Centralism Of State Power in Africa: Power Against the People

10.2478/bjlp-2022-001105

Abstract

This text aims to examine the process of institutionalization of the State in Africa in
its unitary and centralized form. It is based on the observation that the highly centralized
State has failed and is facing multiform crises, economic, political, socio-cultural and
security. Not only has it contributed to the disarticulation of African societies, but it has also
failed to provide lasting benchmarks for the entities it is supposed to govern. Several
expressions exist to characterize the state in Africa : «Failed States» or failing states, «Soft
States» or soft states or rhizomes. The latter term is also developed as “collapsed states”.
The main question of this reflection is whether the State in its unitary and centralized form
is not against the people, if the crises that pass through it are not expressed more in its
articulation with the internal dynamics of the territories considered as peripheral. The aim is
to examine the incongruities attached to the unitary and centralised form of the state in
Africa, using analyses from the grey literature on the state-genesis in Africa.