Federalism, devolution, and territorially-based cleavages in Africa

Type:

Book Chapter

Author:

Assefa Fiseha

Published:

2022

Whether it is possible to ensure democracy, stability, peace, and social cohesion in countries with deep societal divisions and the appropriate institutional arrangements is one of the central political issues of our time. 1 This is particularly so in many diverse countries in Africa where nation-building is linked with coercive and arbitrary processes by which the same communities are subdivided into different countries by artifcial colonial borders. Thus, ethnic conficts, violence, civil war, claims for accommodation, and threats of secession and state fragmentation remain major challenges. Some post-colonial African countries attempted to address them by resorting to a form of federation and autonomy, but with the exception of Nigeria, all such efforts failed within a decade of their establishment. The failure of the federal experiment resulted in centralised unitary governments, imperial presidents, and one-party rule. The federations failed because they were confronted by strong, big-man leaders who thought federalism would lead to state fragmentation and saw it as opposed to their own vision of centralised nation-building. he political leaders of such a diverse continent thought federalism in the context of artifcially drawn borders would lead to polarisation and ultimately put territorial integrity at stake. fter the end of the Cold War, however, there was a resurgence in federalism and devolution in Africa. For some, it became a means to 'domesticate the Leviathan'…

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