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The New Environment of Nation-Building

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Robert S. Jordan  and
John P. Renninger
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What is Africa doing wrong? Africans as well as others are increasingly asking this question. We are, in effect, invited to consider that there are, perhaps, negative as well as positive aspects to the nation-building process in post-colonial Africa. To the layman, indeed, the image of Africa has tended to accentuate the negative. The strife in the Congo during the early 1960s, the civil war in Nigeria, numerous military coups d'etat and political assassinations, bureaucratic corruption, disappointing progress in the economic field, and more recently famine and drought, all could lead to the conclusion that efforts at nationbuilding have been less than successful.

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 13 , Issue 2 , June 1975 , pp. 187 - 207
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1975

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References

Page 187 note 1 Haq, Mahbub ul, ‘Development and Independence’, in Development Dialogue (Uppsala), I, 1974, p. 6.Google Scholar

Page 188 note 1 ‘Africa's Fallen Idols’, in West Africa (London), 2 09 1974, p. 1065.Google Scholar

Page 188 note 2 Neuberger, Benjamin, ‘Has the Single-Party Failed in Africa?’, in African Studies Review (Lansing), XVII, I, 04 1974, p. 573.Google Scholar

Page 188 note 3 Rothchild, Donald S., Racial Bargaining in Independent Kenya: a study of minorities and decolonization (London, 1973), p. 419.Google Scholar

Page 188 note 4 For example, the ability of British leaders to deal with that country's economic problems is increasingly under question. See Dyer, Gwynne, ‘Malaise in Britain’, in New York Times, 7 10 1974.Google Scholar

Page 189 note 1 For attempts to define nation or nationality, see Deutsch, Karl W., Nationalism and Social Communication (New York, 1953);Google ScholarEmerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation (Boston, 1960);CrossRefGoogle Scholar and Silvert, K. H. (ed.), Expectant Peoples: nationalism and development (New York, 1963).Google Scholar For a discussion of nations in the African context, see Jordan, Robert S., Government and Power in West Africa (London, 1969),Google Scholar especially ch. 1, ‘Nationalism and the Nation-State’.

Page 189 note 2 Weiner, Myron, ‘Political Integration and Political Development’, in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Philadelphia), 358, 03 1965, p. 53.Google Scholar

Page 190 note 1 See, for example, LaPalombara, Joseph, ‘Political Science and the Engineering of National Development’, in Palmer, Monte and Stern, Larry (eds.), Political Development in Changing Societies: an analysis of modernization (Lexington, 1971), pp. 27–66;Google ScholarIlchman, Warren F. and Uphoff, Norman T. (eds.), The Political Economy of Change (Berkeley, 1969);Google Scholar and Wriggins, W. Howard, The Ruler's Imperative: strategies for political survival in Asia and Africa (New York, 1969).Google Scholar

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Page 191 note 1 United Nations Secretariat, Special Sahelian Office, ‘Rural Development in the Countries of Sudano-Sahelian Africa’, 1973, p. 6.Google Scholar

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Page 192 note 4 International Labour Organisation, Human Dignity, Economic Growth and Social Justice in a Changing Africa. An ILO Agenda for Africa (Geneva, 1973), p. 28.Google Scholar

Page 193 note 1 Nkrumah, Kwame, Africa Must Unite (London, 1965), pp. 107–8.Google Scholar

Page 193 note 2 For a discussion of these two approaches, see Wallerstein, Immanuel, ‘The Range of Choice: constraints on the policies of governments of contemporary African independent states’, in Lofchie, Michael (ed.), The State of the Nations: constraints on development in independent Africa (Berkeley, 1975), pp. 19–33.Google Scholar See also Ghai, Dharam P., ‘Concepts and Strategies of Economic Independence’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), XI, 1, 03 1973, pp. 21–42.Google Scholar

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Page 194 note 2 United Nations, First Biennial Over-All Review and Appraisal of Progress in the Implementation of the International Development Strategy for the Second United Nations Development Decade (New York, 1974), p. 2.Google Scholar

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Page 195 note 4 See Jamal, Amir, ‘The Future of Africa’, in Development Forum, 1, 7, 10 1973, pp. 6–7.Google Scholar The author is Tanzania's Minister for Commerce and Industry.

Page 196 note 1 United Nations General Assembly, Sixth Special Session, A/PV. 2217, 24 April 1974.

Page 196 note 2 Ibid. 15 April 1974.

Page 196 note 3 Ward, Barbara, ‘A Kind of Sharing’, in Development Forum, II, 6, 07–08 1974, p. I.Google Scholar

Page 196 note 4 United Nations General Assembly, Sixth Special Session, A/PV. 2223, 23 April 1974.

Page 197 note 1 Ward, loc. cit. p. 2.

Page 197 note 2 Jimoh-Omo-Fadaka, , ‘Develop Your Own Way’, in Development Forum, II, 2, 03 1974, p. 9.Google Scholar

Page 197 note 3 World Bank, Annual Report, 1974 (Washington, 1974), p. 5.Google Scholar

Page 197 note 4 See United Nations General Assembly, Sixth Special Session, Programme of Action on the Establishment of a New International Economic Order, A/RES/3202 (S-vi), 16 05 1974.Google Scholar In December 1974 the 29th General Assembly approved the Charter of Economic Rights and Duties of States, under which each state has the right to exercise freely full permanent sovereignty over its wealth and natural resources, to regulate and exercise authority over foreign investment within its national jurisdiction, and to nationalise, expropriate, or transfer the ownership of foreign property. See General Assembly Resolution 3281 (xxix).

Page 198 note 1 U.N. Document A/PV. 2212, 12 April 1974.

