International Developments of States in Africa

Abstract

Even though the book looks at three specific countries (Botswana, Ethiopia and South Africa), one departs from a generalised idea of the ‘African state’. The purpose of framing the debate around a generalisation has to do with a usual methodological approach to the study of African politics, which departs from generalisations towards specific countries or issue areas. According to leading Africa scholar Jean-François Bayart, this should not imperil the research ‘since geographical proximity has none the less brought about a relative commonality of historical destiny, of which the colonial interlude is only of secondary importance’ (Bayart, 2009: 34). As the same author further claims, ‘[this] allows us to construct a scientific object, to circumscribe a political area in a comparative perspective, even to talk of an “African” civilisation in the sense intended by Braudel as a reality of “great, inexhaustible length”’ (Bayart, 2009).