ABSTRACT
The African state is an elusive target for a single-focused analysis, and yet it is that elusiveness that is key to its complex nature. whatever the nature of the proto-states before colonization, the African states that saw independence for the first time in the 1960s and 1970s were new, colonial creations. Whether referred to as a political institution, a body of people or a human community, the state stands in a particular relation to its population, generally expressed as its Nation. A notable evolution of significant proportions is the change in the nature of demands imposed on the African state since independence and particularly in the last decade. In Central Africa, the reversal of the political opening in the 1990's Third Republic in Zaire led to Mobutu's overthrow in 1996 and the decade-long War of the Zairean Succession "ending" only with the 2006 elections. The relation of such a categorization to the nature of the African state is complex.
