Re: Africa

Dear Augusto,
I have been following the threads on Africa and I find that your mail 
provides a historical and broadly universal perspective to this 
discussion.
While I appreciated your perspective especially on ecological attitudes, 
I think there are certain points that need to be clarified with regard 
to the state-nation. The idea of colonialism introducing a state 
apparatus in colonised nations is inaccurate. Many of these countries 
already possessed state apparatuses (empires,kingdoms,fiefs,city states) 
and their political system of governance was based on Kingship commonly. 
The difference between ancient states and those of today arises from 
regime differences - parliamentary democracy, military 
dictatorship,communism and so on. 
Parliamentary democracy is the Western political innovation that was 
introduced in to colonised states, voluntarily or under compulsion. It 
should be remembered that parliamentary democracy is just one form of 
democracy. And many of these colonised states may have possessed  
different forms of democracy before their colonization. 
State-nation as a political organization or ideology was not alien to 
ancient political organizations. The Westphalian State-nation history 
(historiagraphy might be more accurate) seduces one to conceptualize 
political organizations in terms of ethnie basically. But this does not 
hold true even for many ethnically heterogenous modern states. 
Nationalism did not arise from the period of Westphalian history. 
Nationalism or the spirit of being a nation manifest inherently or 
artificially mobilized, was reflected in the struggles waged by 
conquerors and their victims in our recorded history. Again capitalism 
was not alien to colonised societies but industrial capitalism was. 
My best regards,
Hema Swamy


>Date: Wed, 10 Feb 1999 17:02:28 +0100
>Reply-To: athberry@easynet.fr
>From: "Augusto Thornberry" <athberry@easynet.fr>
>To: WORLD SYSTEMS NETWORK <wsn@csf.colorado.edu>
>Subject: Re: Africa
>

>
>As regards the State-Nation, it is of course a well known product of
>historical and social evolution, and there isn't much to discuss about 
that
>point. It was introduced by western nations to their colonies. Since 
the
>populations of the colonies were themselves in another, very different 
stage
>of social evolution, this form of political organization was foreign to
>them, and was introduced forcefully and traumatically.
>
>However, the political or ideological aspects of the Nation-state can 
be
>rationally accepted and assimilated, and these are not the most 
relevant
>features of colonization. We should not forget that ideology is only 
the
>apparent side of the social system: underlying it, there is a mode of
>production that characterizes the economic and social structure. The 
Nation
>State put an end to feudal confrontations in Europe, and very soon it 
became
>the political basis of the capitalist system. So the characteristic 
feature
>of colonization was the fact that it brought, violently and in a few
>centuries, primitive societes to feudalism and then to capitalist modes 
of
>production.
>
>Since colonization was itself subject to historical constraints, the 
new
>rulers, being a part of the european system, established State 
boundaries
>that had not taken into consideration factors like the cultural or
>geo-economic unity of local social systems. Today, globalization makes 
the
>State-nation less important, because the integration to the 
international
>economic system so requires. But the countries which were previously
>colonies, and which have not yet succeeded to integrate economically 
with
>the international system, are now ravaged by civil or interstate wars,
>remain marginal to the world-system, and their economic viability seems
>problematic.
>
>So the question is not whether the Nation-Sate is foreign to native
>cultures, but how can they retrieve their economic potential of 
development,
>and if it is through internationalization, in what terms?
>


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