Africa's Big Men: Predatory State-Society Relations in Africa / Edition 1

by Kenneth Kalu, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Toyin Falola

Overview

This book spotlights, analyzes and explains varying forms and patterns of state-society relations on the African continent, taking as point of departure the complexities created by the emergence, proliferation and complicated interactions of so-called ‘big men’ across Africa's fifty-four states. The contributors interrogate the evolution of Africa’s big men; the role of the big men in Africa’s political and economic development; and the relationship between the state, the big men and the citizens.

Throughout the chapters the contributors engage with a number of questions from different disciplinary and methodological orientations. How did these states evolve to exhibit various deformities in their composition, functioning and in their relations with the societies that they govern? What roles did Atlantic and other slavery and European colonialism play in creating states that are unable to display the right and good relationships with citizens in civil society? Why did these forms of predatory state-society relations continue to thrive in Africa after the end of Atlantic slave trade and subsequent colonialism? Why did the emerging African leaders at independence fail to effectively dismantle the structures of exploitation and expropriation that were the defining features of slavery and colonialism? Who are Africa’s ‘big men’, and what are their trajectories?

This book is essential reading for all students and scholars of African politics, public policy and administration, political economy, and democratisation.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138559349
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/03/2018
Series:	Global Africa
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	6.88(w) x 9.69(h) x (d)

About the Author

Kenneth Kalu is Assistant Professor at Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University, Toronto, Canada. He was most recently a Visiting Research Scholar at The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at Babcock University, Nigeria.

Toyin Falola is the Jacob and Frances Sanger Mossiker Chair Professor in the Humanities and a Distinguished Teaching Professor at The University of Texas at Austin, USA.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Kenneth E. Kalu, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso and Toyin Falola

Section A: Citizens, Citizenship, and State-Society Relations

Chapter 1: The Postcolonial African State and its Citizens - Kenneth E. Kalu

Chapter 2: Africa’s "Big Men" and the African State - Kenneth E. Kalu

Chapter 3: Women, Inclusive Citizenship and the African State - Cheryl O’Brien and Adryan Wallace

Chapter 4: Women’s Political Empowerment and the Politics of Citizenship in Nigeria and Tanzania - Olajide O. Akanji

Chapter 5: Digital Citizenship in Africa’s Fractured Social Order - Ogbonna Emmanuel Chijioke

Section B: Civil Society, Identities, and Big Men

Chapter 6: Civil Society and the African State - Alex Ng’oma

Chapter 7: Youth and Big Men Politics - Ngozi Nwogwugwu

Chapter 8: Culture and Religion in Africa: Social Transformation and Tools for Exploitation - Susan Kilonzo

Chapter 9: Pastocracy: Performing Pentecostal Politics in Africa - Abimbola Adunni Adelakun

Chapter 10: Ethnic Identity Politics and the Sustenance of Africa’s Predatory State - Gashawbeza W. Bekele and Adebayo Oyebade

Section C: Democratic Impact of Predatory State-Society Relations

Chapter 11: Accountability Theory and Democracy in Nigeria - Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso and Adigun Agbaje

Chapter 12: State-Society Relations and Nature of Economic Growth in Africa - Samuel Zalanga

Chapter 13: The Social Impact of Africa’s Predatory State-Society Relations - Samuel Oloruntoba

Chapter 14: Africa’s "Big Men" in the Continent’s Democratic Experiments - Toochi Aniche