ALPHA CONDÉ’S AUTHORITARIAN AMBITIONS IN GUINEA PRESENT A MAJOR TEST FOR REGIONAL LEADERS

The West African nation of Guinea is again generating headlines for all of the wrong reasons. For those who do not follow the region closely, the concerning developments may seem like a bit of a shock given the democratic advancements transpiring elsewhere in West Africa; however, the warning signs in Guinea were long apparent and troubling for anyone paying attention.  

The latest reports from the ground indicate that at least four people were killed this week, and dozens more injured, after police fired tear gas and live ammunition in an attempt to disperse thousands of protesters who are rightly outraged at President Alpha Condé’s bid to extend his time in office. Unrest in the country has been building towards a tipping point for several months now, with demonstrations growing increasingly restive in light of a potential revision to the country’s constitution that would allow President Condé to run in next year’s election.

Read more on Vanguard Africa

Is the nation state the best we got?

What lessons can we draw from 1960s and 1970s anticolonialism and pan-Africanism to rethink the nation state today?

With the re-emergence of global right-wing nationalism, predatory racialized capitalism, and the realities of what Kwame Nkrumah termed “neocolonialism,” a strong state is often presented on the left as a remedy. The state is seductive.

In development terms, a weak state makes it vulnerable to foreign influence, structural adjustment, lack of public expenditures, and foreign capture, all of which limit sovereignty and development. A strong state, on the other hand, is thought better able to centralize resources and citizens to protect economic interests yet is often is criticized as monopolizing violence undemocratically and is responsible for repression, elitism, and reproducing what some term coloniality. The state and development are simultaneously necessary and something to be avoided, or at best decentralized and democratized.

Read more on AFRICA IS A COUNTRY