The crisis of the postcolonial nation-state and the emergence of alternative forms of statehood in the Horn of Africa

Abstract

This article contextualises the crisis of the nation-state in Africa. It does so by foregrounding the ongoing crises of the state in the Horn of Africa as evidence of the broader challenges of statehood on the continent. The Horn of Africa is viewed as a region of conflict and instability. Yet, the dominant analyses have not considered that the region is at the forefront of alternative imaginations of political community. This article proposes that rather than labelling the Horn of Africa as a zone of violent conflict, it might be more useful to think of it as a region that offers empirical alternatives to the postcolonial African nation-state model. African statehood has been the subject of inquiry since African countries gained independence from colonial rule. However, analyses have been characterised by misdiagnoses of the problems facing African states. Deviations from what is viewed as the ‘model’ construct of the nation-state are seen as aberrations and are viewed in pathological terms. These normative assessments of African statehood have misdiagnosed the situation and have been limited in their ability to pronounce on what lies beyond what we see as a crisis in modern African state formation. More than any other region on the continent, the Horn of Africa is actively redefining the meaning of statehood in the current African political milieu.