2. The History and Representations of the Challenges of Governance in the Fragile States of Sub-Saharan Africa

Samuel P. Huntington (1993, 246–252, 1996, 81–91) tried to explain the “fault lines” of this global power restructuring. Whereas economics and demography would continue to explain the trends in the rise and fall of core states, it is the cultural reconfiguration of inter-civilizational issues such as human rights (western universalism vs. non-western cultural relativism) and democracy (for and against its neoliberal, albeit capitalistic, intent) that has resulted in political anxieties in the west. These anxieties have created tensions between the governments of the core liberal states and their counterparts (if any, and non-state actors such as rebel groups who are against the liberal peace projects) in the fault line states. Though there should be recognition of wars over renewal (wars that are fought to either prevent or emerge from decline), Huntington’s understanding of the dynamics of fault line wars is partly identity-induced. Beyond the possibility kin/country dynamics contributing to protracted transnational wars lies the question of kin-culture, of same against the other. Here, people sharing the same cultural affinities will pitch camp against those opposed to their ideas. Amid this possibility, “efforts to shift societies from one civilization [of politico-cultural orientation] to another [will be] unsuccessful; and countries [will] group themselves around the lead or core states of their civilizations” (Huntington 1996, 20).