Political architecture: State-building and diversity

African countries are plural and diverse societies. The continent’s political geography has been shaped by its history, and shows diverse groups, communities, regions and societies that were not necessarily coterminous, forcibly merged together, accentuating the plurality of Africa’s social formations. Constructed on an authoritarian political infrastructure, the colonial era’s model of governance had implications for state–society relations, the management of diversity and the electoral process. This background heavily influenced the character of the immediate post-colonial state and governance, leading to a crisis of identity and disempowerment, of which traces remain today.

Related Subject(s): Democracy and Governance