Introduction: The Emperor's New Clothes? Continuities in Governance in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial East Africa

Burton, Andrew, Jennings, Michael, The International Journal of African Historical Studies

Much of the Africanist literature that has emerged on postcolonial politics and society over the past four decades has emphasized the shaping influence of colonial rule on forms of governance that evolved after independence. Dependency theorists and the radical critics of early postcolonial regimes who dominated debate on East Africa in the late 1960s and 1970s viewed the structures and styles of governance as fundamentally unchanged from the colonial period, apart from the skin color of those exercising authority.1 Academic observers into the 1980s and 1990s continued to stress the colonial inheritance.2 More recently, in an influential book, Mahmood Mamdani has outlined what he terms …

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Publication information: Article title: Introduction: The Emperor's New Clothes? Continuities in Governance in Late Colonial and Early Postcolonial East Africa. Contributors: Burton, Andrew - Author, Jennings, Michael - Author. Journal title: The International Journal of African Historical Studies. Volume: 40. Issue: 1 Publication date: January 1, 2007. Page number: 1+. © Boston University 2008. Provided by ProQuest LLC. All Rights Reserved.

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