ABSTRACT
In this book, we argue that the postcolonial state in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be ignored, given its role in the making of indicators of fragility: conflict, political instability, poverty, pandemics, corruption, food insecurity, gender inequality and child labor. Despite—or because of—this role, however, the postcolonial state should also be seen as an actor for resilience, one with a central role in managing economic, social and political fragility. Building on empirical discussions and statistical models of fragility and the role of the state, we propose two theoretical frameworks to understand, first (in Part One of this book), the critical indicators of fragility, and, second (in Part Two), the character of state resilience and interventions, with particular emphasis on the state-centric approach and the ‘fragility-as-resilience’ discourse. Novel topics and concepts that were discussed in this book include the theory of conflict de-escalation words and behavioral language frames; Ebola pandemic and food insecurity, child labor, poverty and fragility; and other interesting topics.
