The Colonial State is the Problem in Africa

Everisto Benyera ()
Additional contact information
Everisto Benyera: University of South Africa

Chapter Chapter 2 in Reimagining Justice, Human Rights and Leadership in Africa, 2020, pp 21-35 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract The chapter’s central argument is that leadership, justice and human rights cannot be discussed in Africa without making reference to the colonial state. This chapter positions bad leadership, lack of human rights and injustice in Africa as desired outcomes of the colonial project. Current (post) colonial states in Africa are argued to be colonial products, structured to sustain colonial power relations long after the end of official colonialism and apartheid. The (post) colonial African state is characterised as a snare wherein African countries are trapped, having been disenfranchised, disorientated and distorted such that it now predominantly serves the needs of those who created it, i.e. global imperialists. The conclusion of the chapter is that Africa must look into itself for redemption. As long as leadership styles, human rights norms and standards and justice models are all modelled around those of the same countries which enslaved, looted and colonised Africa, Africa’s subjugation and marginalization will continue. In other words, the colonial state will continue doing what it was created to do: manufacturing, sustaining and adopting colonialism in its various forms.

Keywords: Africa; Colonial state; Human rights; Justice; Leadership; Global imperialists (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:aaechp:978-3-030-25143-7_2

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783030251437

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-25143-7_2

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Advances in African Economic, Social and Political Development from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().