Africa: Unity, sovereignty, and sorrow

Abstract

Englebert's work represents a seminal contribution to the literature on African statehood and sovereignty. The questions he is trying to answer are not new, however: why is it that African states have proven so durable since independence, and why are there so few secessionist movements in Africa? He surveys the core literature in this area with great delicacy and expertise. This literature, in short, has argued that while African states have juridical sovereignty (in that they are recognized in international law) they do not have empirical sovereignty (in terms of de facto control over their territory). A politics of extraversion has thus emerged, whereby the international recognition of state sovereignty allows state elites to extract rents from the international system (in aid, loans, and so on), which they then use to stay in power by exchanging these resources for political loyalties via neopatrimonial networks. Jackson and Rosberg, among others, have argued that states have survived, and African borders have remained intact, under an elite pact between African leaders through which they respect one another's territorial integrity so as to maintain this lucrative access to international rents.