ABSTRACT
Much of academic discourse in Africa in the last quarter century has focused on the nature and role of the post-colonial state. Different concepts have been employed or examined in the search for the “truth” about the African state. “Truth” is used here advisedly, because each proponent of a view of the state has sought to present his arguments as the last word. Except the “truth” has been elusive. Beginning with the modernization theories of the 1960s, through the neo-Marxist class analysis of the late 1970s and early 1980s, to the revival of the theory of the state as an “autonomous actor” in recent years, the state in Africa refuses to be pinned down and yield one final, all inclusive, theory. The extension of Ethiopian feudalism into the south through conquest produced a social structure and political situation markedly different from the north. The political leadership sought and obtained the collaboration of some prominent leaders from among the conquered nations.
