1st Edition

Africa’s Big Men Predatory State-Society Relations in Africa

Edited By Kenneth Kalu, Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Toyin Falola Copyright 2018
    272 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    272 Pages 3 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    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.

    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

    Biography

    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.