Rethinking State-Building in the Horn of Africa: Challenges of Striking a Balance between Traditional and Modern Institutions

Abstract

State-building in the postcolonial Horn of Africa (HoA) suffers from institutional incoherence, which emanates from the duality of institutional arrangements expressed in the coexistence, albeit in an unequal basis, of modern and traditional institutions. While modern institutions are transplanted by the colonial state or imported by the postcolonial state, traditional institutions are transferred from precolonial societal structures. This article argues that the problem with the state-building project in the HoA is the absence of functional harmony between the competing constitutive institutional elements. It argues that the precolonial indigenous institutions and the colonially transplanted foreign institutions are two component parts that have to find ways and means of coexistence. The article concludes that the fusion of these two institutional systems enables the creation of a harmonious and functional state in the HoA.