Book contents
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- African Studies Series
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Centring the Margins
- Part I From Frontiers to Boundaries
- Part II States and Taxes, Land and Mobility
- 4 Constructing the Compound, Keeping the Gate
- 5 Being Seen Like a State
- 6 Border Regulation and State-Making at the Margins
- 7 Land, Belief and Belonging in the Borderlands
- Part III Decolonization and Boundary Closure, c.1939–1969
- Part IV States, Social Contracts and Respacing from Below, c.1970–2010
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
4 - Constructing the Compound, Keeping the Gate
A Fiscal Anatomy of Colonial State-Making, c.1900–1940
from Part II - States and Taxes, Land and Mobility
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 June 2019
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- African Studies Series
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West Africa
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Maps
- Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- 1 Centring the Margins
- Part I From Frontiers to Boundaries
- Part II States and Taxes, Land and Mobility
- 4 Constructing the Compound, Keeping the Gate
- 5 Being Seen Like a State
- 6 Border Regulation and State-Making at the Margins
- 7 Land, Belief and Belonging in the Borderlands
- Part III Decolonization and Boundary Closure, c.1939–1969
- Part IV States, Social Contracts and Respacing from Below, c.1970–2010
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- African Studies Series
Summary
Having engaged with the simultaneous sedimentation of colonial states and their boundaries over the course of more than half a century, I turn now to consider some of the distinct attributes of the colonial states in question. In a formulation that has commanded widespread support, Fred Cooper depicts African colonial states as carrying out little more than “gatekeeping” functions.2 In a more elaborated comparison between the British colonies in Africa, Ewout Frankema depicts the West African colonies as ‘night watchmen’ or ‘minimalist’ states whereas Kenya leaned more towards the ‘extractive’ mode.3
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- Information
- Boundaries, Communities and State-Making in West AfricaThe Centrality of the Margins, pp. 157 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019