State-building in Africa from evolutionary perspective: Cases of Eritrea, Senegal and Burkina Faso

Abstract

State-building in Africa remains a contested topic. Based on historical experience from Eritrea, Senegal and Burkina Faso, we highlight that basic pricniples of development of territorially bound political communities and their transformation into states as developed by C.

Schmitt and C. Tilly are applicable to the African context as well.

Unlike europe, however, they do not necessarily require war-fighting as a basis of the creation of identity.

Keywords

• state-building
• Africa
• Senegal
• Eritrea
• Burkina Faso