The history of the Notion of the State in West Africa: from the destruction of empires to the emergence of the modern state resulting from colonization (the case of the Mali Empire)

• Main Author: Sidy Camara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University) 2020-12-01
• Series: RUDN Journal of World History
• Subjects: empire; state; political stability; historical evolution; corruption; european colonization; postcolonial state; modernization; poverty; west africa
• Online Access: http://journals.rudn.ru/world-history/article/viewFile/23948/18309

This article aims to address the question of the emergence of empires in West Africa from the ninth century to the present day. The author plans to make an in-depth analysis of the political formation of the different empires which have succeeded each other in this vast West African space which nowadays shelters the current republics of Mali and Mauritania in particular and in general throughout other West African countries (Guinea, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Burkina Faso, Niger). The largest and most famous empires that appeared on the territory of what is now Mali is called the Ghana Empire in the 9th century and was succeeded by the Mali or Mandé Empire in the 13th century. The influence of these empires throughout Africa and the rest of the world shows us a particular interest in understanding over time the notion of the State in Africa before the colonization and destruction of the African political system and its replacement by colonial state with the arrival of Europeans. Today the question of the weakness of the modern or postcolonial state in Africa and Mali poses many questions not only in the concert of nations but also in the academic and university environment. We will try to demonstrate in this article the link between the break in the evolution of the African state and the imposition of the modern European state through the colonial state which is at the root of the backwardness of African countries in terms political, economic and social compared to the rest of the world.