Bringing the Self Back In: Politics and Accountability in Africa

This article argues that democracy and good governance in Africa are currently weakened by the comparative absence of collective actor capable of holding the state strongly to account. It traces this weakness to the social construction of selfhood, or subjectivity, on the continent, which typically takes a fragmented or contradictory form. This in turn is linked to the articulated nature of Africa's social formation. The material foundation of fragmented selfhood and weak collective action is a phenomenon given insufficient attention by liberal, radical and post-modern writers on Africa