ABSTRACT
In political science and international relations studies African states are mainly represented as ‘weak’, ‘failed’ or ‘fragile states’, being described as safe havens for transnational terrorists and as a regional and global security threat. With these concepts becoming hegemonic in the discourse on statehood in Africa, it was claimed that most of the continent’s states could only survive because of their formal recognition as states by the International Community. This argument rendered a renegotiation of sovereignty in the African context possible, which had been considered taboo since the anti-colonial independencies.
This chapter discusses the idea that this discourse represents a new version of the claimed historical right of the Global North to decide on who is to be considered sovereign and who is not. This undermines the basis on which a more democratic global order could be constructed. Thus, Africa’s states should matter in the sense that despite their problems, statehood is the only form of institutionalisation, assuring those states an intelligible position in international politics. However, it seems necessary to reimagine statehood in Africa by replacing the currently hegemonic concepts with approaches, which take as a starting point the postcolonial condition of the continent’s political formations.
