MPSE 005 Study Notes

MPSE 005

State and Society in Africa

Study Notes

CONTENTS COVERED

Unit-1 Introducing Africa

Unit-2 Colonial Legacies

Unit-3 Nationalism and Legacies

Unit-4 Problems of Statehood: Integration and Legitimisation

Unit-5 Issues of Development

Unit-6 Types of Regimes

Unit-7 Administration, Military and Political Parties

Unit-8 Africa and World Economy

Unit-9 Cold War, Non-Alignment and Africa

Unit-10 United Nations, Peacekeeping and Africa

Unit-11 Post-Cold War Africa

Unit-12 Human Security

Unit-13 Deterritorialisation and Problems of Social Identities

Unit-14 Violence and its Manifestations

Unit-15 Economic Cooperation: Continental and Regional

Unit-16 India and Africa

Africa is a continent of many countries, big and small. At present the continent consists of 54 countries (48 countries on the mainland and G island countries). Nearly 800 tnillion people accounting for 1? per cent ofthe total population of the world live on this continent. The continent accounts for nearly a quarter of the world’s landmass. It is the second largest continent next to Asia, It was physically joined to Asia in the northeast by the Sinai peninsula before the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Africa colltains some ofthe finest varieties ofworld culture, tribes, contrasts and contradictions. When India got independence there were only four indenp- Acnt countries in Afiica. By 1963 when the Organisation ofAfrica11 Unity (OAU) was es~ablished their nurrtber shot up to 32. With the independence of Portuguese colonies and countries of whites in the southern peninsula including Zimbabwe and Namibia, the number ofthe independent countries rose to 52.