Page 199 note 1 Dumont, René, ‘Third World in Mortal Danger’, in Development Forum, I, 6, 08–09 1973, p. 2.Google Scholar

Page 199 note 2 General Assembly Resolution 3176 (XXVIII). See also Resolution 3251 (XXIX), ‘Technical Co-operation among Developing Countries’.

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Page 199 note 4 The tendency of the Third World to divide, or be divided, into mutually exclusive groups cannot be considered a hopeful sign. The Organisation of African Unity, for example, has been plagued by a split between oil-producing and non-oil-producing states, most recently in evidence during the elections for the new Secretary-General. See West Africa, i July 1974.

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Page 201 note 2 Victor Minikin, ‘Indirect Political Participation in Sierra Leone’, ibid. XI, 1, March 1973, p. 129.

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Page 201 note 4 Hayward, Fred M., ‘Political Participation and its Role in Development: some observations drawn from the African context’, in Journal of Developing Areas (Macomb), XII, 07 1973, p. 591.Google Scholar This article also contains an excellent review of the literature on participation.

Page 202 note 1 Ibid. p. 594.

Page 202 note 2 Ann Seidman contends that participation has a direct bearing on developmental efforts:‘those seeking development will need to focus their attention on the creation of the social and political machinery to involve the broad masses of peasants and working people — those who stand to gain — in state decision-making at national as well as the local levels.’ She goes on to suggest: ‘Traditional institutions in the hinterland—ranging from the extended family and usufract land-tenure patterns to decisions by consensus and the role of councils of elders — need to be re-examined to determine the extent to which they may help to ensure involvement of the masses of the rural population — in active participation in increasing productivity as well as participating in the benefits from rising incomes. Emerging “modern”sociopolitical organizations of change, including political parties, co-operatives, trade unions, women's and youth oranizations, and local and regional councils, need to be developed as two-way channels through which all sectors of the population may be involved in formulating and implementing national development programs.’ ‘Key Variables to Incorporate in a Model for Development: the African case’, in African Studies Review, XVII, 1, 04 1974, p. 116.Google Scholar

Page 203 note 1 For a discussion of the rôle of political parties in this period, see Hodgkin, Thomas, Nationalism in Colonial Africa (London, 1965), pp. 139–68.Google Scholar

Page 203 note 2 See Bienen, Henry, Tanzania: party transformation and economic development (Princeton, 1970 edn.).Google Scholar In the recent general election in Kenya, four cabinet ministers and nine assistant ministers failed to retain their seats in parliament. See New York Times, 16 October 1974.

Page 203 note 3 See Adelman, Kenneth Lee, ‘The Recourse to Authenticity and Negritude in Zaire’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, XIII, 1, 03 1975, pp. 134–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Page 203 note 4 Until the late 1960S, most western academics viewed the process in very similar terms. S. N. Eisenstadt, for example, defined modernisation as ‘the process of change towards those types of social, economic, and political systems that have developed in western Europe and North America from the seventeenth century to the nineteenth and have then spread to other European countries and in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to the South American, Asian, and African continents.’ Modernization: protest and change (Englewood Cliffs, 1966), p. 1.Google Scholar Such conceptions of modernisation have come under challenge; see Bendix, Reinhard, ‘Tradition and Modernity Reconsidered’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History (London), IX, 3, 1967, pp. 292–346.Google Scholar

Page 204 note 1 For example, Nigeria, National Development Plan, 1962–68 (Lagos, n.d.), ch. 4,Google Scholar

Page 204 note 2 Haq, Mahbub ul, Address to the International Development Conference, Washington, 19–2104 1972.Google Scholar

Page 204 note 3 U.N. Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Renewing the Development Priority (New York, 1973), p. 4.Google Scholar

Page 204 note 4 It could be added that the resources of the western industrialised countries are also not sufficient to support their populations at present levels. See Meadows, D. et al. , The Limits to Growth (New York, 1972).Google Scholar

Page 205 note 1 Amin, loc. cit. p. 2.

Page 205 note 2 An ILO Agenda for Africa, p. 31.

Page 205 note 3 Michael Lofchie has observed that regional disparities in the Ivory Coast ‘have been increasingly exacerbated in recent times. By a range of standards including access to higher education, per capita income, and opportunity for participation in the elite levels of the commercial industrial complex, southern Ivorians enjoy substantial and growing advantages over northerners.’ ‘Observations on Social and Institutional Change in Independent Africa’, in Lofchie (ed.), op. cit. p. 272.

Page 205 note 4 For Chief Awolowo's remarks at the University of Ife, see West Africa, 22 10 1973, p. 1507.Google Scholar

Page 205 note 5 For an elaboration of this point, see Rothchild, Donald, ‘Ethnic Inequalities in Kenya’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies, VII, 4, 12 1969, pp. 689–712;CrossRefGoogle Scholar Paul Amber, ‘Modernization and Political Disintegration: Nigeria and the Ibos’, ibid. V, 3, September 1967, pp. 163–79; and Simpson, Dick, ‘Ethnic Conflict in Sierra Leone’, in Olorunsola, V. A. (ed.), Politics of Cultural Sub-Nationalism in Africa (Garden City, N.Y., 1972), pp. 153–88.Google Scholar

Page 206 note 1 An ILO Agenda for Africa, p. 23.

Page 206 note 2 Renewing the Development Priority, p. 24.

Page 206 note 3 See, for instance, Kenya, , Development Plan for the Period 1974 to 1978 (Nairobi, 1974),Google Scholar and Nigeria, Second National Development Plan, 1970–74. Programme of Post-War Reconstruction and Development (Lagos, 1970).Google Scholar

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Page 207 note 2 Akyea, loc. cit. p. 6.

Page 207 note 3 For some pessimistic assessments, see World Bank, Annual Report, 1974, and Dumont, loc. cit.