The history and representations of the challenges of governance in the fragile states of Sub-Saharan Africa

In this chapter, we put forward four big-picture explanations for the fragility of contemporary postcolonial African states. First, we discuss the highly flawed and historically racist Hamitic hypothesis. Second, we examine the well-meaning but still highly limited path-dependence argument presented by theorists of the dependency school of development theory, whose conclusions we present but do not share. Third, we discuss the problem of intrusive liberalism, whose ruthless "disciplinary" interventions have transformed postcolonial Africa into a political platform where the everyday lived experiences of the people (and the governments) are subjected to Eurocentric civilizational scrutiny. Finally, we conclude by making a case for a shift of emphasis from intrusive liberalism to a hybrid developmental strategy that borrows from the best practices of western humanitarianism and the indigenous governance models of the peoples of sub-Saharan Africa and without losing sight of the resilience of the peoples in conditions of fragility in Africa.