Africa: Unity, Sovereignty, and Sorrow

Winner of the 2010 African Politics Conference Group Best Book Award!

Though the demise of one or another African state has been heralded for nearly five decades, the map of the continent remains virtually unchanged. By and large, these states have failed to protect and promote the interests of their citizens; yet they endure.

Pierre Englebert asks why: Why do these oppressive and exploitative structures remain broadly unchallenged? Why do Africans themselves, who have received little in the way of security, welfare, or development, continue to display surprising levels of national attachment? He finds his answer in the benefits that sovereign weak states offer to Africa's regional and national elites—and to those who depend on them.

Englebert carefully articulates the manner in which international sovereignty is translated into domestic legal command. He also offers some corrective "policy fantasies." Effectively combining theory, quantitative evidence, and detailed case studies, his book reveals a pattern of reproduction of a predatory, dysfunctional state in which human integrity is sacrificed to its territorial counterpart.