POST-INDEPENDENCE STATE FORMATION IN AFRICA: A THEORETICAL REVIEW

Abstract

This article reviews key essential theories to understand the actors, nature, and characteristics of the post-independence African state that emerged since the early 1960s decolonization period. In conducting academic research, a theory has multiple scholarly valuable purposes, including the quest to understand how the social world works. Theorizing state formation is the quest to understand how state formation in post-independence Africa differs from other parts of the world. Scholars argue that theorizing state formation in postindependence Africa incorporates deeply analysing the challenges originating from the progress of global economic and political systems, identifying the key roles of prominent individuals, investigating major establishments of the state, and examining the power struggle between social groups and classes. Methodologically, qualitative approach is employed that is exploratory and descriptive by collecting qualitative data from respective sources. This study is aimed at emphasizing on examining the existing theories of state formation in postcolonial Africa. The findings of this study that post-independence African states are artificially crafted by the coercive European colonial rule based on these two key theories: - the Leadership/Nation-Building and the Marxist theories of state formation.