The State in Africa

Abstract

Embracing a conception of the state as both an entity that acts, in the last instance, on behalf of the ruling class (which, in the case of Africa, is the metropolitan bourgeoisie) and as a set of institutions that constitutes an arena for class struggles, the author argues that the state in Africa continues its colonial function of integrating the continent more firmly into the orbit of capitalist imperialism. Proceeding from the observation that the state in Africa originated from the class forces of the metropole, it is argued that this remains the decisive factor in its social orientation, an orientation that explains its primary function of subordinating Africa's resources to the profit impulse of multinational capital. The author concludes that the contradictions of global capitalism that radiate with peculiar intensity in Africa promise an uncertain future for the postcolonial capitalist state, as it becomes increasingly difficult for the dominant classes to maintain their grip on the institutions of the state.