Rethinking the taproot of the security challenges in Africa: bringing back the colonial legacy

Abstract

This paper offers a counter-narrative to the constricted Western narratives that often discount how colonial domination, exploitation, and external interference have shaped Africa’s past and present, especially in the area of security. It focuses on the numerous security challenges in Africa and its complex historical nexus to the colonial legacy. The piece draws from the variegated dominant arguments and counterarguments on African (in)security issues, colonial rule, and the theoretical security models and concepts. The paper demonstrates, through an exploration of the formation of postcolonial states, that colonialism cannot be excused as some distant root cause of the security problem on the continent, but has deliberately crafted some specific subjects, societies and states that serve to perpetuate the challenges in the security complex of Africa. Keywords: security, colonial legacy, nation-state, Africa