The ‘science’ of superiority: Africa and scholarly colonial assumptions

ABSTRACT

The use of ‘neopatrimonialism’ as a category in mainstream scholarship on African polities and economies is ubiquitous. A critique by Thandika Mkandawire has shown that the ‘neopatrimonial school’ is devoid of conceptual coherence and analytical power – it is an expression of a prejudice, not a useful tool for research and analysis. The article endorses Mkandawire's view but points out that this is by no means the only example of its kind. On the contrary, the use of categories which assume the superiority of societies in the global North over those in Africa is widespread. The article illustrates this by discussing and criticising two others, the ‘democratic consolidation’ paradigm and the ‘failed state’ framework. It argues that all three shape assumptions by scholars in Africa as well as outside it which obstruct concrete analysis. A critique of these paradigms is thus essential to the development of scholarship on and about Africa.

KEYWORDS:

• Neopatrimonialism
• democracy
• consolidation
• state
• colonial
• bias

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Steven Friedman is Research Professor in the Humanities Faculty, at the University of Johannesburg. He is a political scientist who specialises in the study of democracy. He researched and wrote on the transition to democracy and on the relationship between democracy, inequality and economic growth. He has stressed the role of citizen voice in strengthening democracy and promoting equality. He is the author of Building Tomorrow Today, a study of the trade union movement and its implications for democracy, and the editor of The Long Journey and The Small Miracle (with Doreen Atkinson), which presented research on the South African transition. His current work focuses on the theory and practice of democracy and his study of South African radical thought Race, Class and Power: Harold Wolpe and the Radical Critique of Apartheid was published in 2015. He writes a weekly column in Business Day.