colonial, or post-colonial – was always a transient phenomenon that pushed against internal others. In this sense, post-colonial state failure is the result of disarticulation of the mechanisms that gave constitutional and normative meaning to cultural values and practices and political legitimation processes of both state and non-state fields of action.
These main themes are extensively covered in the different chapters. Chapter 1 explores the political history of the state as ideology with the literature on stateness from a Westphalian perspective drawing inferences to the African state. Notions of centralised authority in relations to anarchy are fully examined. The chapter further provides a critique of the failed-state literature, the (neo)patrimonialist literature, the interventionist literature and their failure to investigate what the African state is, and the political rationales and the moral resources that underlie its contradictions. The post-colonial state adapted European constitutional features alienated from society, in continuity to the colonial state that dismantled existing African state structures and superimposed an instrumentalised hierarchisation and classification of categories of people. In doing so, the post-colonial state negates the possibility for people to bear their mental construct, their values, and interests through the institutions that must govern them. A major consequence of this is to take away the humane dimension from institutional possibilities. Therefore, the chapter builds on the existing literature on the nature of the African state, giving it broader context for the reader.
Chapter 2 examines stateness, statelessness, and the ethics of state inhibition drawing from the sixteenth and the nineteenth centuries, social formations in the Voltaic region, from loosely decentralised structures, to alliances of autonomous entities, to highly centralised systems. Although centralised statehood offered protection, in reality it was aimed at capturing trade opportunities, reinforcing the position of the state, and taming internal dissidence. Quite interesting is that the pursuit of statelessness during the colonial era was due to a desire to break free from central authority. Therefore, to the Voltaic states, centralisation and stateness for that matter was seen in a different context to the colonial authorities.
Stateness was never a goal but a means to an end. A major take-away for the reader is the demystifying of the narrative that African societies did not have proper state structures. The chapter shows the organic development of centralisation of the state drawing from a needs-based narrative. Hence, the colonial and post-colonial centralisation was not alien to the African societies but rather served different means.
Chapter 3 examines the time/space dynamics of the constitution of “the political,” with a specific focus on decentralised societies. The book analyses the temporal and spatial modes of structuring at work in the division between the sphere of power and the sphere of rituals as a division between the political and non-political. The reader is introduced to a dimension of multiple temporalities in the conception of sovereignty, not least the complex interactions between temporal kinship in sequential generations and the spatiality of rule in a fragmented space. This is a very interesting dynamic that further shows how different societies construct sovereignty. As one explores this chapter, the seismic shift in governance brought on by the colonial state into decentralised societies becomes clear. The reader begins to understand the rationale behind the post-colonial political contestations and challenges in most African states.
Chapter 4 examines statisation and centralisation processes in eighteenth-century Moogo and explores sub-themes around structure of authority and the emergence of the complex political systems. Key focus is on the orchestration of power amongst the Mossi and the Dagbon. The chapter delves into social integration as condition and a product of the consolidation of state legitimacy through a process of disassociation of the Naam king (Naaba) and from his kin group and subsequent attempts to “secularise” the state. This is quite a striking perspective that goes against the grain of dominant accounts. A key distinction between political power and political rationality furthermore offers a new perspective on commonly debated issues around nepotism and cronyism seen as endemic in post-colonial African political formation. This chapter suggests that a subversion of several political practices has served to reinforce some of the constitutive inequalities of centralised rule.
Chapter 5 explores the articulation of patterns of co-existence and interactions between power and belief around rituals as political references. In Moogo, the legitimation of social experience was provided by diviners, earth priests, and other figures with a claim to ancestral links. In the absence of a rigid theological body, belief was central in the state’s appropriation of instruments of legitimation. The naaba was perceived to have spiritual authority following the fusion of political and temporal powers. This is quite vital to understand, especially as the introduction of Christianity changed the balance in most societies in Africa. With most traditional beliefs losing centrality, the traditional leaders like the naaba and others across Africa lost the temporal powers and could no longer exercise full control over their subjects. Thus, post-independence states clipped the powers of these leaders, and without their guidance force became popular to keep populations in check.
Chapter 6 pulls all the strands together through a re-examination of the relationship between sovereignty, judiciary frameworks, and democratic practice in post-colonial Africa. The post-colonial state’s attempt to consolidate the centralised model is exemplified by Thomas Sankara’s policies that were aimed at destroying the symbols of legitimacy through Marxist ideology and the desire to “modernise” Burkinabe society. The chapter illuminates the key issue that has blighted political organisation in Africa. How does one construct a post-independence state? The modernists, both liberal and Marxists, have attempted to by-pass the traditional authority with grave consequences. The challenge persists up to this day, and the book opens up the reader to different possibilities of state formation in Africa.
Overall, by revisiting the socio-political set-up in pre-colonial states in the Voltaic region, Niang adds a telling contribution to the debate on the plight of the modern African state. She highlights a need to rethink the rationale for the Westphalian model in light of the previously existing structures and the challenges that have emerged ever since.
She does this by revisiting the notion of state in which stateness and statehood appear to disregard the historicity of the centralised state that emerged in Europe post-Westphalia and the rest of the world through conquest and colonisation. The book historicises the African state in close re-examination of the concepts of authority, power, legitimacy, moral order, and subjectivity in light of the difficulties of state and governance in the post-colonial state. Going forward, the work could be expanded to draw comparisons with other societies in the West African region to further test the findings in this book.