The African post colonial state The African states are key actors in the present regional integration efforts in EA. Therefore it’s important to gain a theoretical understanding of 1) the historical background of African states and 2) their normative and judicial foundation which are explanatory factors for state actors’ transactions in regional integration schemes. The historical background of Africa states. Conceptualizing the origin of nation to remember that these entities are not states, it’s important natural, geographical forms, but the outcome of specific transactions and historical processes actors’ that organized the world into the current patchwork of states. As Jackson mentions: from being natural entities, modern sovereign states are entirely historical artifacts the oldest “Far of which have been in existence in their present shape and alignment only for the past three or four (Jackson 1990:7) centuries” The of the nation was created deliberately via the of tradition” “reality state” “invention (Hobsbawm & Ranger 1983) whereby the nation state was grounded in invented myths and folk traditions, and the cognitive construction of an political community” “imagined (Anderson 2001) supposed to be internally homogenous & sovereign with territorial boundaries. This European invention was extended globally through voluntary approbation or colonial conquest as was the case in Africa. Pre colonial societies in Africa varied significantly from the bounded European states. Before the colonial age the African continent was inhabited by ever changing constellations of kingdoms that ruled their subjects via patronage networks. The EA region was populated by fluctuating kingdoms, traders and war lords that had control over specific areas and trade routes. African societies (Medard & Doyle 2007) were characterized by osmotic ethnic communities with a core area of organized governance with a king or supreme chief and peripheries that were scantly controlled and frequently changed alliances between different ethnic groups. The reach and capacity of pre colonial African communities was an outcome of wars, alliances and negotiations between the different ethnic communities and were thus in a state of constant flux, lacking territorial demarcations. In Berman’s words; “Pre-colonial political and socio-cultural boundaries were
The African post colonial state The African states are key actors in the present regional integration efforts in EA. Therefore it’s important to gain a theoretical understanding of 1) the historical background of African states and 2) their normative and judicial foundation which are explanatory factors for state actors’ transactions in regional integration schemes. The historical background of Africa states. Conceptualizing the origin of nation states, it’s important to remember that these entities are not natural, geographical forms, but the outcome of specific actors’ transactions and historical processes that organized the world into the current patchwork of states. As Jackson mentions: “Far from being natural entities, modern sovereign states are entirely historical artifacts the oldest of which have been in existence in their present shape and alignment only for the past three or four centuries” (Jackson 1990:7) The “reality of the nation state” was created deliberately via the “invention of tradition” (Hobsbawm & Ranger 1983) whereby the nation state was grounded in invented myths and folk traditions, and the cognitive construction of an “imagined political community” (Anderson 2001) supposed to be internally homogenous & sovereign with territorial boundaries. This European invention was extended globally through voluntary approbation or colonial conquest as was the case in Africa. Pre colonial societies in Africa varied significantly from the bounded European states. Before the colonial age the African continent was inhabited by ever changing constellations of kingdoms that ruled their subjects via patronage networks. The EA region was populated by fluctuating kingdoms, traders and war lords that had control over specific areas and trade routes. African societies (Medard & Doyle 2007) were characterized by osmotic ethnic communities with a core area of organized governance with a king or supreme chief and peripheries that were scantly controlled and frequently changed alliances between different ethnic groups. The reach and capacity of pre colonial African communities was an outcome of wars, alliances and negotiations between the different ethnic communities and were thus in a state of constant flux, lacking territorial demarcations. In Berman’s words; “Pre-colonial political and socio-cultural boundaries were