The Postcolonial State in Postcolonial Theory: Deng & Mamdani on Sudan’s Crisis

• In Event: Racial Capitalism, Colonialism, and Democracy

Abstract

The state occupies an ambiguous position in postcolonial theory: on the one hand, poststructuralist theories are generally wary of power centralized in the state, while on the other hand, strengthening postcolonial state sovereignty can be seen as a defense against neoimperialism. In this essay I examine the writings of Francis Deng and Mahmood Mamdani on the problems of sovereignty and internal displacement in Sudan and South Sudan. Both locate the origins of Sudan’s crises in the colonial state guided by the principles of indirect rule imperialism, and argue that the postcolonial state used colonial myths to legitimize itself. However, on the problem of reconciliation after political violence and displacement, a sharp split between them emerges: Deng argues for the responsibility of the international community to aid in reconciliation, whereas Mamdani argues that the international community must be largely excluded from the process of reconciliation. This tension, I argue, is where the question of postcolonial state sovereignty is defined and de/legitimized. Postcolonial state sovereignty, I find, is defined in its strongest terms in the context of civil war, rather than interstate war.

Author

• Gabriel Pacal Mares, Princeton University